Lenswood Cold Stores

The major handler and marketer of fruit in the Adelaide Hills Council District has been the Lenswood Cold Stores Co-operative Society Ltd, trading as Lenswood Apples. It handles well over half of the State’s apples, grown locally, and this amounts to about 10 percent of the nation’s crop. It has added other fruits as well – cherries, pears, grapes, avocados and others.

Founded in 1933 by local growers, primarily for storage, the enterprise expanded its activities into grading, packing and marketing, and has been able to manage these activities in a manner that would be difficult for individual orchardists. ‘Because of its scale, Lenswood Apples is able to provide produce to … supermarkets and fruit shops … demonstrating the power of co-operative collaboration.’ The subsidiary Next Fruit Generation Australia introduces new varieties of apples, and another subsidiary, the Lenswood Produce Company (founded in 2012) has enlarged the scope of distribution at the Pooraka Markets.

There are other cold stores in the Hills but some have struggled or been closed. It’s pointed out that the improved means of transport mean that the Ashton Cold Stores, with their closeness to Adelaide, are not used so much as in the past. Cold stores that have closed altogether include the one at Cudlee Creek, the first co-operative cold store in South Australia (1922), where the premises have been redeveloped as the Union Bridge Brewery, Distillery and Restaurant.

Sources:  https://coopfarming.coop/stories/lenswood-apples/ Accessed 7 Jul. 2025; Jo-Anne Shaw, That’s all for you! – From a post office a township grew – Lenswood 100 years, The Forest Range and Lenswood History Group Inc., 2017, p.133; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashton,_South_Australia Accessed 7 Jul. 2025.

Images: https://lenswoodcoop.com.au/

If you have recollections, knowledge or further information that you would like to share about the people, places or events described here, then please contact us at mldhs@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au