26 December 1895     Farmer’s Co-operative Society

On 26 December 1895 at Eudunda a meeting of about 100 local farmers and residents was held to discuss the formation of a Farmer’s Co-operative Society. This was the culmination of an arrangement made by Thomas Roberts who, in 1893, suggested that settlers in the area should undertake the direct supply of firewood to Adelaide. The cartnotes for wood were redeemed by the local storekeepers who supplied goods in exchange and thus the idea of a co-operative organization was born. By July 1896 it was decided to establish a store for the sale of household goods and farm requisites and the first store was opened at Sutherlands on 1 February 1897. The first Eudunda store opened in 1902 and in the next sixty years forty-four stores were established in country towns all over the state In 1908 the Society bought SS Pyap, to cater for the River Murray trade and this continued until 1932. A head office in King William Street was opened on 4 March 1896, later moved to Blyth Street and then to North Terrace from where the business continued to be conducted.

Advertiser, 21 October 1981, pp. 59, 64, ‘Eudunda: 85^th Birthday 1981’.