The brand once a staple in many Australian households is enjoying a kitchen revival. Photo: Mountain Maid of Batlow Facebook.
Mountain Maid was once a staple in Australian kitchens. Recipes featuring its products appeared across magazines and cookbooks, including a corn relish sauce published in the Australian Women’s Weekly in May 1963, calling for Mountain Maid Whole Kernel Corn alongside fresh vegetables, vinegar and seasoning.
It was a brand that put Batlow on the national culinary map, bringing the fruits of the Snowy Valleys orchards and farms into homes across the country.
Today, thanks to the efforts of one local, Sam Hughes, a former Snowy Valleys councillor, the graphic history of the iconic cannery and its products is being preserved, offering a tangible connection to the town’s past.
“I got really interested in Mountain Maid as a brand when I first came to Batlow,” Sam said, “and when I heard a lot of the equipment and graphics had been lost or auctioned off, I tracked down what I could and brought it back, in the interests of keeping the name alive.”
Drawing on his graphic design background, he has recovered, scanned and restored old labels and packaging, many sourced from personal collections or the Batlow Historical Society archives.
“I wanted to get them into a print-ready format, clean up scratches and marks, so they could be used for exhibitions or just to show people what Mountain Maid looked like,” he said.
The Mountain Maid name first appeared on apple cider in 1933, but it was only a matter of time before Batlow Packing House Co-operative later expanded into canned fruits and vegetables to preserve local produce and supply markets beyond the region.
Hughes said the brand’s reach was remarkable: “They even had stalls dedicated to Mountain Maid in Paddington markets. People from Batlow remember it, but it also went all over the country.”
Unlike many small country towns, Batlow remained anchored by its cannery.
By 1948, frozen foods entered the fray and a new government-backed cannery in 1966 cemented Batlow’s role as a regional industry centre.
But just 11 year later, when the co-op was packing 500,000 cases of apples annually and processing a further 2000 tonnes of the fruit, alongside its other fruit and vegetable offerings – a takeover by the Leeton-based co-operative Letona meant products from Mountain Maid became part of a larger organisation with even wider reach, effectively making the brand a household name.
From the hills above, the sprawling complex of sheds and factory buildings dominated Batlow.
Former manager, Darryl Smith, who left Pepsi in Sydney to take on the challenge of running Mountain Maid, recalled asking where the plant was in relation to the town – only to be told that it was the town that revolved around the plant.
The cannery supported permanent staff and a seasonal workforce that swelled during harvest, injecting an estimated $4 million annually into Batlow’s fragile economy, sustaining not just jobs, but schools, shops and services.
The cannery was more than employment; it was a rhythm of life.
Families who lived through the Mountain Maid years still recall the long shifts, the sorting tables and the perk of loading the car boot with cheap ‘seconds’ – dented cans that became a staple in local kitchens.
And take it from the locals – the asparagus spears canned by Mountain Maid were without parallel.
Today, the cannery itself is gone.
Over time, market changes, decreasing demand, overseas competition and economic pressures took a toll on Letona’s business.
By 1993 the company entered receivership, and by 1994 it had ceased operations.
The 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires took care of the rest – what remained of the old Mountain Maid Cannery manufacturing site was destroyed beyond rehabilitation in the fires.
In its place is a giant concrete slab – now home to a pine tree nursery and caravan park.
“It’s a giant slab in the middle of Batlow, painted blue,” Sam said, “but it’s a reminder of something fantastic that used to happen here.”
And a few remnant buildings.
Sam is also Batlow Rotary Club’s president and he’s seen the club transform an old Mountain Maid office admin building into community space and created a men’s shed where the cannery’s engineering department once stood.
But the painstaking process of recovering the artwork, he said, had been like a treasure hunt.
Through his efforts to recover labels and secure the intellectual property, Sam has unearthed private collections of Mountain Maid memorabilia hidden away by local families who’d gathered what they could from the factory before it disappeared.
This work has allowed him to preserve a vivid visual record of the cannery’s history.
“Because Mountain Maid was such a popular household brand, it meant they could attract the top advertising agencies to produce the labels,” he said.
“You can see the progression in the artwork and technology – it’s nostalgic because many of those methods aren’t used anymore,” Sam said.
His efforts, which connect with Batlow Historical Society, ensure the town’s heritage is accessible, connecting people to the orchards, the cannery, and the generations of workers who helped put Batlow on the map.
But Sam’s gone a step further.
For locals and visitors, these restored labels and memorabilia now come in the form of fabulous fridge magnets, shopping totes and tea towels which are available through The Inconvenience Store in Batlow.
Sam sees them as more than souvenirs.
“It’s not just about the product; it’s about the people, the history and the pride the town can feel in what was achieved here,” he said.
For everyone else who can recall Mountain Maid, it means every time a magnet clicks onto a fridge, there’s a reminder of packing sheds, fruit boxes, the creamiest of creamed corn and the recipes that once made their way onto Australian dinner tables.
People unable to travel to Batlow and The Inconvenience Store are able to purchase the Mountain Maid memorabilia online through the Mountain Maid of Batlow Facebook page, which Sam keeps alive with fresh updates.
