About Us
Goldstreet Dairy is a micro cheesery situated inside Wildflower Brewing and Blending in Marrickville, NSW.
A passion project of former chef, Colin Wood with friends, Topher Boehm, Chris Allen, and Susi Maylon founded in July 2023.
Many years ago when Colin first started making cheese at home, it was in his small apartment kitchen on Gold St, Collingwood that the fromage bug blossomed and a passion for all things cheese and dairy was inoculated. Developing cheese programs in Melbourne and honing his skills in New York and Sydney laid the foundations of Goldstreet Dairy.
The firm belief that high quality, fresh as possible milk produced from cows on pasture enables good cheese to be made is what drives Goldstreet. Working very closely with a passionate dairy farming family, Luke and Jess Micallef at Camden Valley Farm we are committed to sourcing the best possible milk for our small-scale artisan cheesery. Luke and Jess bought the farm in 2011, when there wasn’t even a boundary fence, and this has allowed them to build the farm from the ground up over time, developing the soils, creating the pastures, and breeding the cow for the specific needs of the farm.
Originally part of the Macarthur’s #7 dairy, it has changed hands numerous times before the Micallef’s took over in 2011, when it was a breeding ground for trotting horses. The family farm is approx. 25ha and with leased properties they farm a total approx. 55ha as a pasture-based operation. This means they aim to have grass available for the cows all year round. In winter they feed an oat, ryegrass, and clover blend and in the warmer months the herd graze kikuyu while forage millet is planted. The cows are cell grazed which means every 12 hours they are moved to a fresh field and pasture. The herd are also feed on spent brewers’ grain after milking and a supplementary pellet while the cows are being milked.
Camden Valley Farm, as a micro-dairy, milking 30-40 cows with such passion and care subsequently was a perfect fit for Goldstreet and through an introduction in early 2022 from a passionate cheese advocate, a spark was ignited.
Colin drives the 59km South to pick up the milk, brings the raw milk back to the cheesery and pasteurise the next morning to begin crafting the cheese and dairy products. From milking to curd in less than 36 hours is our aim. This provides us with some of the best possible, single herd, quality milk for our products and aids us in striving for excellence in what we do. To produce good cheese, we must use good milk and we are committed to this and the relationship that we have built with the farm and herd.
Goldstreet began operations in July 2023 making our signature, Jersey Cheese. A semi-hard, cooked curd cheese that was originally made to be grilled, but can be enjoyed fresh, crumbled, breaded, shredded and almost anyway. The cheese that was born in 2020 and took off during Sydney lock down as Colin’s Grilled Jersey Cheese, also featured on the menu at Poly in Surry Hills before becoming the beautiful product produced down the end of Brompton st.
Much thought has gone into the processes and building of Goldstreet. As we are located inside the beautiful bones and large beams of Wildflower, we have been fortunate enough to use these supports to build our cheesery. The large wooden pillar that runs through the cheese room holds the roof up and has been in place since the late 1800’s, coincidently around the same time as the very first cheese factory in New South Wales. We have a rain water tank that circulates cold water through our pasteuriser to collect it and cool again for the next batch, a zero-waste closed loop system. We collect and save our whey which is picked up along with our Wildflower grains by pig farmer Andrew Hearne of Near River Produce, supplementing his drove's feed.
Our pasteuriser was sourced second-hand from another cheese business in Red Hill, Victoria, similarly our dishwasher comes from Goodwood Bakery and our very functional, large draining table belonged to legendary, Sydney small-cheese producer and educator, Kristen Allen.
Our floors are yellow, as we believe cheese is fun and we want to have fun making and showcasing it. Our stunning logos, designs and labels were created by Mark Harley at Design by Athlete and together with Topher, they developed and created our signature gold packaging, made from renewable plant materials, to reflect everything else we are doing.
As we began to trade, we sold exclusively at Carriageworks Markets on Saturdays, retailing both our 250g packs of cheese for people to purchase to take home and grilled the cheese at our stall, serving it with robust olive oil, sea salt, Aleppo pepper and lemon. This is was how we liked to serve it, but over the time we got creative with other market vendors’ products to highlight the flavour, taste, and versatility of our Jersey Cheese.
Since beginning, we have increased our product range to include fresh curds and yoghurt and have now grown to have an amazing group of stockists in Sydney and Australia wide. Aiming for continued growth, we are working closely with the farm to produce more and hope to begin ageing cheese in-site soon.
While we do not have a dedicated retail space on-site, our cheese can be found next door in the takeaway fridge at Wildflower from Monday to Sunday with smaller batch speciality items, such as Camden Valley Farm Jersey milk, being stocked here too. Our cheese and dairy can also be found throughout the cellar door menu during their opening hours, from Thursday to Sunday.