A brief history of Glendiver Farm as supplied by Sonja Den Hertog.
Further research carried out at the Mitchell Library revealed that the sandstone blocks used to build Glendiver and Glenmore homesteads were quarried at various sites on the land by convicts assigned to the Moore families.
The existing chicken farm is on land originally belonging to Glendiver and was removed by the Will of James Moore in 1888.
Glenmore is still an operating Dairy and owned by Rowan Moore. The original house is still used by members of the Moore family.
The following history has been provided by Brian McVey.
In 1982 Brian and Pamela McVey purchased Glendiver Farm at The Oaks from Jim and Judith Rudd.
The Rudds used the property as a productive Dairy farm and were forced to sell due to a drought that had lasted for several years. All of the existing dams on the property had completely dried up and the only water supply for the cattle came from a small spring near the dam wall on the now Lot 2.
When the McVey’s took over they were forced to hand feed the dairy herd of 80 head. This continued for almost three years as the drought continued and finally when the rain came it arrived in the form of 6 inches in one day. The run- off was so swift that 3 cows were washed into the suddenly full dams and drowned.
To continue the dairying activities John Rudd became the farm Manager and lived in the house on the cul desac just outside the Glendiver electric gate. The original Glendiver sandstone homestead was completely renovated and was subsequently sold to relieve the enormous debt the McVey’s had created by being forced to hand feed the herd for so long. Even though the drought had broken the pastures took a protracted period to regrow as much of the grass had died and completely disappeared. Large quantities of pasture seed was planted and once established the hand feeding stopped.
In the late 1980s the Dairy Board purchased the Glendiver milk quota* and the farm was converted to beef production.
During 1995 the State Government approached landowners in the area regarding the need to rezone some land to allow an increase in housing to provide more use of facilities like schools, kindergartens, shops etc. This was a general plan covering much of the State and ultimately resulted in subdivisions right throughout NSW. After several meetings in the local area the process was handed over to Wollondilly Council to carry on with the process.
Ultimately the Council released its plan for Community Title Subdivisions across the Shire and Glendiver Farm became the first plan approved.
* The Quota was the amount of milk each farm was allowed to produce for supply to the Dairy Board. Very strict rules applied to the supply volume, quality, fat content etc. In 1980 there was approximately 55 family dairies operating in the local region and it is said that only about 7 still exist. Most of the quotas have been purchased by large company dairies who in turn supply much of the milk to the supermarkets.
