Fast facts
Red Hill Sheep Dairy is operated by Burke and Bronwyn Brandon and their two children.
The dairy farm
- is at Moyarra, between Korrumburra and Wonthaggi in Victoria's South Gippsland, Australia.
- follows the valley of the Foster Creek that flows from Korromburra to Kilcunda into Bass Straight.
- on the tip of the Great Dividing Range, just before it runs across the coastal plains.
- has some steep hills and high undulating ground of fertile dark clay-loam soils.
- was once covered in tall forest, and has had a history of land-slips over the years.
- involved in extensive landcare projects, fencing the creek to exclude livestock and planting indigenous trees.
- is operated without the use of sprays, chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. The sheep are grass fed (free range) and managed organically wherever possible. No chemicals or antibiotics are used to medicate our milking ewes.
- a division of Red Hill Cheese, established to control our own supply and quality of sheep milk.
Red Hill Cheese
The label for our range of cow and goat cheeses, and cellar door located at Red Hill on the Mornington Penisula, Victoria, just around Westernport Bay from the dairy farm. The cellar door is open to the public every weekend and public holiday, offering cheese tasting platters, condiments and all things cheese!
Prom Country Cheese
The label for our range of sheep milk products and our on farm cellar door in Gippsland, to open soon.
The Brandon Family
In the 1990's Burke's father Trevor Brandon started experimenting with home cheesemaking. By popular demand, Trevor and wife Jan established Red Hill Cheese in Y2000, amongst the forest at the family homestead on the Mornington Peninsula. A small cheesery was constructed, designed for one-man production of hand crafted cheeses. The simple design ensured that all products would be totally hand made, enabling attention to detail the ability to adjust techniques to match seasonal variations.
Popularity for Trevor's distinctive cheeses grew quickly, so in 2002 Burke and Bronwyn joined the business, moving from a commercial sheep enterprise in Western Victoria. As Burke learnt the art of cheesemaking, more products were developed following continual experimentation, study and visits to Europe.
Re-visiting the sheep
After exploring the possibilities of goat and cow cheese, Burke had a niggling desire to see what sheep milk was like to work with, so a small quantity of milk was saved from their meat sheep and made into cheese.
The result was truly inspirational, since the richness of the sheep milk highlighted perfect qualities for making great cheese. From that moment sheep milk promised to be the future of Red Hill Cheese, and we have been working towards that goal, milking commercially since 2008.
Sheep dairying is more intensive than farming sheep for wool and meat, so new skills and processes had to be learnt. The genetics of the herd has seen the introduction of the East Friesian breed, and selection for good milking qualities. This has grown slowly in line with different trials of management as we followed the path of education.
Continuing Tradition
Needless to say the next generation of Brandons are passionate cheese-lovers, and from a young age have always enjoyed getting involved on the farm and helping out with cheese production and sales. So now Red Hill Cheese includes 3 generations of cheesemakers, and we look forward to a long future of creating fine artisan products and providing a full-flavored experience for our customers.
We also wish to continue working in harmony with the land, livestock, seasons and the environment to provide the cleanest and freshest products while maintaining a perpetually sustainable impact on the country that sustains us. With such amazing resources of soils, water and green, green grass, this is hardly a challenge!
Flavors in the cheese are a direct result of the minerals in the soil, the feed the ewes eat, cultures selected plus moulds and microbes from the local environment, making Red Hill Cheese a truly Gippsland cheese, unique in its reflection of our territory.
Red Hill Sheep Dairy is operated by Burke and Bronwyn Brandon and their two children.
The dairy farm
- is at Moyarra, between Korrumburra and Wonthaggi in Victoria's South Gippsland, Australia.
- follows the valley of the Foster Creek that flows from Korromburra to Kilcunda into Bass Straight.
- on the tip of the Great Dividing Range, just before it runs across the coastal plains.
- has some steep hills and high undulating ground of fertile dark clay-loam soils.
- was once covered in tall forest, and has had a history of land-slips over the years.
- involved in extensive landcare projects, fencing the creek to exclude livestock and planting indigenous trees.
- is operated without the use of sprays, chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. The sheep are grass fed (free range) and managed organically wherever possible. No chemicals or antibiotics are used to medicate our milking ewes.
- a division of Red Hill Cheese, established to control our own supply and quality of sheep milk.
Red Hill Cheese
The label for our range of cow and goat cheeses, and cellar door located at Red Hill on the Mornington Penisula, Victoria, just around Westernport Bay from the dairy farm. The cellar door is open to the public every weekend and public holiday, offering cheese tasting platters, condiments and all things cheese!
Prom Country Cheese
The label for our range of sheep milk products and our on farm cellar door in Gippsland, to open soon.
The Brandon Family
In the 1990's Burke's father Trevor Brandon started experimenting with home cheesemaking. By popular demand, Trevor and wife Jan established Red Hill Cheese in Y2000, amongst the forest at the family homestead on the Mornington Peninsula. A small cheesery was constructed, designed for one-man production of hand crafted cheeses. The simple design ensured that all products would be totally hand made, enabling attention to detail the ability to adjust techniques to match seasonal variations.
Popularity for Trevor's distinctive cheeses grew quickly, so in 2002 Burke and Bronwyn joined the business, moving from a commercial sheep enterprise in Western Victoria. As Burke learnt the art of cheesemaking, more products were developed following continual experimentation, study and visits to Europe.
Re-visiting the sheep
After exploring the possibilities of goat and cow cheese, Burke had a niggling desire to see what sheep milk was like to work with, so a small quantity of milk was saved from their meat sheep and made into cheese.
The result was truly inspirational, since the richness of the sheep milk highlighted perfect qualities for making great cheese. From that moment sheep milk promised to be the future of Red Hill Cheese, and we have been working towards that goal, milking commercially since 2008.
Sheep dairying is more intensive than farming sheep for wool and meat, so new skills and processes had to be learnt. The genetics of the herd has seen the introduction of the East Friesian breed, and selection for good milking qualities. This has grown slowly in line with different trials of management as we followed the path of education.
Continuing Tradition
Needless to say the next generation of Brandons are passionate cheese-lovers, and from a young age have always enjoyed getting involved on the farm and helping out with cheese production and sales. So now Red Hill Cheese includes 3 generations of cheesemakers, and we look forward to a long future of creating fine artisan products and providing a full-flavored experience for our customers.
We also wish to continue working in harmony with the land, livestock, seasons and the environment to provide the cleanest and freshest products while maintaining a perpetually sustainable impact on the country that sustains us. With such amazing resources of soils, water and green, green grass, this is hardly a challenge!
Flavors in the cheese are a direct result of the minerals in the soil, the feed the ewes eat, cultures selected plus moulds and microbes from the local environment, making Red Hill Cheese a truly Gippsland cheese, unique in its reflection of our territory.
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| Morning mist over Moyarra Valley |
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| The homestead and front milking paddocks along Anderson's Inlet Rd |
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| Jacki checking for sheep in the highlands |
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| The ewes thinking of coming in for milking |
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| The staff keeping an eye on things Red Hill Cheese ® & Prom Country Cheese™ are trading names of Moyarra Pastoral Pty Ltd ABN 76 548 865 082 |
