Harvey Cheese picked up four gold and 11 silver medals at the event held at Cottesloe Golf Club on March 23, including the industry award for champion butter for a chive and garlic cultured butter.
Harvey Cheese chief fromager Robert St Duke said the medals were a win for the entire South West dairy industry.
“We represent 4 per cent of the entire Australian dairy market, yet all of the awards come out of Western Australia,” Mr St Duke said. “This is due to our dairy farmers constantly doing the hard work to improve the quality of our milk.”
Suzanne and Phillip Hall from Hall’s Family Dairy won silver for their cultured butter and were in first place for their iconic washed rind Pont L’Eveque style cheese Suzette.
“It is important for us to know what our customers think of our products, but it is great to get this kind of feedback from the industry judges,” Mrs Hall said.
Cambray Sheep Dairy won the Champion Sheep or Goat milk cheese category for their Cambray Farmhouse Gold, which also won the overall Grand Champion award for the second year in a row.
Madelin Kirkhouse from Cambray Cheese said the win meant greater recognition for non-bovine dairy products.
“Sheep’s milk cheeses are not really well known in Australia like they are in Europe,” Ms Kirkhouse said.
“For a sheep product to take the win over the cow’s milk products – that feels pretty good.
“A lot of hard work goes into that cheese, so winning feels great.”
Harvey Fresh won gold for its lactose free milk, chocolate flavoured milk and champion dairy