Sadness as ice cream icon bids Laura farewell after 103 years
South Australia’s Hall of Fame ice cream maker Golden North is officially closing the doors to its original cold rooms after 103 years today, leaving dozens of local workers behind as it moves to a more bustling town.
The Mid North town of Laura with a population of 765 in the southern Flinders Ranges is farewelling longstanding ice cream company Golden North today after a history of manufacturing in the area for more than 100 years.
Some 50 locals are losing their jobs as the award-winning ice cream maker, inducted into the Food South Australia Hall of Fame in 2016, moves on after first opening its facility in 1923 making it South Australia’s oldest manufacturer.
It was in July 2025, that Golden North announced it would be moving its operations to Murray Bridge to a new site that previously housed the now liquidated Beston Foods.
Dimi Kyriazis, who co-owns Golden North with Steve Kosmidis, told InDaily there was a “bit of sadness” when closing the Laura facility doors this week, but that it was ultimately “a forced decision”.
“The reality is we’ve just got to be making dairy product where the cows are, and unfortunately, climate has dictated that there are no cows up there anymore,” Kyriazis said.
“There’s a rich history there and once you walk through the place and you know that there’s been more than 100 years of ice cream making there, it is a little bit sad I must admit.”
Despite the concerns of job losses in Laura, Kyriazis said the move to Murray Bridge will create at least an additional 25 jobs.
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“As far as South Australia is concerned, Golden North’s contribution to the economy is the potential to grow into a lot more than 25 jobs in the future, and that’s a big part of the move,” he said.
“The other part of it is now that we’re at Murray Bridge we can deal directly with local farmers.”
The decision to move away from the Mid North town was “purely economic”, with Golden North now looking to scale up its operations and support local dairy farmers.
Northern Areas Council mayor Keith Pluckrose said it was “very disappointing” to lose an industry that had been a local stalwart for more than a century.
“There will definitely be an effect on the town and people stopping to see Golden North — that’s a real pull that’s not there anymore,” Pluckrose said.
“But it was either move and keep operating Golden North or Golden North would have disappeared, because there’s no dairy farms up here anymore.”
Around 50 full-time Golden North staff have been made redundant, with half of staff being informed last Friday and the remaining staff being made redundant today.
Just two full-time staff members will be moving to Murray Bridge to stay with the company.
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But Pluckrose said most redundant staff members had been fortunate to find new employment opportunities, and said the town would remain resilient following the ice cream maker’s departure.
“Golden North was a big part of the history, but Laura’s got a lot going for it and plenty of other attractions,” Pluckrose said.
“Laura is the gateway to the Flinders Ranges and on the main highway, so it’s just a matter of getting people to stop.”
In July last year, the state government announced a $1 million community infrastructure program to support the Laura township during the transition.
To be delivered in conjunction with the Northern Areas Council, the program is targeted to support community infrastructure projects that attract new residents and businesses to the town.
“I think that when we get that fund running and spent the right way with government help, we should be able to keep Laura on a level playing field,” Pluckrose said.
“Hopefully the facility will be sold, and a new business will go in there and start again. Like all country towns we’ve lost some businesses over time, but you just seem to find a way to keep going.”
In Murray Bridge, the business has plans to expand with Kyriazis saying “the first big change that we’ll see in our business is right now at the Laura site, it has a freezer of more than 400 pallets, but the new site will have a freezer of nearly 2500 pallets”.
“The freezer that’s at Laura was not big enough for a week’s sales, so we would third party the storage of our stock and also the packing and delivery of the stock,” he said.
“Murray Bridge offers us the opportunity to bring that all in house and create more jobs within our business to manage stock and get orders out.”
Kyriazis said the company was looking to expand into international markets following a recent sales trip to China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
“We also displayed at a trade show in Shanghai, and the positive response on our product from the trade show from various buyers that we met from South Korea, other China provinces, and other countries in that area was quite outstanding,” he said.
“So now we’ve got a bit of a job in front of us to follow all of those contacts up and start making hay while the sun’s shining.”
The Golden North owner said while the closure would likely affect Laura, the town “shouldn’t be selling itself short” and that it was a “a lot bigger” than the ice cream business.
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