Several years ago, I visited the Don Smallgoods food manufacturers in the west of Melbourne. I was visiting food manufacturers during the writing and design of the first edition of the WorkSafe Victoria guide on Manual Handling in the Food Industry. (The current edition is available HERE) Many photos in that first edition came from the Don factory.
Now its owners have decided to close the plant which has a workforce of 600 people. Many of the workers I spoke with had worked there for decades. Many of them had multiple relatives working alongside them and most of the workforce came from non-English speaking backgrounds.
The closure will have a heavy economic effect on those families and the economy of the western suburbs. My sympathy and best wishes go to those workers.