Revered Victorian Cheesemaker Holy Goat Announces Closure

In a move that will dismay cheese-lovers across the country, the couple behind Holy Goat has announced the end of production. In a somewhat enigmatic Instagram post on Monday night, Ann-Marie Monda and Carla Meurs offered a poetic farewell to their beloved goat dairy and cheese room, saying, “To live today and not project into the future and accept impermanence expands our life rather than limits it.”

Holy Goat started in 1999. After working on a goat farm in Western Australia, the couple (who celebrated their wedding last year), “came back to Victoria to find the most beautiful place to live” and start their own dairy. They landed in Sutton Grange, 20 minutes east of Castlemaine. With just three goats, Monda and Meurs “built a life and a herd”, as well as the adjoining structures needed to run a 204-acre farm.

The duo’s signature product, La Luna, is featured on the menus of Australia’s most celebrated restaurants. With a creamy, smooth texture and a natural wrinkly rind, La Luna is credited for raising the bar for Australian-made chevre and the ethical standards within the cheesemaking industry. The land on which it’s made is organically certified under the NASAA (National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia) and includes a “substantial” area protected under a Trust for Nature Covenant – a voluntary legal agreement made by private landholders to conserve the biodiversity of their property. This is where Monda and Meurs will turn their focus.

“For the last 25 years we put our vocation into cheesemaking and dairying, and now we’re looking more into looking after the habitat and taking care of goats,” Monda tells Broadsheet. “So it’s not like something’s finished, but that something else has started.”

With production wrapping up by May (and stocks to run out soon after), the pair will bid farewell to 20 years of 5am starts and 6pm finishes. Still, Monda says running Holy Goat has been a “privilege”. “You don’t go into dairy light-heartedly. You have to have courage to build it, and courage to let it go.”

holygoatcheese.com.au