Dairy 'disrupter' wins science award for inventing spreadable butter in 1970s
Geoff Boxsell works on spreadable butter in his laboratory in the early 1970s. (Supplied: Jamberoo Dairy Factory)
In short:
Dairy farmer Geoff Boxsell, 86, has won the 2025 Dairy Science Award for inventing spreadable butter more than 50 years ago.
The product was created at Jamberoo during tensions between the dairy and margarine industries.
Mr Boxsell received the award at the Dairy Research Foundation Symposium in Wollongong this week.
Dairy farmer Geoff Boxsell says he was horrified when margarine, a spreadable substitute for butter, began to dominate supermarket shelves and family homes.
In 1973, recognising consumers were fed up with tough-to-use butter, Mr Boxsell decided to invent a butter that would spread — despite it being illegal.
On Wednesday, the 86-year-old received the University of Sydney's 2025 Dairy Science Award for his invention, created at Jamberoo Dairy Factory on the NSW South Coast with the help of colleague Kevin Richardson.
The Jamberoo Dairy Factory won Supreme Dairy Product in Australia in 1976. (Supplied: Jamberoo Dairy Factory)
Mr Boxsell and Mr Richardson said they knew they were breaking the law — specifically, the 1908 Pure Food Act — when they began mixing cultured cream with vegetable and seed oils.
"You couldn't add vegetable oil to butter — butter was butter and that was it," Mr Boxsell said.
But the innovators found a way around the law and created a product they named "stuff".
"The people would come in and they knew we had this product and they'd ask, 'Can we have a pound of that stuff?'" said Mr Richardson, who was at the award ceremony at the Dairy Research Foundation Symposium 2025 in Wollongong.
"We packaged the product in plain containers and we didn't sell it on the market at all because it wasn't legal."
Kevin Richardson helped invent the spreadable butter. (Supplied: Jamberoo Dairy Factory)
Mr Boxsell said the team added sunflower oils and safflower oils "because that's all that was available at the time".
As word spread around the dairy industry, the Agriculture Department started paying the factory regular visits.
Originally, they were told to "pull your head in".
But not long after they sent a tub of "stuff" to the minister of agriculture, strict regulations were dropped.
"And that's when it blew up,"Mr Boxsell said.
Jamberoo Dairy Factory, where spreadable butter was first invented in Australia. (Supplied: Jamberoo Dairy Factory)
Legendary disrupter
Jo Davey, who worked in the technical side of the dairy industry for decades, was a colleague of Mr Boxsell.
She said while "stuff" was a little before her time, Mr Boxsell was known and celebrated for his legendary invention, seen as "disruptive" and bold for the time.
"Geoff is a man known for his quiet and steadfast leadership," she said.
"He was a disrupter in the industry at the time being a disrupter was not always celebrated as it is today."
Jo Davey worked in the technical dairy industry for decades alongside Geoff Boxsell. (Supplied: Jo Davey)
Ms Davey said making spreadable butter was a "bold" thing for Jamberoo Dairy Factory to do, noting the strict regulations at the time.
"The purpose of the Pure Food Act was to keep food pure," she said.
"So to have oil was innovative but it wasn't in line with the act.
"It was a case of the law not keeping up with technology or consumer preferences."
Ms Davey said eventually, about a decade later, Australia adopted a national food standards code.
"That's how things began to modernise," she said.
Ms Davey said it was terrific for Mr Boxsell and the Jamberoo team to be recognised with a Dairy Science Award.
"They were very much ahead of the time."