During the late 1800's Henry Chittick Snr share-farmed and worked on properties around the Illawarra area of NSW. In 1898 he purchased a property at Jerrara (between Kiama and Jamberoo). Next he purchased the neighbouring property known as Flat Rock. He combined the two properties and called them Lemon Grove.
In 1884 he had purchased 10 shorthorn heifers from Francis Grey and later on that year 11 heifers from James' brother's were purchased.
This was the beginning of Lemon Grove Illawarras as we know it today.
It wasn't until 1906 that Lemon Grove first started to register cattle and has continued consistently until today.
Henry Chittick had three sons, Charles Robert, Gustavus Earnest and Edward Percy and also two daughters. After the marriage of his eldest son Charles (known as CR), in 1917, Henry bought a property at Gerringong where the Alnebank stud was formed and farmed by Gustavus (known as GE).
In 1924 the next purchase was made at Bolong via Nowra and farmed by Edward Percy (known as PHE). The property was called The Pines.
CR and his wife retained control of the Jerrara property.
In 1950, after the resumption of the Jerrara property by the NSW Water Board for the town water supply to Kiama, the stud moved to a property at Kiama. They continued to milk, breed and show their beloved AIS cows in conjunction with a town milk vendoring business. Due to urban development the stud once again was forced to make the decision to move, and in 1963 a property at Jamberoo was purchased. Charles' son Henry purchased the Lemon Grove farm from his family and farmed with his wife, Esme and children until a decision was made in 1988 to sell the Jamberoo property and move to Victoria in 1989.
Laurie, his wife Sandra and three children, Andrew, Murray and Nicole, then purchased the Lemon Grove operation and moved to Merrigum in the Goulburn Valley, in February 1989.
Under Laurie's ownership of the stud, decisions were made as to where we were heading for the future of Illawarras. Due to the limitation of our Illawarra bloodlines the decision was made to introduce and experiment with outside blood. Only red holstein was used in this experiment, a decision that hasn't been regretted. The results of using these bloodlines were evident with the breeding of probably one of the top two cows that Lemon Grove has ever bred, in Lemon Grove Ruth 146. In staying true to our beloved Illawarras is one of our all-time favourites in Lemon Grove Buttercup 204, a pure Illawarra.
In 1997 once again a move was made to shift from a larger operation to a smaller dairy at Tongala, which is home today to Lemon Grove.
We are continuing to use a small percentage of outside blood in conjunction with progeny test bulls. Current joined heifers are sired by Red Monarch, Royal Treble, Jinny's Empire, Bygold, Buttler, Kakadu, Princess Mario and Redpath. Yearlings sired by Redrama, Kakadu, Red Monarch, Buttler, Pimp, Blitz, Kosciusko and Showline Contender H.F. and Fieldhouse Red Lou H.F., a helix son in Lemon Grove Relix closely bred to Ruth 146.
Sire's used at the moment are Kosciusko, Pingerley, Blitz, Pimp, Jinny's Empire, Royal Treble, Scarlets Marcel and Lemon Grove Blazing Promise and a son of Margaret 162 X Red Monarch.
Over the years, Lemon Grove has been very successful in the showring, winning champion cow at Sydney Royal 17 times and Champion Bull 18 times. The most successful show ever was at Sydney Royal in 1975 under american Keith King, where we won all the in milk classes, then having seven out of the nine in the champion cow line-up.
Lemon Grove closed down in 2014 with a complete herd dispersal.
