For decades, successive waves of economic change have battered King Island, closing various major industries and pushing workers off the tiny Bass Strait island.

And it's happening again now.

Earlier this month the largest employer on the island, King Island Dairy, announced the next season of cheesemaking would be its last, and the factory would shut down in mid-2025 after the Canadian-based owner Saputo failed to find a buyer.

"It's incredibly disappointing, from a worker's point of view, to put it lightly," Mr Ghazarian said.

The cost of life in paradise

It's not the first time industrial transformation has loomed on King island. It's not even the first time a multinational has bought a local business, only to close it later.

Irene Robins and Ruth McFadzean are members of the King Island Historical Society, which has tracked much of the island's recent history.

"When I did grade one I had over 50 children in our class … with just one teacher," Mrs Robins recalled.

"It was a thriving community when we first came … the Grassy Mine was just beginning to downsize when we came in the early '80s but still we had a very vibrant population," Mrs McFadzean added.

Mining and agricultural prosperity bloomed on King Island in the twentieth century, swelling the population to 3000 people.

Fuelled by lush pastures, year-round rainfall and coastal waters brimming with abalone and rock lobster, the island developed a bustling local sport scene, four schools and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

At its peak, the scheelite mine at Grassy employed 500 people, before depressed tungsten prices in the 1990s sealed its fate in 1992.

"The sporting clubs, that's probably where it hit the most," Mrs Robins said.

"There's no tennis, no darts … all those things suffered."

About 20 years later, the island's next biggest employer was shut by its multinational owners, JBS.

That was the island's only abattoir, and employed 80 people. Many of those moved away.

"Within, say, one or two years, you could see the impact from that and same when the scheelite mine closed in early 1990s," Mrs McFadzean said.

Factory survives multiple owners, bailouts, administration

By the mid-2010s, the King Island Dairy cheese factory had become the largest single employer.

But despite the brand's growth, it wasn't smooth sailing — with a history plagued by financial difficulties and subsequent reinvention, a government bailout, a failed merger and cash-flow issues.

"I was the original wrapper of the brie when they first started it," Mrs Robins said, recalling the dairy's pioneering efforts to get soft cheeses into Australian supermarkets.

"We all did that by hand until … they decided to get a machine. But a few of us, we decided we could wrap quicker than the machine."

Although popular in supermarkets nationwide, that didn't necessarily translate to growth. 

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, dairy manufacturing jobs on the island dropped by 44 per cent between 2006 and 2021, down to 69.

During that time, the factory survived three different corporate owners, including Japan-based Kirin and Canada's Saputo, which owns it now.

In 2024, those numbers sit just below 60, according to Saputo.

Workers left with nowhere to go

One of those workers is Mr Ghazarian, who moved to the island 11 years ago for a change of pace.

"Cheesemaking is really interesting. It's fantastic work and lovely people so just ticked all the boxes for me," the cheesemaker said.

He said the news 10 months ago that yet another sale was on the factory's horizon shook the workforce to the core.

"You don't show up with tonnes of HR people behind you and then talk to the workers and go, 'considering [our] options'. People suddenly go, 'ok, it's serious, they're looking at closing the factory'."

News of the closure, although not surprising, has been devastating.

"It's going to be a big problem for a lot of people out there to try and recover from this," Mr Ghazarian said.

Milk supply slowly dries up

Kelly and Phil Lancaster run one of the island's two remaining family-owned dairy farms, and said many former dairy farms were switched over to beef as they were sold.

"This decision in the last couple of days — we were waiting for it," Mr Lancaster said.

"We've kind of been waiting for it for like 10 years really," Mrs Lancaster added.

The Lancasters are still supplying milk to the factory but made the decision last year to begin transitioning their farm, crossing their milking cows with beef bulls and even giving away dairy heifers as "home cows".

They plan to sell up and leave the island to be closer to their children and grandchildren but hope that the island's strong dairy history will continue.

Not ready to accept defeat

Many still hold hope a buyer for the dairy will swoop in at the last minute, including Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff.

"The factory is not closed yet," he told King Islanders last week.

And the fight certainly isn't over for many locals, including Mrs Robins.