- The Tumut Broom Factory opened in 1946 as the ‘Tumut Rural Co-operative Millet Society’.
- The co-operative had a dozen employees, and this number nearly doubled in the sixties when millet production was at its peak in the Tumut district.
- Cliff Wortes started working at the Co-operative just after it opened and took over the business in 1978 when the cooperative folded, staying until his retirement.
- Cliff’s son Geoff worked on and off at the factory when he was young and returned in the late Eighties.
- Geoff and Rob Richards owned and operated the business for 20 years.
- The business continues to be a family business today, with Geoff’s son Andrew joining the business in 2020 and running it since 2022.

Robert & Brad Richards, Geoff & Andrew Wortes
Broom Millet was grown by around 120 families in the Tumut area from the 1920’s onwards. These families produced 75% of Australia’s millet, with approximately 1200 tonnes of millet harvested when millet growing was at its peak.
Now in 2013 millet is grown on only 3 farms in the area, producing around 8 tonnes each season.
Originally there were 14 broom factories located all around Australia. Today the Tumut Broom Factory is the last millet broom factory left in the country.