Our History

Woodlands have been present on the Sunshine Coast for over 100 years since Joseph Elks and Albert Sudlow started growing strawberries and pineapples at Beerwah. They later branched into poultry farming and this is now the main focus of the business.

Don Elks, the only son of Joseph Elks, joined the business when his father became ill. Don was one of the first chicken sexers in Queensland boasting a 98% accuracy rate for determining the sex of day-old laying chickens.

Don was a forward thinker and decided to fully integrate the operation by building a feedmill, hatchery and workshop on the original farmsite on Old Gympie Road, Beerwah. These are still in operation today and have undergone a number of upgrades.

In 1972, Woodlands joined the Benfer family in a 50/50 supply of live chickens to Golden Cockerel, a processing plant at Mount Cotton. Today the plant has 400 employees and supplies processed chicken throughout Queensland and Northern New South Wales.

In 1975 with a view of the Glasshouse Mountains, Woodlands started Mountain View Poultry operating commercial laying sheds and an egg grading facility. The egg grading facility was updated in 2015 and has the capacity to grade up to 1.5 million eggs per week. Mountain View Poultry also distributes processed chicken products and eggs to business customers throughout south-east Queensland.

Over the years, Woodlands has grown to become one of the largest employers in the Beerwah area with a current workforce of approx. 180 employees.