Long before how-to videos began filling up our social media feeds, the Australian Government, with the help of broadcaster Charles Moses, was showing us how to churn butter.

A Film Australia Collection title, Australian Butter was one of the Cinema Branch's earliest sound films. It takes viewers back in time, walking through the various stages of butter production, a process that yielded an export of about 10 million pounds (that's 5,000 tonnes or 4,535,923.7 kg!) worth of butter every year. We see dairy herds, cows being milked, the inside of a butter factory, and grading for export and shipment.

This clip shows the churning process, with two tonnes of cream for one tonne of butter, and more than a pinch of salt!