A lot of the early settlers were listed as farmers but there would be a period of thirty years before they had the opportunity to establish their properties for cream production as there wasn't a factory in the area until the Dyer's Crossing Butter Factory commenced operations in 1904. In the meantime the sawmills had commenced operating in the district at Forster and Failford and they would have provided employment for the pioneers while they cleared their properties and prepared for the day when they would become full time farmers.

Some of the early arrivals with the necessary skills obtained jobs in the shipyards at Forster and Failford. Others may have favoured road building work, etc.

Between 1885 and 1900 pioneers who were destined to play a big part in the history of Darawank had settled on their selections. Families like the Chapmans, Millikens, Meads, Elliots, Browns, Ralstons, Wests and Ned Haggen on Gowack Island were people who would play a big part in the history of Darawank.

Between 1904, when the butter factory opened at Dyer's Crossing until the end of 1959 when the last farm in the area closed, Darawank had always been made up of a farming community. For the first forty years of more, after the first butter factory opened it was all cream production. The cream being conveyed up the river to Nabiac and then transported to Dyer's Crossing.

In 1920, a butter factory (The Cape Hawke District Co-operative Dairy Co. Ltd.) was opened at Tuncurry and the farmers along the river were able to supply their own co-operative butter factory. The arrival of Peters and the Milk Board in Taree in the late 1940s brought many changes to the region. Some of the farmers changed over from cream to whole milk consignment.

Sending milk meant a daily pick up service was required and this came to the area when Ken Lord from Black Head started one. This service was only available to those who had access to road transport. When Ken decided to discontinue the run the Manning Co-op started a service picking up the milk by launch and conveying it to Nabiac where the cans were transferred to trucks. This gave the farmers across the river the opportunity to change over to whole milk consignment like their neighbours had been doing.

Changing over to whole milk was the beginning of the end for the factory at Tuncurry because the number of farmers supplying cream decreased rapidly. Some of the farmers along the river wished to consign the milk to the Peters factory. Soon the Tuncurry cream run boat also started a pick up service to Nabiac and this meant fewer suppliers of cream to Tuncurry. The end came to the Tuncurry Butter Factory in July 1958, when a resolution was passed that the factory be wound up.

Further changes were to take place in the 1960s with the Milk Board's introduction of stainless steel refrigerated vats on farms and the pick up of the milk by tankers. This meant the end of milk cans and milk boats on the river and the last boat ceased operation about 1970. The cost involved to install refrigerated vats meant the closing down of many farms. Most of the farmers were in their twilight years and with uncertainty of obtaining a reasonable price for the products they closed their farms and either sold them or started rearing cattle for the meat market. One farmer in the area installed a refrigerated vat and that farmer was Warren Elliot who with his wife, Viv, continued farming until ill health caused them to dispose of their herd and cease farming operation in 1989. They were the last farmers in the area as all the other farms had closed down many years earlier.

The Darawank we see today is nothing like the Darawank of the 40s and 50s when the area was a thriving farming community. One property remains in the name of the early settlers. Most of the farms have been divided into smaller parcels of land and some of the properties are owned by companies which have purchased a number of properties and where there was once half a dozen single properties there is now only one, the land being used to graze a few livestock.