These cookies represent something of an icon in the tiny town of Donald, in Central Victoria, where signs proudly announce it's the home of the sweet biscuits.

The local Kooka's Country Cookies factory employs 28 full-time staff — a significant payroll in a town with fewer than 2,000 residents.

But the economic footprint of this humble biscuit stretches much further.

The farm: five full-time staff

Warracknabeal is grain country, and local farmers supply the wheat for Kooka's cookies. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Craig Henderson is at home in his wheat field, bending to check for signs of frost damage, and looking to see how the grain is growing.

He is the fifth generation to farm at Warracknabeal, about 40 minutes from Donald.

As well as a farmer, he's also a director of Kooka's. He became involved with the company during some of its darkest days.

'"In the next three or four years, I'll be coming out and asking what's going on rather than giving the orders," Craig Henderson says. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

"A few years ago one of the founding members rang Dad and said that the business may be leaving town, that some people wanted to sell," Craig says.

"So we decided we could help a bit and contributed to the finances to help hold it in the town."

He wasn't living in the area at the time, but still felt a sense of duty to get involved.

Craig Henderson's family has farmed in the region for five generations. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

"[The] town was good to us, growing up here," he says.

"I was the fifth generation here and I just think it's about paying back some of that to the community."

Kooka's and another food manufacturer, Australian Eatwell, employ about 50 people in the area between them, and Craig says it's thanks to them that Donald has survived.

"You see other towns that haven't got industries like that, to the north of here and in the Mallee — the towns are just basically dying," Craig says.

Craig Henderson sees more change ahead in the farming world. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

In his years on the land, Craig says technology has been the biggest driver of change, and he can now monitor his headers from a phone or tablet anywhere in the world.

He believes the future of agriculture will involve autonomous, man-less machinery, but the family farm will still be important.

But those are challenges for his sons to confront, as Craig is stepping aside next year.

"In the next three or four years, I'll be coming out and asking what's going on rather than giving the orders," he says with a chuckle.

The mill: 80 full-time staff

The next stop on the supply chain is the Laucke flour mill in Bridgewater, where raw wheat is unloaded into a grate in the ground. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Bridgewater is a sleepy little town with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it strip of shops and a country bakery with a queue out the door.

Its defining feature is the Loddon River, but turning off the main road, you'll find another landmark.

The flour mill at Bridgewater has been there since 1876, and is still in operation.

Laucke Flour took over the site in 2000, and has its own impressive lineage — established in the Barossa Valley, it's 118 years old, and now in the hands of the third generation.

Tonnes of raw wheat is delivered to the Laucke mill every day, where it's processed into flour. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Peter Cobb is the kind of general manager who knows how everything works on site, lifting lids to check how the grain is being ground and operating machinery with ease.

He says working with Kooka's has big benefits for the region.

"Collectively, there's over 100 jobs that are directly involved between us and them working together," he says.

"With the farming communities also that supply us ... we've done studies where it numbers in the hundreds of jobs as an economic footprint among the Central Victorian region."

The wheat is ground on this level and sifted on another. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

For a mill with so much history, it's a high-tech operation.

Grain and flour whizzes between the levels of the mill in pneumatic tubes, and the building was made with rubber supports to allow for the constant shake of enormous sifting machines.

Flour is automatically bagged at the Laucke mill. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Slick machines do jobs that would have once been done by hand, but Peter says there will always be a role for the mill's workers.

"A business like this is built on the back of high-quality people working within it. We have an important community connection," he says.

"Our purpose is to be a sustainable, long-term business. We've come a long way, and we want to be here for another 100 years plus."

The factory: 28 full-time staff

The company is proud of its local connection, and the town proclaims it's the home of Kooka's. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

You can smell the Kooka's factory before you can see it — a sweet and buttery scent in the air.

The site is a tourist stop, with travellers lured in by the smell and the promise of discounted broken biscuits.

Kooka's Country Cookies are made in Donald, where 28 employees work on the product. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Inside, golden cookies roll off a conveyer belt, and a clever machine spits out just the right amount of jam.

But the putting-together is done by hand as a diligent team of workers assemble, pack and weigh the biscuits.

Kooka's cookies roll out of the oven and down the conveyor belt. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Damian O'Toole oversees the production line with an obvious sense of pride.

"One thing I like about Kooka's is a lot of the product is made by hand still," he says.

"I'm sure we could go out and get machinery that would replace employees, but that's not generally what I believe is the right thing to do."

Production manager Damian O'Toole is proud of the company's connection with the community. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Kooka's has been a feature in Donald for more than 20 years, but it's been far from smooth sailing.

The company nearly went bust in 2012, and suffered another setback when supermarket giant Woolworths decided to stop stocking the cookies.

The cookies are assembled, checked, packed and weighed by hand at the Donald factory. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

But its fortunes have turned around, and Damian is optimistic about the future.

"From what people say, if you can survive 25 years of Australian manufacturing surely you can do 50," he says.

"The way I see it is if we continue doing what we're doing, and the customers support what we're doing, then surely we can be around for another 25 years."

The transport company: 35 full-time staff

Troy Hendy became involved with Kooka's when the family-owned business bought a truck that was supplying the factory. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Hendy Transport takes two bites of the Kooka's cookie: the trucking company ships raw materials to the Donald factory, and takes the finished product off to market.

Another family-owned business in the nearby town of St Arnaud, it all started when Keith Hendy bought his first truck 45 years ago.

A pallet of Kooka's Country Cookies is ready to be delivered to the depot in Melbourne. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Now Keith has taken the back seat, leaving the running of the business to his two sons, Troy and Rob.

"Twenty-five years ago I came back home after a diesel mechanic apprenticeship in Melbourne," Troy says.

As well as transporting the finished product, Troy Hendy also trucks the raw ingredients to the factory. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

"We started growing a bit bigger, a few more trucks.

"That's where the relationship with Kooka's and that comes about. We bought a truck that had been doing a little bit of work with Kooka's and yeah, we just grew and grew from there."

Family pet Boots likes to accompany Troy and Keith Henry on the job. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Troy says the industry has improved since he started out, with regulation driving out the cowboys on the road.

And he doesn't seem frightened of the prospect of self-driving vehicles removing the need for trucking companies.

"We'll be here in 20 years' time, we've grown with our customers," he says.

The home delivery service: 150 full-time staff

Aussie Farmers Direct boxes up customer orders, and delivers groceries direct to their front doors. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

You can buy Kooka's from the supermarket shelf, but just as consumer shopping habits have moved online, the biscuits are also available to be delivered to the door.

Aussie Farmers Direct got involved with Kooka's after the cookies company was dumped by Woolworths.

There are a lot of workers dressed in high-vis assembling cartons and packing orders at the warehouse. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

The company receives fresh and dry produce from Australian farms and manufacturers, packs grocery boxes to order and delivers them direct to homes.

CEO Brendan Shaw says consumers are increasingly interested in buying local, and want to back local jobs.

Aussie Farmers Direct has a warehouse at Tottenham, in Melbourne's west. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

"Our ethos is about supporting Australian farmers and they've had a tough time over that journey, particularly with food imports and the like," he says.

"The food trend is definitely pointing towards more support for provenance and knowing where the food comes from."

So, what's the final tally?

The rough count is close to 300, but that doesn't include all the other farmers and suppliers of raw products, and the supply chains required to bring them to the Kooka's factory.

Company Full-time job total Farm 5 Flour mill 80 Factory 28 Transport 35 Home delivery 150 Total 298

An army of workers, on a mission to bring you your biscuits.

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