Chipinge: History
The town was formerly known as Chipinga. A white settlement began here with the arrival of Thomas Moodie's trek in 1893 and was called South Melsetter. Melsetter was his family home in Orkney, Scotland. In 1903 a police outpost was built here and in 1909 a school was built. The settlement was renamed Chipinga after a local chief in 1907 and in 1946 Chipinga received town status. Dairy farming was established early in the 1900s and by 1931 there were two cheese factories in operation. In 1945 a third cheese factory was open in the town but the same year saw the three factories being amalgamated to form one large factory. Cheese production at this facility continued until 1976. In 1983 Dairibord Zimbabwe under Dairibord Holdings opened a dairy factory making sterilized milk "steri" at 323 Ferreira Street. The area around Chipinge was the first place to grow tea in Zimbabwe, when Grafton and Florence Phillips smuggled seeds from Assam in British India in 1924, while coffee was introduced on a small scale but was not successful until 1950 when a coffee experimental station was established.