Meet one of the larger-than-life characters of the Australian cheese industry - the man who made some of our very first camembert and brie.

He’s also the man behind Tasmania’s hugely successful cheese industry, Czech cheese pioneer Milan Vyhnalek. First with the Lactos company, he introduced Australia to European-style white mould cheeses like camembert and brie, plus "stinky" varieties like Limburger and Romadur. And at “only 76”, he figures he still has a few more ideas left to realise.

Milan Vyhnalek was born in what was then Czechoslovakia and migrated to Australia in 1950 as a trained dairy technologist. His first work was on the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme but on completion of his contract he travelled to Tasmania after hearing about an opportunity to open a cheese factory near Smithton in the northeastern tip of the island.

For a country used to cheddar and more cheddar, (“Kraft Blue packet and Old Cheddar in calico”, as Milan describes it,) his ideas about specialty cheese-making were quite radical. He began making white mould cheeses like brie and camembert, under the Lactos label. His successful Lactos cheese plant, which opened in 1995 near Burnie, is now one of Australia’s biggest exporters.

Milan sold the company in 1980 and opened the Lacrum dairy farm at Mella, near Smithton. Using the high quality milk produced here (high in butterfat and protein, he says) he is still making brie and camembert – plus washed-rind styles (the smellier kind) like Limburger and Romadur.

The king of the smelly cheeses, Limburger actually originated in Belgium around Liège. Romadur is a similar kind of cheese, originally from Germany, but milder in flavour and aroma and containing less salt. Milan also makes a Limembert - a camembert with a dash of Limburger punch.

Of all the cheeses Milan makes, he says camembert is the hardest to perfect – other cheeses being ‘more forgiving’.

After the curd is made and the cheese set in moulds, different strains of bacteria are sprayed on to develop flavour as the cheese ripens. Milan says a good soft cheese should ripen from the inside out and should always be served at room temperature.