Vegemite turns 90: what's your favourite iconic Australian brand?

Updated

People either love it or hate it but after 90 years, Vegemite is still an Australian breakfast staple.

Chemist Cyril Callister created the Vitamin B spread from brewer's yeast in 1922 and it first hit Australian supermarket shelves the following year.

Callister's grandson Jamie Callister says the product has come a long way.

"It came off the production line 90 years ago today and was an absolute, unmitigated dud really," he said.

"[But] they persevered and to see the product become what it is today - more than just a product, an icon - it's an amazing result really."

However, Vegemite is no longer Australian-owned.

Below is a selection of some iconic Australia brands which have been sold to overseas interests; and some which are still Australian-owned.

Vegemite

The Vegemite story began in 1922 when the Fred Walker company hired a young chemist to develop a spread from brewer's yeast. Dr Cyril P Callister made the paste and labelled it "Pure Vegetable Extract". A national contest to name the product (won by Melbourne sisters sisters Hilda and Laurel Armstrong) resulted in Vegemite first hitting Australian shelves on October 25, 1923. But with Marmite dominating the market, poor sales of Vegemite led to a name change to Parwill in 1928. The change was a flop and a switch back to Vegemite 14 years later saw the product finally take off. The Happy Little Vegemites jingle hit radio airwaves in 1954 and resonates with many Australians to this day. Vegemite is now owned by US company Kraft Foods but is still made in Port Melbourne. A jar of Vegemite was the first product to be electronically scanned at an Australian supermarket in April, 1984. The one billionth jar of Vegemite was produced in 2008.





Hills Hoist

One of Australia's most recognisable icons and a fixture in backyards across the country. The height-adjustable rotary clothes line was designed by Victorian Gilbert Toyne in 1912 and refined by Lance Hill in Adelaide in 1945. He and brother-in-law Harold Hing patented the product and sold it under the name Hills Hoist. The orders began flooding in with Hill initially selling the lines for £10.10s, twice the weekly wage. A Darwin family reported that the only thing left standing after Cyclone Tracy was their Hills Hoist. The company is still Australian owned to this day, trading as Hills Holdings, and sells other products including TV antennae and playground apparatus. The Hills Hoist is listed as a National Treasure by the National Library of Australia.



Aeroplane Jelly

Tram conductor and aviation fan Bert Appleroth introduced Aeroplane Jelly to the Australian market in 1927. Appleroth even used a Tiger Moth plane to deliver the jelly to rural areas. His start-up business, Traders Pty Ltd, turned into one of Australia's largest family-operated food manufacturers and was sold to McCormick Foods Australia, a subsidiary of America's McCormick & Company, in 1995. The brand's infamous jingle, I Like Aeroplane Jelly', was played on the radio over 100 times in the 1940s and was added to the National Film and Sound Archive in 2008.

Holden

This iconic company started off as a saddle manufacturer in Adelaide in 1856 before moving into automotives in 1908. It was acquired by US-based General Motors in 1931, but Holden's headquarters remains in Port Melbourne, Victoria. All Australian-built Holdens, including its infamous Commodore brand, are manufactured at its Elizabeth plant in South Australia, with engines produced in Port Melbourne. The company has increasingly been looking at leaving the Australian market in recent times because of a decline in sales. The Holden car is listed by the National Library of Australia as one of the country's National Treasures.

Foster's

The brewing giant was created in Melbourne in 1888 by two American brothers. Its most iconic product is Foster's Lager, the second most popular beer in the UK. However, Foster's Lager does not enjoy widespread popularity on our shores, with its cousins Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught and Crown Lager far more sought after. The company's VB ads, in particular, have enjoyed great success on Australian TV since the 1960s. Foster's Group was bought by British company SABMiller in December 2011 for $10 billion.

Qantas

Quintessentially Australian, Qantas is the country's largest airline, accounting for 65 per cent of the domestic market and almost 19 per cent of all international passengers. Founded in the Queensland town of Winton in 1920, The Flying Kangaroo, as it is known, is the oldest continuously operated airline in the world and second-oldest overall, after Dutch outfit KLM. Qantas began flying internationally in 1935 with the Darwin-Singapore route. It received its first Boeing 707 in 1959 and now has a fleet approaching 150 aircraft which fly to 41 destinations. Over 33,000 people can count themselves as Qantas employees. The company's award-winning "koala ad" which began in the 1960s was followed by one featuring Peter Allen's song I Still Call Australia Home. It has been broadcast worldwide, including at the US Super Bowl.

Arnott's Biscuits

Tim Tams, Monte Carlos, Iced Vo-Vos, Milk Arrowroots, Scotch Fingers, Jatz and Shapes are counted among Australia's most iconic biscuits/snacks and all are made by Arnott's. Scottish immigrant William Arnott kicked things off when he opened up a bakery on Hunter Street in Newcastle in 1865. Arnott's was the victim of an extortion bid in 1997, with the subsequent recalls costing the company $22 million. US company Campbell Soup bought out Arnott's the same year. The company still manufactures products in Australia however, and supplies biscuits to more than 40 countries around the world.

RM Williams

Reginald Murray Williams fashioned his first pair of boots while camped out in South Australia's Gammon Ranges in the early 1930s. He set up his first factory in the north Adelaide suburb of Prospect in 1932 and an iconic Australian company was born. Businessman Ken Cowley assumed sole ownership of the business in 2003 and he sold a 49.9 per cent stake to L Capital Asia earlier this year. However, Mr Cowley says RM Williams will always manufacture its products in Australia. RM Williams exports to 15 countries and has over 600 employees in 63 stores in Australia, the US and UK.

Victa lawn mower

The humble Victa lawn mower was invented by Mervyn Victor Richardson in the backyard of his Concord, NSW home in 1952. It was called the "Peach-Tin Prototype" because it was made out of scrap metal with a peach tin for a fuel tank.

By 1958, Richardson had a factory in Milperra with 3,000 employees building 143,000 mowers a year for 28 countries. Victa has sold over 8 million lawn mowers since its inception. US-based company Briggs and Stratton bought it for $23 million in 2008, but the vast majority of Victa's mower products are still made in the Sydney suburb of Moorebank.

Esky

Esky was created by Sydney refrigeration business Malley's over 60 years ago and the name has become so synonymous with coolers that it's now used colloquially to refer to pretty much any cooler. The original Esky had a steel outer shell but is not made of hard plastic. The company was owned by Nylex up until 2009, when it went into administration. US outdoor recreation company Coleman is now in control. However, most of the Esky range is still produced in Melbourne.

Speedo

Fashion student Peter Travis designed the iconic "budgie smugglers" back in the 1960s and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008 for his efforts. They are worn the world over, from Olympic swimmers to our own Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Speedo Australia was acquired by British sportswear firm Pentland Group in 1991.

Topics: human-interest, australia

First posted