1969? Commercial crocodile farming begins
Although there were earlier "crocodile farms" it appears these were essentially zoos, whose major purpose was to attract tourists. The… Read More
1960s
1969 Beginnings of nouvelle cuisine
Said to have been born on the first Concorde flight out of Paris, this new and lighter approach to French… Read More
1969 Australia’s first ATM
Australia's first ATM, or Automatic Telling Machine, installed by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in 1969 was not the kind of ATM… Read More
1969 Weight Watchers kicks off weight loss industry in Australia
It warranted a full page in the Australian Women's Weekly. In 1969, Nancy Richardson arrived from the United States to… Read More
1969 First Australian Kmart store
Kmart was originally a joint venture between Coles and the S.S. Kresge Company, which operated Kmart in the USA .… Read More
1969 First microwave oven imported
The first commercial microwave oven, Raytheon's Radarange, was invented in the USA in the late 1940s. Domestic models began to sell… Read More
1969 Self-service dominates grocery sales
By this time, 70% of Victorian metropolitan grocery sales were self-service. Smaller stores formed buying groups to remain competitive. Confectionery… Read More
1968 Subway emerges in Connecticut
A recent high school graduate, 17 year old Fred DeLuca, and family friend Dr. Peter Buck teamed up to open… Read More
1968 Luv-a-Duck founded in Nhill
It was August 2016 and we were headed for the Dimboola Food Festival. An unlikely destination, perhaps, but among the… Read More
1968 First Margaret Fulton cookbook
Cookery writer Margaret Fulton was the food editor of Woman's Day magazine when her first cookbook was published by Paul… Read More
1968 Tasmania’s first licensed restaurant
Until the 1960s, if you wanted to wine and dine in Tasmania your options were restricted. There were fancy meals… Read More
1968 Courage Beer launched
Courage Beer attempted to break the stranglehold Carlton & United had on the beer market in Victoria with its launch… Read More
1968 Australia’s first restaurant guide
“Galloping Gourmet” and television chef Graham Kerr published Graham Kerr’s Guide to Good Eating in Sydney – Australia's first restaurant… Read More
1968 Kentucky Fried Chicken launches in Australia
Australia's first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opened in Guildford in Sydney’s western suburbs on 27th April 1968, with a staff… Read More
1967? Caramello Koala introduced
According to Wikipedia, the Caramello Koala first appeared in 1966 under the name of Caramello Bear. Other websites have taken… Read More
1967 Australia’s first frozen Chinese meals?
Although there had previously been frozen TV dinner ranges which included Asian dishes, the first all-Chinese frozen meal range may… Read More
1967 Taco Bill founded
Mexican food was a new experience for most Australians when the founder of Taco Bill, Bill Chilcote, arrived in Australia… Read More
1967 Bourbon & Beefsteak, Kings Cross
In 1967 a new era in the Americanisation of Australian food began. King's Cross in Sydney was the location of… Read More
1967 Six o’clock closing ends in SA
South Australia was the last state to end six o’clock closing. The new late-closing laws were introduced under the premiership… Read More
1967 Australian Institute of Food Science & Technology
Founded in 1967, the Australian Institute of Food Science & Technology is an industry body that aims to advance Australia's… Read More
1967 Sydney’s first Lebanese restaurant
The first Lebanese restaurant in Sydney was founded by the Mrough brothers in 1967 in Pitt Street, Redfern. Oddly, it… Read More
1966 GLAD® Wrap introduced
In 1966 the GLAD® brand was born in Australia with the launch of 'the amazing new plastic GLAD® Wrap, a… Read More
1966? First Australian canned wine
Once beer began to be packaged in cans, with the obvious benefits of portability and sturdiness, it was only a… Read More
1966 Margaret River wine region identified
A 1966 research paper by agronomist Dr John Gladstones suggested that the Margaret River area in Western Australia would suit… Read More
1966 Decimal currency introduced
On 14 February, 1966, Australia changed from a monetary system using pounds, shillings and pence to decimal currency - dollars… Read More
1966 Russian poet orders Aussie champagne in Paris
During a visit to the Adelaide Festival in 1966, the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko evidently acquired a taste for Seppelts… Read More
1966 Tarax sole Australian-owned soft drink company
By 1966, as overseas companies bought up all the soft drink manufacturers, only one all-Australian company remained as a major… Read More
1966 Six o’clock closing ends in Victoria
On 1 February 1966, Victorian hotel hours were extended to 10pm - the end of six o’clock closing and the… Read More
1966 Stephanie Alexander starts Jamaica House
Started by Stephanie Alexander and her Jamaican husband, Monty, mainly as a way to sell products imported from the West… Read More
1966 Australia’s first food magazines
In 1966, both Epicurean and Australian Gourmet food magazines were founded. Epicurean was the first Australian magazine devoted entirely to… Read More
1965 Sartee stall at Darwin Show
It's better known to most of us as a satay. But in Darwin many people, especially those in the Chinese… Read More
1965 Red Tulip After Dinner Mints
Red Tulip didn’t invent the after-dinner mint. Rowntree’s After Eight Mint Chocolate Thins were launched in England in 1962, but… Read More
1965 Cask wine invented
The wine cask or ‘bag in a box’ was invented by Tom Angove of Angove’s in Renmark, South Australia. The… Read More
1965 First kebabs in Sydney
According to the operators of Uncle Tony’s Kebabs, the first kebabs were introduced in Sydney by Lebanese immigrant Tony Khater in… Read More
1965 Australia’s first food court
These days, we don't just go to shopping centres to shop. We go to eat. Shopping centre food courts can… Read More
1965 Introduction of the BYO licence
The BYO boom in Victoria started slowly, but gathered momentum year on year, really hitting its stride in the early… Read More
1964 Café-Bar threatens tea ladies’ jobs
I remember tea ladies. Back in 1965, in the advertising agency I worked at, a trolley came trundling around twice… Read More
1964 The Big Banana
Claiming to be the first and most famous of Australia's "Big Things" (although it was actually pipped by the Big… Read More
1964 Golden Fleece roadhouses promoted
It's not clear when the first of the Golden Fleece branded restaurants was opened - perhaps in the 1950s or… Read More
1963 Drumstick ice cream introduced
Peters Drumstick was launched in Australia in 1963. It wasn't invented here though. Like its predecessor the Eskimo Pie, the… Read More
1963 Tim Tams launched
In 1963, Arnott’s launched Tim Tams , a new chocolate-covered biscuit based on a British product called Penguin. They were… Read More
1963 Bertie Beetle launched by Hoadley’s
The chocolate Bertie Beetle was launched by Hoadley's in 1963 and is generally supposed to have been created as a… Read More
1963 Men only at Ress Oriental Rib Room
In 1963, Melbourne's Ress Oriental Hotel trumpeted the opening of its new Rib Room, one of three restaurants in the… Read More
1963 First NSW retail grocery group
The Davids wholesale operation put together the first professionally organised voluntary retail grocery group in NSW. It involved Supa Valu and… Read More
1963 Safeway supermarkets arrive in Victoria
The American supermarket company, Safeway, purchased three Pratt’s supermarkets in Victoria in 1963. The first was on the site of… Read More
1962 Calamari first featured in Australian Women’s Weekly
For most of Australia's colonial history, squid (aka calamari) was thought of as fisherman's bait. Only after World War II,… Read More
1963 Robert Carrier’s Great Dishes of the World.
Robert Carrier's Great Dishes Of The World sold over 2 million copies worldwide in 14 languages; and was hailed as… Read More
1962 Len Evans writes Australia’s first wine column
"Cellarmaster", the first regular wine column in an Australian publication, was written by Len Evans in The Bulletin. Evans went… Read More
1962 Deb Instant Mashed Potato
The potato has long been Australia's favourite vegetable. In early colonial days, stews relied on the starchy tuber to bulk… Read More
1962 New Year’s Eve at the Rex Hotel, Bondi
The special New Years's Eve menu at the Rex Hotel was typical for its time. It offered Oysters Naturelle or… Read More
1962 Mr Whippy arrives in Australia
The Mr Whippy ice cream van company was founded in Birmingham, England, in 1958. Just four years later the franchise… Read More
1962 First Tunarama Festival in Port Lincoln
The Tunarama Festival was devised by the burghers of the town that describes itself as "The Seafood Capital of Australia",… Read More
1962 Christmas menu at Hotel Astra, Bondi
The multi-course Christmas menu at the Hotel Astra, Bondi, offered such choices as Oysters Natural au Citron, Consomme Royale, Fillet… Read More
1962 Southern Cross Hotel opens in Melbourne
The Southern Cross Hotel was the first luxury hotel in Melbourne to depart from the traditional style of hotels like… Read More
1962 First Burger King in Adelaide
Adelaide's Burger King chain had nothing to do with the similarly-named chain in the United States founded in 1953. However,… Read More
1962 Coles Farmland brand appears
House brands have become an increasing focus for supermarkets in Australia. The first Coles house brand appeared as early as… Read More
1962 Hawaiian Pizza created in Canada
History does not record when the first Hawaiian Pizza arrived in Australia. But the man credited with its invention was… Read More
1961 Streets Splice trademark registered
Actually, the Streets people themselves don’t know when this iconic Aussie ice cream was launched. They say it was “sometime… Read More
1961 Limmits weight loss biscuits invented
In the early 1960s, my school lunch often consisted of two Limmits weight loss biscuits, perhaps with an apple. It… Read More
1962 Ring pull can introduced in USA
The ring pull can was invented by Ermal Cleon "Ernie" Fraze of Dayton, Ohio, in 1959. It was first put… Read More
1962 Scotts TV dinners advertised
The term "TV dinners" emerged as a brand name in the USA in 1955, although frozen ready-to-eat meals had been… Read More
1962 Coles New World Supermarket is launched
Coles launched “A new world of shopping” with the opening of the first Coles New World Supermarket in Frankston,… Read More
1961 First canned soft drinks
The first canned soft drinks in Australia were produced by Tarax in their Huntingdale, Melbourne, plant in 1961. Initially, Tarax… Read More
1961 First Tupperware party in Australia
Earl Silas Tupper introduced the range of plastic containers in the USA in 1946. Their trademark was the distinctive “burping"… Read More
1961 Unilever acquires Sennitt’s Ice Cream
The Sennitt's Ice Cream brand was discontinued when Unilever acquired Sennitt's and the company was merged with Streets. The famous… Read More
1961 Toto’s Pizzeria opens in Carlton
Toto’s claimed to be the first pizzeria in Australia, and on this basis was inducted into World Pizza Hall of… Read More
1961 Mastering the Art of French Cooking first published.
Although this book is largely credited to Julia Child, it was co-authored with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, whom Child… Read More
1960 Restaurant Licence introduced in Victoria
The new licence allowed alcohol to be served with food. Formerly only hotels, registered clubs and wine saloons could legally… Read More
1960 Australian Wine Centre opens in Soho, London.
After World War II, wine exports to Britain resumed. To capture more of the British market the Wine Board opened… Read More
1960 Australia’s first revolving restaurant
Just one year after the world’s first revolving restaurant opened in Dortmund, Germany, the Hammon family opened the Skyway restaurant… Read More
1960 Margaret Fulton joins Woman’s Day
Margaret Fulton, then working at advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, joined the weekly women's magazine Woman's Day as food editor… Read More
1960 Fanny’s restaurant opens
Fanny’s restaurant was opened by Gloria and Blyth Staley in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, on the site of a Greek café.… Read More
1960 Myer’s Chadstone Shopping Centre opens
In 1960, Myer completed the Chadstone Shopping Centre 12 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne. “Chaddy”, as it soon came… Read More
1960 First Woolworths supermarket
The first Woolworths supermarket was opened at Warrawong in New South Wales in May 1960. It offered a range of… Read More
1960 First Coles supermarket
The first Coles supermarket - a freestanding suburban supermarket complete with carpark - opened in the Melbourne suburb of North… Read More
1960 CHOICE magazine launched
The Australasian Consumers' Association was formed in 1959, at the end of a decade that had seen an increasing focus… Read More