Late 1970s Peter Russell-Clarke sells eggs
As question marks were raised about eggs as high-cholesterol food, The Victorian Egg Board enlisted the services of artist, author… Read More
1970s
1979 First supermarket to scan barcodes
The first supermarket to adopt barcode scanning in Australia was SIMS supermarket in Melbourne’s western suburbs. It's not recorded which… Read More
1979 Chicken salt goes commercial
Chicken salt is as Australian as Vegemite, although with a shorter history. It was invented by Peter Brinkworth in the… Read More
1979 First Ali Baba kebab store
The first Ali Baba kebab restaurant opened in 1979 outside the Woden Plaza in Canberra’s inner south. It was founded… Read More
1979 Claytons enters the Australian vernacular
What's a product invented in England and sold as an import in Australia for most of its recorded history doing… Read More
1979 Sourdough revival begins at Feedwell Foundry
Sourdough bread, say the purists, is made simply from flour, water and salt. The rising agent, or "leaven" is natural… Read More
1979 The Pritikin Program For Diet And Exercise
American nutritionist Nathan Pritikin’s book, The Pritikin Program For Diet And Exercise, spent a year on the New York Times’… Read More
1978 First home-delivered pizza
Home-delivered pizza was pioneered in Australia by Silvio's Dial-a-Pizza in the Brisbane suburb of Red Hill in 1978. The business,… Read More
1978 First McDonald’s Drive-Thru
In 1978, Australia's first McDonald's Drive-Thru opened in Warrawong, New South Wales. This was just three years after their first… Read More
1978 24-hour dining in Perth
Late-night and even 24-hour dining is just part of city life these days. But when Fast Eddy's opened in Perth… Read More
1978 Launch of Big M
Big M flavoured milk was launched in Victoria with overtly sexy imagery of milk running down the cleavage of girls… Read More
1978 REV low fat milk launched in Victoria
REV low-fat milk was launched in Victoria and aimed at young adults. It was lower in fat and higher in… Read More
1978 Décor Insulated Wine Carrier launched
The Décor Insulated Wine Carrier with wine chiller was the essential accoutrement for visits to BYO restaurants. It was designed… Read More
1978 Vogue’s Champagne Diet
The Champagne Diet, published in Australian Vogue, made much of the fact that champagne was the least fattening of all… Read More
1977 Howqua Dale weekend retreat founded
Sarah Stegley and Marieke Brugman owned and operated the Howqua Dale Gourmet Retreat, at Mansfield in central Victoria for 30… Read More
1977 Clichy restaurant opened in Collingwood.
Chef Iain Hewitson and food critic Sigmund Jorgenson started the influential Clichy restaurant in unfashionable Collingwood. The restaurant menu experimented… Read More
1977 Farmers Union Iced Coffee launched
Farmers Union Iced Coffee is a flavoured milk manufactured in South Australia, where it has iconic status along with other… Read More
1977 Australia’s first 7-Eleven
The first 7-Eleven convenience store opened in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh on 24 August and within a year there were… Read More
1977 First Australian community garden
There had been community gardens in the past, during times of war and depression, but the first Australian community garden… Read More
1977 Breville Kitchen Wizz released
The Breville Kitchen Wizz food processor was an affordable Australian version of the European MagiMix. It was one of the… Read More
1976 Hi-Lo milk launched in Canberra
Ho-Lo milk was the first low-fat specialty milk to be launched on the New South Wales market and a few… Read More
1976 Apricot Chicken recipe
There were earlier recipes called Apricot Chicken, but the first I can find for the 1970s classic with the standard… Read More
1976 First muesli bar in Australia
Australia's first muesli bar was the Uncle Tobys Toasted Muesli Crunchola Bar, launched in 1976. It was a jolly good… Read More
1976 Kraft Singles launched
The best thing since sliced bread was sliced cheese. Kraft Singles, individually wrapped slices of processed cheddar were launched in… Read More
1976 Overseas travel changing tastes
By 1976, a million people were leaving Australia annually to travel overseas. They now travelled by air, not by sea,… Read More
1976 First Thai restaurant
The first Thai restaurant in Australia was the Bahn Thai, which opened in Melbourne's St Kilda Road in June 1976.… Read More
1976 Don Dunstan’s Cookbook published
One of the few politicians to publish a cookbook , the Premier of South Australia favoured an eclectic and informal… Read More
1975 Flower Drum Restaurant opens in Melbourne
Gilbert Lau was part-owner of the Empress of China restaurant in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, one of the first upmarket… Read More
1975 “You oughta be congratulated”
The famous “you oughta be congratulated” advertising campaign was designed to assure mums that Meadow Lea Margarine would not only… Read More
1975 Leggo’s turns Italian
With a campaign featuring Gina Lollobrigida, Leggo’s changed its heritage from Cornish (Leggo is a Cornish name) to Italian. Abandoning… Read More
1975 Baxter Provender’s new dining style
Back in the days when we hadn't heard of the degustation menu, partners Alistair Herbert and Camillo Haffar opened Baxter… Read More
1975? Savoury slice invented in Murray Bridge
The savoury slice is a truly regional dish, apparently found only in a tiny pocket of South Australia around the… Read More
1975 Colour TV introduced in Australia
On 1 March 1975 Australian television stations officially moved to colour. Colour TV had been around for a while overseas… Read More
1974 Breville Snack’n’Sandwich Toaster
A replacement for the old-fashioned jaffle iron, the Breville Snack'n'Sandwich Toaster sold 400,000 and was snapped up by 10 per cent… Read More
1974-5 Australia’s beer consumption peaks
After a long dry(ish) spell during the depression years of the 1930s, beer consumption grew rapidly during the wartime years.… Read More
1974 Bar code scanning introduced in USA
On June 26, at 8:01 a.m, Sharon Buchanan, a check-out operator at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio scanned the first… Read More
1974 Pink Lady® apples developed in WA
Pink Lady® is a trade-marked name for an apple variety known as Cripps Pink. The apple was developed by horticulturalist… Read More
1974 Bankcard launched
The Bankcard brand was shared by Australian financial institutions and was Australia's first generally available credit card. At launch, banks… Read More
1973–74 Supermarkets reach 50% share
By the early '70s supermarkets had a 50% share of the grocery market, a substantial increase since 1968-69, when a… Read More
1973 Crock-pot cooking introduced
Crock-Pot is a brand name for a bench-top electric slow cooker. The idea dates back to 1940 in the USA… Read More
1973 Abolition of school milk
Free school milk continued long beyond my primary school days, until a report to the government in 1973 deemed it… Read More
1973 Britain joins European Economic Community
The United Kingdom acceded to the European Economic Community in 1973 beginning a new focus for Australian exporters. The formation… Read More
1973 Menu from Brisbane theatre restaurant
This 1973 menu from The Living Room theatre restaurant in Brisbane is such a great example of how Australians used… Read More
1972 Shakahari vegetarian restaurant opens in Lygon Street
The ceiling upstairs at Shakahari was silver insulation foil. There was brown rice a-plenty. The food was wholemeal, unrefined and… Read More
1972 It’s time – Labor in, White Australia out
Gough Whitlam’s Labor government was elected after 23 years of Liberal Party rule. In 1973, the government legislated to eliminate… Read More
1972 Marron farming begins in WA
The marron (Cherax cainii) is a large fresh water crayfish native to the south western areas of Western Australia and… Read More
1972 Atkins diet
Introduced in the book Dr Atkins Diet Revolution, the Atkins diet promised people they could lose weight while eating as… Read More
1972 Be Bold with Bananas
The National Library of Australia has this publication dated at 1972, although other sources are less certain of the date.… Read More
1972 Charmaine Solomon’s first Asian cookbook
Charmaine Solomon is credited with introducing Australia to Asian food. She was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but moved to… Read More
1972 Red Rooster founded in WA
The Aussie-owned fast food chain began in Western Australia. Originally a family business, Red Rooster was acquired, and the chain… Read More
1971 Big Pineapple opens in Queensland
Possibly inspired by the Big Banana, which opened in 1964, the Big Pineapple opened in 1971 at Woombye in Queensland’s… Read More
1971 Hungry Jack’s launches in Australia
The US chain Burger King couldn’t use their own brand in Australia, as the name had been trademarked by a… Read More
1971 Space Food Sticks launched in Australia
Space Food Sticks were developed by Pillsbury in the USA. The company worked in conjunction with NASA to develop a… Read More
1971 Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs
Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs were launched in 1971. They were based on a similar American product called Cracker Jack, which… Read More
1971 First Australian McDonald’s opens in Sydney
The first Australian McDonald's opened in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona 16 years after the company was founded in the USA.… Read More
1970 Pizza Hut launches in Australia
The first Australian Pizza Hut opened in Belfield, Sydney in April 1970. The building (shown here) was most recently a Korean… Read More
1970 Wynn’s perfect the wine cask
Wynn's perfected the wine cask (bag-in-a-box) in 1970, with a tap that was exposed by tearing away a panel on… Read More
1970 First commercial emu farm in Australia
The earliest emu farm in Australia appears to have been operating in the 1930s at Dromana, Victoria. It was pictured… Read More
1971 Smoked oysters fall from grace
1971 was the year when smoked oysters became socially unacceptable. Playing Stork in the eponymous movie, actor Bruce Spence single-handedly… Read More
1970s Permaculture concept developed
The permaculture philosophy of farming and sustainable living was developed by Bill Mollison and David Holgrem in Tasmania. It grew out… Read More
1970s Counterculture revolt
In the late ‘60s and early ’70s, the counterculture revolt railed against everything that symbolised the industrial state. It included a… Read More
1970 Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbook
The first edition of the classic Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbook was published in 1970, heralding a new era of international cookery… Read More