1970s

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

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 1977  and within a year… 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 Australia’s first Thai restaurant

The first Thai restaurant in Australia was the Bahn Thai,  which was opened in Melbourne's St Kilda Road in June… 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 promotional 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 Cornish food at Kernewek Lowender

Kernewek Lowender in the Cornish language means "Cornish Happiness". It's the name of a festival held every two years on… 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 First Aboriginal publicans in Australia

Catherine Hill Bay was a coal mining town near Newcastle, New South Wales, and was named after a ship that… Read More

1971 Humpty Doo Hotel opens

It's not the most historic, the most glamorous or even the quirkiest pub in Australia's Northern Territory. Unlike the Mataranka… 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 Stubby holder becomes ubiquitous

Who invented the stubby holder? The answer is, nobody knows. Although most sources seem to agree that the stubby holder… 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

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