Bundaberg candy man Ben Lathouras celebrates his 90th birthday

One of Bundaberg’s most well-loved identities has turned 90. The NewsMail sat down with ‘Candy Man’ Ben Lathouras to hear about his remarkable life.

Bundaberg's beloved 'candyman' Ben Lathouras has turned 90.

One of Bundaberg’s most well-loved identities has celebrated turning 90.

Ben Lathouras is known for creating some of the most delicious sweets and lollies ever tasted in the region, a skill which earned him the name “the Candy Man”.

The Bundaberg NewsMail sat down with Mr Lathouras to hear more of his remarkable life story.

Ben (born Panagiotis) Lathouras was born on July 6, 1932, to Mark and Maritsa Lathouras.

He was the only son with two sisters, Roseanthi and Chrissanthi.

Ben Lathouras married wife Lorna and they are still a loving couple to this day.

Ben and Lorna Lathouras on their wedding day.

Mr Lathouras took over the running of the Cafe Royal when his parents retired in the 1970s, after his father had set up the shop in 1929, with Jim, Mick and Jack – two of them left to open the Elite cafe.

He married Lorna Young in 1959 and had four beautiful children, Marie, Fiona, Julie and Mark and the couple is still together to this day.

It was at the Cafe Royal that locals and visitors alike would flock for a delicious range of fudges, toffee, rocky road, peanut brittle, honeycomb, coconut ice and Mr Lathouras’s much-loved “rockets”.

A young Ben Lathouras in his store.

“I used to make the best rocky road in Australia. That’s what people used to say,” Mr Lathouras said from his home in Bundaberg.

He shared the story of one man in particular who was amazed at how he made it, after initially offering up some cheeky criticism.

“One bloke from Sydney come up one day, a traveller, for the sugar industry he was,” Mr Lathouras said.

“He’s just here for the day. He’s just walking past in the morning, he says ‘uh that don’t look too good’. I said: ‘listen mate, it’s the best rocky road you’ll ever eat. I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you two packets. One white packet and a brown packet and you tell me which is the best of the lot of them.

Ben Lathouras at the Cafe Royal.

Ben Lathouras turned the big 9-0 this month.

“Anyway, he comes back 4 o'clock in the afternoon, he says ‘that were magnificent’, he says, ‘the brown pack was beautiful’ and I says ‘that rocky road was two weeks old’.

‘It takes time to gel”.

Mr Lathouras learned to make confectionary from his family, and guards his recipes close to his heart knowing there are no imitations that match the good old fashioned quality.

“Nobody has ever, you can’t copy me,” he smiled.

“I used to make all me own centres – the marshmallows, the jellies, the roasted nuts.”

Ben Lathouras at the surf club.

Such is his lingering popularity, Mr Lathouras can’t even drop a coin in the pokies without adoring fans still asking about his signature rockets – a chewy toffee peanut bar made with “more glucose than sugar” that was encased in pink marshmallow and rolled in desiccated coconut.

Bundaberg’s beloved Candy Man had dreamt of becoming a doctor, but when his father got sick he picked up “a son’s duty” and started making sweets in the lolly room after school and the rest, as they say, is history.

Daughter Julie Hay described her dad as a “bit of a lad” back in the day, and remembers the tremendous popularity of his handmade treats.

Ben Lathouras in the march past team.

She said it was not uncommon to see locals gathering around to watch the magic happen.

“I can remember many local businessmen joining him to make the lollies – everyone wanted to be there,” Mrs Hay said.

Mr Lathouras remembered former NewsMail production manager, the late Gordon Nichols, who he nicknamed “big tall Gordon”.

“He used to come in, he’d go to the peanut brittle. ‘How’s that?’, he’d go ‘yeah, nice, nice, nice’,” he said.

“I used to get him to come down, give me a hand to make the candy sticks with the hooks on them and all that, and the all-day suckers and all that.

Ben Lathouras was a big supporter of surf lifesaving.

A younger Ben Lathouras.

“Oh Gordon, he did it for years.”

With a chuckle, Mr Lathouras recalled another funny moment.

“One day Mark (my son) said ‘Dad said I’m going to learn to make lollies’,” he said.

“Gordon turned round and says ‘hooray’, he said, ‘a new apprentice’.

Ben Lathouras on a surf lifesaving trip.

“I said ‘no, you’re still the apprentice, he’s the owner’.”

Mr Lathouras kept many a journalist going on a busy news day with his exciting line-up of sweets.

“I had a lot of good friends in the NewsMail,” he said.

Mr Lathouras was well known at the skating rink.

They would work at the old office on Targo St and cut through the carpark to the Cafe Royal to get their sugar fix.

“You’d hear the printer going ‘vroom, vroom, vroom’,” Mr Lathouras said.

The cafe had many incarnations over the years, from a place where people would meet after dances, to a coffee lounge, a fast food outlet and even a night-time dining spot.

The people of Bundaberg still remember the delightful orange juices and ice cream sundaes.

But it wasn’t just locals who were lining up for Mr Lathouras’s sweets.

Ben Lathouras married wife Lorna and they are still a loving couple to this day.

The proud family man would also ship his peanut brittle to his loyal followers in the US.

At one time, the freshness of his product was proved when the delivery was held up by a shipping strike.

“They were on the boat for three months, they opened them up and they were still fresh,” Mr Lathouras said.

“It’s the way I used to make it. I watch them on TV how to make peanut brittle and … no … nup … they’re cutting it with a bloody knife.

“I had a big cane knife!”

Ben Lathouras has often been termed the "Candy Man".

Mr Lathouras said people still talked about his confections, their sweet flavour still lingering on the lips of locals.

Many of those locals shared their fond memories in celebration of his 90th birthday.

“Gosh those were the days,” Lesley Christensen said.

Ben Lathouras making lollies.

“The Greek community both in Bundaberg and Childers were such hard working good people who started from the ground and worked their way up.

“Benny and Lorna, Theo and June were all icons of the Bundaberg cafe/food scene, the like of which will never return.

Over the decades, Mr Lathouras has been involved in a large number of community groups, including the Scouts.

Ms Christensen said she would never forget Mr Lathouras‘s spiders or wife Lorna’s milkshakes.

“We old Bundabergerians will never forget you,” she said.

Others like Cheryl Hart remembered working with Mr Lathouras, and how his milestone occasion had brought back many a memory.

For John De George, his loved ones still reminisce over the toasted sandwiches, malted milks and sweet candy.

Margaret Campbell can still remember the delicious flavours.

Ben Lathouras coaching the Siren of the Surf team – Patty Dean, Noela Freeman, Carolyn Pye, Josie Purkis, Kay Doneman, Leone Pukallas and Yvonne Brown.

“Happy birthday Mr Lathouras,” she said.

“Brought back some early memories from the mid to late 1960s when my dad Bill Campbell was the pharmacist across the road when Cullen’s Pharmacy was there. ”My brothers and I enjoyed many delicious milkshakes in the metal cups that stayed so cold.

“Happy days indeed.”

Fi Franklin described Mr Lathouras as a “pure gentleman” and said there was no business quite like his.

Mr Lathouras (left) loved being a part of the skate club.

But the business of candies was not the only hat he wore in the community.

Mr Lathouras has been a Freemason for nearly 60 years, spent a decade with the Lions Club, 15 years in the Scouts as both a Scout and Scout Master and enjoyed skating at he worked nights at the Queens Theatre.

A young Ben Lathouras makes a splash.

Mr Lathouras became well-known in Bundaberg thanks to his creation of delicious sweets and also his contribution to local community groups.

He’s the second oldest living member of the Bargara Surf Life Saving Club, where he was part of the Australian March Past title winners five times.

A certificate of his induction into the SLSC Hall of Fame sits proudly on his wall.

Mr Lathouras's treats were a hit in Bundaberg and aboard – some people would even ask for them to be sent overseas.

He also had a passion for sport, with involvement in rugby league and bowls, where he says the Italians and Greeks always enjoyed some friendly and good-hearted rivalry.

He’s been a keen sailor, taking his yacht on the seas, naming one of his Sharpies Candy Man in honour of his nickname.

His greatest achievement however, is his “wonderful family”.

“I’m very proud of them,” he said

Ben Lathouras and the march past team during the 1958-59 season.