From Cherry Ripe chocolate bars to the ute and the bionic ear, here are Victoria’s best inventions
Researchers are working to help develop a coronavirus cure, but what other inventions can Victorians be proud of? Plenty. From refrigeration to the power board, these innovations are sure to make you a happy little Vegemite.
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Melbourne is Australia’s food, fashion and cultural centre, but where do we fit in terms of innovation?
Our researchers were recently lauded for their efforts to identify and test a potential coronavirus vaccine, and even received $10 million in funding from US billionaire Bill Gates.
This got us thinking — what else can we talented Victorians give ourselves credit for?
We’ve compiled a list of top inventions founded across our proud state, so feel free to give yourselves a collective pat on the back for having the presence of mind to call Melbourne or Victoria home.
Add your two cents in the comments below if you think we’ve missed anything.
The ute
Legend has it that a Gippsland farmer’s wife sent a letter to Ford Australia in 1933 asking them to design her a car that would keep the family dry when driving to church on Sundays, but could be used by her husband to transport the family’s pigs to the market on Mondays. Lewis Brandt, a young engineer aged in his early 20s working at Ford’s Geelong plant, took up the challenge and the coupe design for the ute was born. The first Ford Coupe Utility was wheeled out of the workshop and into car yards in 1934, proving what the customer wants, the customer gets.
Cherryripe, Crunchie, Freddo Frogs
MacRobertsons Chocolates, a formerly Fitzroy-based business founded in 1880, can be credited with the brilliant invention of some of the country’s most popular chocolates. Cherry Ripe, Crunchie and Freddo Frogs were all developed by the company’s founder, Macpherson Robertson, and his business stayed in the family for years until it was eventually sold to Cadbury in 1967. The Cherry Ripe in particular holds a sweet spot in Australia’s history as the country’s oldest chocolate bar.
First gay and lesbian radio station
Pats on the back all around, Melbourne was the first city in the world to have a dedicated gay and lesbian radio station. Joy 94.9FM launched with a 90-day test licence in 1993 and now enjoys a radio audience of more than half a million people across Melbourne as well as a big online following.
McCafe
Melburnians love their coffee and our baristas are known the world over as masters of their craft, but at the opposite side of that spectrum for a long time once sat McDonald’s. The fast food chain’s own version of coffee was infamous and likened to “paint stripper” by some unimpressed customers. But homegrown McDonald’s licensee Ann Brown saw room for improvement and took the lead to open the world’s first McCafe in Melbourne in 1993. Since then the brand has gone from strength to strength and gained international popularity. By 2003, according to McDonald’s website, their cafes generated 15 per cent of their total revenue. Best of all, the coffee is now up to Melburnians’ high standards when we need a quick coffee fix on the go.
Four’N Twenty Pie
It’s the quintessential footy pie paired perfectly with tomato sauce and a popular lunch choice for hungry tradies. Melburnians like to brag about the dim sim’s humble beginnings, born in the kitchen of a savvy Bendigo Chinese restaurant owner, but less well known is the start of the city’s favourite meat pie. Four’N Twenty pies were invented in 1947 by Lesley McClure at a small Bendigo bakery and, except for a meat-free version launched earlier this year, the recipe has remained largely unchanged. The pie’s name was inspired by the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, which includes the line, “Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie”.
Power board
Electrical engineer Peter Talbot, who worked for the Melbourne company Kambrook Australia, invented the power board in 1972. The story goes that the company’s owner, Frank Bannigan, was frustrated he didn’t have enough power-points to plug in and test his newly developed products, and so the four-way power board was born. Naturally it didn’t take long for the rest of the world to cotton on to the brilliant invention and it remains an essential household item. But be careful not to overload your power board, particularly if working from home during the coronavirus lockdown.
Callisthenics
Glittering costumes, colourful batons and theatrical performances characterise callisthenics, which could be described as Australia’s answer to gymnastics. Performances combine elements of rhythmic gymnastics, ballet, music, drama and musical interpretation to create choreographed stage productions that have enthralled Australian audiences for decades. Callisthenics has early roots in the UK and Europe, but the sport as it is known today emerged first in Victoria during the gold rush era. It was initially designed to keep people fit, but it quickly grew to a nationwide phenomenon with hundreds of clubs and competitions held across the country.
Refrigeration
Australians love a cold beer, so it’s no wonder a Victorian masterminded the modern fridge. Scottish-born man James Harrison invented a commercial ice-making machine in Geelong in 1854 and soon afterwards he developed the world’s first vapour-compression refrigerator, for which he was awarded a patent in 1855. His method of refrigeration is still used today, though it has been tweaked. We also have a list of Melbourne’s best green grocers to keep your fridge stocked with healthy fruit and veg. It’s sobering to think if it wasn’t for Harrison, Australians could still be digging out lukewarm bevies from the bottom of old-fashioned iceboxes.
Disposable latex gloves
Disposable latex gloves are in high demand thanks to the coronavirus, so it may be difficult to get your hands on a pair, but many people would be surprised to know they were first manufactured in Melbourne in 1964 by a man named Eric Ansell. Ansell used the same technology used to make condoms to create the gloves, and they’re now a mainstay in operating theatres across the world.
Staysharp knife
Dennis Jackson worked for Wiltshire Cutlery in Melbourne in the 1960s and designed a knife that sharpened every time it was replaced into its spring-loaded sharpening sheath. The invention came about after Jackson heard about a 1964 survey that estimated 80 per cent of Americans didn’t know how to sharpen a knife. The knives were launched in Australia in 1969 and millions have since been sold worldwide.
Feature length film
The story of Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous bushranger, has captured the hearts and minds of Aussies for generations. Criminal gangs, robbers, murderers and the like are shunned by today’s community, but Kelly, the third-born child of Irish parents, is celebrated — by some — for wearing a homemade suit of armour in his final shootout with police before his execution at the Melbourne Gaol in 1880. It’s therefore fitting that his life inspired Australia — and the world’s — first feature length film. The Story of the Kelly Gang was made in Melbourne in 1906 and ran for just over an hour. It was a silent film produced by John and Nevin Tait, who owned a local theatrical company, and it opened at the Melbourne Town Hall on December 26.
Bionic ear
Melbourne ear surgeon Professor Graeme Clark headed a team of groundbreaking scientists who developed the first prototype for the cochlear implant — or the bionic ear — in the 1970s. The first device was implanted in an adult at the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in 1978 and the technology has gone on to change lives across the world. The device works by electrically stimulating nerves inside the inner ear of severe or profoundly deaf patients that are interpreted as sound. It’s just one of many Melbourne science discoveries that have made our city world famous.
Vegemite
Last but not least, it’s Australia’s favourite spread and Victorians will be chuffed to find out it was invented right here in Melbourne in 1922. Food manufacturer Fred Walker asked chemist CP Callister to create a product based on Britain’s Marmite, and so Australia’s famous yeasty toast topper was born. Whether you pair it with cheese, spread it on a cracker, use it for cooking, or even prefer a low salt version, a jar of Vegemite is a staple now found in almost every Australian household.
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