Australian Dairy Collectables

1880 to Today - Listing of Milk Bottles

The history of milk production in Australia goes back to day one of foundation. For the use of this page we will concentrate on the period 1880 - Today. A time when milk would arrive at the door step of most city and large town residential properties. In time we may enlighten the reader on some of those early days of production and through the period when it was decantered from Galvanized lidded steel drums. How many of you can remember the days of the horse drawn cart and the echoed clink of milk bottles in the early morning air? The home delivery for most of us ceased in the 1970's, and nowadays we go to the supermarket or corner store for our milk supply and buy it in cardboard cartons or plastic bottles.

Our page in history starts at a time when a lady by the title of Lady Talbot saw the need to provide good pure wholesome milk for young mothers to feed their babies. Her and several Melbourne businessmen established the Lady Talbot Milk Institute and Dairy back in 1909 in Victoria.

Soon after other individuals followed suit, and with the growth and demand for quantity and a quality product, Dairies sprung up in most Australian cities and suburbs. As with most needs and demands the old method was quick to go where the highest demand was - some smaller country towns or outer suburbs did not see the introduction of glass milk bottles until many years after their city cousins. Along with the packaged milk from your local Dairy now came a neatly wrapped pound of butter, cheese or other produce often in a wrapper printed with the Dairies brand upon it, so one would return there for future purchases. However the Dairy branding on a bottle had a double method, one would know where the milk was purchased and would return the branded bottle to the correct dairy allowing that Dairy to re-use the bottles hundreds of times.

Bottles would be lost and returned to incorrect Dairies or destroyed. The need for a bulk supply was partly solved in Melbourne when the Melbourne Bottle Recovery company ordered thousands of branded bottles from the glass works and leased these bottles out to individual dairies. This method was adopted in other cities and even in other industries.

Common asked questions about milk and dairies:

Question: Where does household milk come from ?
Answer: Milk comes from Cows.

Question: What is a Wad ?
Answer: A wad is the cardboard insert which fitted inside the neck of the old style milk bottle as a seal.

Question: Why did the manufacturers stop using glass bottles ?
Answer: To justify cost in production.

Question: What was the milk token ?
Answer: