Doug Kirby
Brands & business heritage
Based in Adelaide
Doug is Defamer's resident brand historian — the man who knows why the logo changed in 1974 and who really invented the product. Warm and nostalgic, but forensic about the details.
23 published articles · most recent August 10, 2026
Doug is Defamer's resident brand historian — the man who knows why the logo changed in 1974 and who really invented the product. Warm and nostalgic, but forensic about the details.
Articles by Doug Kirby
The Hills Hoist: Adelaide's rotary clothesline and its myth of inventionThe real story of the Hills Hoist rotary clothesline, the Adelaide firm that built an empire on it, and why the "who invented it" question is messier than the legend.
Bonds: how Chesty's singlet ended up owned by HanesbrandsBonds built its Australian identity on Chesty Bond and local mills. The Bonds ownership history tells a quieter story of offshoring and foreign takeover.
Weet-Bix: the church-owned box that raised generations of Aussie kidsWeet-Bix is one of Australia's most trusted brands, yet the Sanitarium company behind it is owned by a church and pays no income tax. Here's the story.
Boost Juice: how a Adelaide juice bar became a global franchiseJanine Allis opened her first Boost Juice store with borrowed money and no retail experience. Two decades on it's a global franchise. Here's how.
Aesop: the Melbourne skincare brand that sold restraint to L'OréalHow a Melbourne haircare label built on brown bottles and quiet design became a multibillion-dollar sale to L'Oréal, one of the biggest deals in Australian brand history.
JB Hi-Fi: how one Melbourne record shop built a discount empireJB Hi-Fi went from a single Melbourne record store to Australia's biggest electronics retailer on a formula of low margins, high volume and no frills.
Flight Centre: how a Sydney backpacker bus became a travel empireGraham Turner turned a share-house travel scheme into Flight Centre. Doug Kirby traces the culture, the collapse fears and the comeback.
Foster's, CUB and the great Australian beer that isn'tHow Foster's became a global punchline for "Australian for beer" while the real brewer, Carlton & United, ended up owned from London.
Myer: from a Bendigo drapery to the trouble at Bourke StreetThe Myer history runs from a Bendigo drapery stall to the Bourke Street flagship, the Coles Myer merger and today's tougher retail reckoning.
Coles: from a Collingwood variety store to supermarket giantHow George James Coles' 1914 Melbourne variety store became one of Australia's two supermarket titans, surviving Coles Myer, Wesfarmers and a 2018 demerger.
Blundstone: the Tasmanian bootmaker that conquered the world one elastic side at a timeFrom a modest Hobart factory to cult status on every continent, Blundstone's story involves family ambition, a manufacturing crisis, and a boot that refuses to go out of style.
Speedo: the Sydney swimwear brand that clothed the world's fastest swimmersFrom a Bondi beachside experiment in 1914 to a global licensing empire, Speedo's journey is one of Australian brand history's most revealing stories.
Ugg: how an Australian generic became an American trademarkDeckers Outdoor Corporation holds a US trademark on 'Ugg'. Australian sheepskin bootmakers have spent decades fighting back. Here's how it happened.
Bundaberg Rum: sugar, the Bundy Bear, and how a distillery became a cultural institutionFrom Queensland's cane fields to the iconic polar bear, Bundaberg Rum's story is one of industrial necessity, stubborn regionalism, and an unlikely mascot.
Sold offshore: the iconic Australian brands now owned overseasVegemite, Speedo, Aeroplane Jelly — the brands feel Australian to the bone. The ownership tells a different story. Here's who actually holds the papers.
R.M. Williams: from a dugout in the Flinders Ranges to a global iconHow a self-taught bushman's saddle-stitched boot became one of Australia's most enduring brands — and how it passed through some of the country's biggest hands.
Qantas: from a dusty Queensland paddock to the Flying KangarooFounded in 1920 in outback Queensland, Qantas grew from a mail run to a national symbol. The full brand history, from the roo to privatisation.
Akubra: rabbit felt, family ownership, and how a hat became AustraliaThe Akubra has been stitched into Australian identity for over a century. Here's the real story behind the felt, the family, and the factory in Kempsey.
Holden: from saddlery to Australia's Own Car, and the long road to oblivionThe full story of Holden — 160 years of Australian industrial ambition that began with leather goods in Adelaide and ended with a press release from Detroit.
Woolworths: the 1924 Sydney upstart that swallowed Australian groceryFrom a single basement bargain store on Sydney's Pitt Street to half the nation's grocery spend — the full story of how Woolworths became a duopoly titan.
Vegemite: the full story of Australia's most unlikely national iconFrom a Melbourne laboratory in the early 1920s to a bidding war that made headlines in 2017, Vegemite's journey is stranger and more contested than the jar on your bench suggests.
Bunnings: from a WA timber mill to the hardware warehouse that ate AustraliaHow a Perth sawmilling business born in the 1880s became the most powerful retailer in Australian hardware — and what went wrong in Britain.
Arnott's: the Newcastle biscuit dynasty, the parrot, the Tim Tam, and the journey to American ownershipFrom a hand-cranked bakery on the Hunter River to a Campbell Soup subsidiary, Arnott's is one of the longest and most revealing brand stories in Australian commercial history.