Iconic Brand Histories
How the names on every Australian shelf and street corner came to be — Vegemite, Qantas, Holden, R.M. Williams and the rest.
Behind every household name is an origin story: a migrant with an idea, a lucky break, a reinvention, a takeover. We trace how Australia’s most recognisable brands were built, sold, saved and sometimes shipped offshore.
Latest in heritage
- The Hills Hoist: Adelaide's rotary clothesline and its myth of invention
The 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.
By Doug Kirby - Bonds: how Chesty's singlet ended up owned by Hanesbrands
Bonds built its Australian identity on Chesty Bond and local mills. The Bonds ownership history tells a quieter story of offshoring and foreign takeover.
By Doug Kirby - Weet-Bix: the church-owned box that raised generations of Aussie kids
Weet-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.
By Doug Kirby - Boost Juice: how a Adelaide juice bar became a global franchise
Janine 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.
By Doug Kirby - Aesop: the Melbourne skincare brand that sold restraint to L'Oréal
How 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.
By Doug Kirby - JB Hi-Fi: how one Melbourne record shop built a discount empire
JB 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.
By Doug Kirby - Flight Centre: how a Sydney backpacker bus became a travel empire
Graham Turner turned a share-house travel scheme into Flight Centre. Doug Kirby traces the culture, the collapse fears and the comeback.
By Doug Kirby - Foster's, CUB and the great Australian beer that isn't
How Foster's became a global punchline for "Australian for beer" while the real brewer, Carlton & United, ended up owned from London.
By Doug Kirby - Myer: from a Bendigo drapery to the trouble at Bourke Street
The Myer history runs from a Bendigo drapery stall to the Bourke Street flagship, the Coles Myer merger and today's tougher retail reckoning.
By Doug Kirby - Coles: from a Collingwood variety store to supermarket giant
How George James Coles' 1914 Melbourne variety store became one of Australia's two supermarket titans, surviving Coles Myer, Wesfarmers and a 2018 demerger.
By Doug Kirby - Blundstone: the Tasmanian bootmaker that conquered the world one elastic side at a time
From 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.
By Doug Kirby - Speedo: the Sydney swimwear brand that clothed the world's fastest swimmers
From a Bondi beachside experiment in 1914 to a global licensing empire, Speedo's journey is one of Australian brand history's most revealing stories.
By Doug Kirby