With numerous supermarkets springing up in every Australian suburb and town, milk bars are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

But before shopfront windows became abandoned or transformed into the next bustling local cafe, how did the milk bar concept develop? When and by whom?

These are the questions being researched by historian Leonard Janiszewski and documentary photographer Effy Alexakis, who will be presenting a lecture on the international cross-cultural origins of the milk bar.

Their research has concluded that the humble milk bar was not only an Australian-first, but a first world-wide.

History was made in Sydney in 1932, when a man of Greek origin by the name of Joachim Tavlaridis, also known as Mick Adams, opened The Black & White 4d Milk Bar.

Stylistically influenced by American culture, once people caught wind of the successful concept, in a short five years close to 4,000 milk bars were operating throughout the country, most of which were Greek-run.

It wasn’t long before the idea was picked up abroad; Greeks opened the first milk bar in New Zealand in the mid-1930s, while Great Britain, South Africa and the South Pacific islands also attempted to introduce the idea into continental Europe and America.

Considered now to be an Australian and international food-catering icon, this lecture will provide an insight into the milk bar and its development within Australia, its subsequent distribution overseas, and its role as a vehicle for Americanisation.

Organised by the Royal Australian Historical Society, the lecture will be presented by Mr Janiszewski and Ms Alexakis, who have been researching the historical and contemporary Greek Australian presence both within Australia and overseas since 1982.

This content is a part of their ongoing project and archive In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians, which has been recognised as one of the largest collections of Greek Australian material in the country.

The lecture is a free event and will be presented on Wednesday 5 August at 1.00-2.00 pm at History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney. For more information call the Royal Australian History Society on (02) 9247 8001, email history@rahs.org.au or visit www.rahs.org.au