The lecture series, entitled Shakin’ the World Over: the Greek Australian Milk Bar continues on Saturday at the Sydney Mechanical Arts School in Pitt Street, Sydney.
Effy Alexakis and Leonard Janiszewski will be taking on the mesmerizing story of Australia’s Greek milk bars, which commenced and initially rapidly multiplied in Sydney in the early 1930s, infuriating the Australian Hotels Association.
According to Alexakis and Laniszewski, five years after Mick Adam’s (Joachim Tavlarides) creation of the “milk bar” in Sydney in November 1932, some 4,000 milk bars were operating in Australia, most of which were Greek-run. How long before Adams’ milk business was the milkshake being served in Australia is still open to speculation.
The pair stresses that commercial Greek involvement with milkshakes commenced in the Southern United States during the late 19th century, just as Greek migration was increasing to the Antipodes in the 1890s. Some of these Greek arrivals were from the United States and they took up selling milkshakes primarily on street corners, until Adams’ milk bar hit the market. He promoted milkshake as a health food, imported electric Hamilton Beach milkshake makers to provide speed, efficiency and multiplicity in the production, and then undercut the price. Many Greek families in Australia embarked on this business, elevating the milkshake to Australia’s national drink, especially during the ’50s and ’60s.
Because of the demand, Mick Adams made an effort to make the milk drink even more tasty and appealing, so by the 1970s, he managed to turn his healthy refreshment into a concoction of fats, sugar as well as artificial colours and flavours, introducing ice-cream to the original recipe.
This resulted into tea taking once again the “preferred national light beverage” title. The Milk Bar culture was soon after replaced by the Greek café that led to the increase of coffee drinking.
The lecture is open to public and will be held delivered on behalf of the City of Sydney Historical Association at Mitchell Theatre, the Sydney Mechanic’s School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney, NSW, at 2.00 pm today.