This week’s post
has got to be about Swallow & Ariell. The Age Epicure devoted this week’s edition to iconic Australian biscuits without mentioning Swallow & Ariell which operated continuously in Port Melbourne from 1858 to 1991. PMHPS feels the need to
talk biscuits. The former Swallow & Ariell’s factory buildings, now The Anchorage, continue to add interest and
pleasure along Stokes, Rouse and Princes Streets.
Thomas
Swallow, born in Reading, traveled to California and Ballarat before setting up
a business making ships biscuits in Port Melbourne. His business partner Ariell died in 1877. He
then went into partnership with Frederick Derham, his son in law. This piece is not to dwell on the great civic
contribution of both men, but the significant industry they presided over.
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| An unusually pink moment in late afternoon |
The scale of
the operation was remarkable. From an early stage, the factory's operations were
‘mechanised to an impressive degree'. Strategically
located next to Port’s piers and the railway, Swallow & Ariell was a fully integrated business. Company
farms around Shepparton provided much of its wheat, and after 1889 most was
ground into flour on the Port Melbourne premises. The company sourced fruit and
vegetables for canning from farms in Mildura, Mooroopna, Kyabram and Wandin.
‘take for instance their Muldura apricots and
peaches. What a luscious fragrance meets you as the tin is opened and how rich
is its glorious colour and how it glistens with the cold white syrup.’
From 1881, Swallow
& Ariell owned sugar plantations in Cairns. The sugar was refined into
treacle and golden syrup.
For the year ending 1 May 1920, the factory used 51 tons of butter, 2,740 eggs and produced more than 66 lines of biscuits. They also made puddings, elaborate cakes and icecream.
S & A was a significant employer – locally referred to as S&A College. At the height of the South African war it employed 1900 workers but even in 1991 it employed 450 people.
For the year ending 1 May 1920, the factory used 51 tons of butter, 2,740 eggs and produced more than 66 lines of biscuits. They also made puddings, elaborate cakes and icecream.
S & A was a significant employer – locally referred to as S&A College. At the height of the South African war it employed 1900 workers but even in 1991 it employed 450 people.
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| Stokes St, Port Melbourne 1987 Alison Kelly collection: Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society |
Australian Screen Online hold a promotional film about a (glamourised) day in the life of
the Swallow & Ariell factory. It describes the sweet biscuits as ‘the daintiest morsels’, ‘gorgeously coloured’ while the Uneeda biscuit is ‘dried biscuit perfection’. The smell of baking biscuits is a sensory memory many Port Melbourne people share.
Got more information or stories to add? Comment below or send an email
Got more information or stories to add? Comment below or send an email
Sources and
further information
Conservation
Plan for the Swallow & Ariell Site, Port Melbourne, prepared for the City
of Port Melbourne, 1991
Australian
Screen Online http://aso.gov.au/ search by Swallow and Ariell
Port Phillip Heritage website images http://heritage.portphillip.vic.gov.au/Home search by Swallow and Ariell
They Can Carry Me Out: Memories of Port Melbourne, available from the PMHPS (see right hand pane)
Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Manufactory workers 1958 http://tinyurl.com/lhnl7kr
Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Manufactory workers 1958 http://tinyurl.com/lhnl7kr
Fond memories. Early 1950s, riding our bikes up to that very door in the photo, asking "Any biscuits, Mister?"
ReplyDeleteThe response would usually be "Hang on a minute, young fellas", and he would soon reappear and hand to us a brown paper bag of freshly baked, broken biscuits.
Yum!!
Alan H.
That's a wonderful tale. Thanks for offering it.
ReplyDeleteWent to primary school at St Joseph's Primary just up the road from Swallows in Stokes Street.We would visit the Swallows factory on the way down to the beach to swim when school was finished for the day.I can still smell the freshly cooked bikkies now
ReplyDelete