Sunday History Photo / SA

Whenever the word ‘Amscol’ is mentioned to an Adelaide raised baby boomer, the memories of an ice cream cone at the beach, an Eskimo Pie at the pictures or the special ‘once-a-week’ luxury of a slice of Amscol ice cream from the brick after tea.
Even I am transported back in time to 1953/59 to being a kid again to when my Parents had the Deli' called "The Willow Roadhouse" at Chain of Ponds in the Adelaide Hills near the Milbrook Resevoir, of course all is gone there now when the Government demolished the town. The Icecream came in large insulated caskets with 2 Icecream cans inside and cooled with Dry Ice , I used to have fun dropping some into water and watch it bubble .






It’s not hard to understand why we still have such a soft spot for Amscol, it was the ice cream we grew up with and people today still swear it was creamier and had a far better flavour than anything currently on the market.
Amscol stood for Adelaide Milk Supply Co-Operative Limited which took over the premises of the Beauchamp Brothers in Carrington Street in the city in 1922. It was an extensive business and produced bottled milk, ice cream, cream, cheese and butter.
The ice cream brick was first introduced in the 50s when refrigerators started to appear on the market. Most brands in those days had a small rectangular freezer compartment inside the body of the fridge itself and the brick was made to fit snugly inside. Later, as fridges were made with larger freezers, Amscol introduced tins, and finally plastic containers for their famous ice cream.
Amscol also supplied the milk when the Government introduced the ‘milk for school children’ programme back in 1950, I remember that when I was at the Athelstone Primary School, I didn't like it much and even today I can't drink straight milk. They produced special third-of-a-pint bottles of milk and although we loved the ice cream, many people have less pleasant memories of trying to chug down the warm, sour milk at recess time.





Dandies and Eskimo Pies were sold at the pictures on Saturday nights by tray boys, usually dressed in a semi-formal military style uniform; “and you had to line up to get them before they melted”. I think the tray boys and girls were at Footy games and the Rowley Park Speedway., Haaa yes the Speedway, as a kid we would watch an adult finish his bottle of Coke and go and ask him..." hey Mister can I have your bottle" then go and get the 2d for the empty until we had enough to buy an Icecream or some Peanuts.

During the War the 380th Bomb Group based at Long and Fenton Airstrips near Adelaide River NT used retired B-24 Liberators to do what they called "Fat Cat Runs" to Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney to pick up supplies and take back to the camps, one of those B-24's was called "Beautiful Betsy" , here's a photo of Beautiful Betsy picking up goods with the Amscol van parked alongside. This B-24 went missing 26 February 1945 and the wreckage of "Beautiful Betsy" was not discovered until 49 years later on 2 August 1994, when park ranger, Mark Roe, was checking the results of a controlled burn-off in the Kroombit Tops National Park, about 80kms from Gladstone.




Amscol’s milk processing works and factory remained in the same city location right up until the company ceased trading in the 1980s and was eventually sold off, demolished, and the land used for housing. Many will recall I’m sure the retail outlet off the side street where it was possible to purchase the full range of Amscol products.



Amscol may be gone but it’s certainly not forgotten….”It’s a Food, Not a Fad




.