Sunday History Photo / Au

In 1919, prior to the introduction of Vegemite, the Sanitarium Health Food Company in New Zealand began manufacturing and shipping to Australia a version of Vegemite's biggest competitor, Marmite. Vegemite was invented in 1922 by food technologist Cyril P. Callister when, following the disruption of British Marmite imports after World War I, his employer, the Australian company Fred Walker & Co., gave him the task of developing a spread from the used yeast being dumped by breweries. Callister had been hired by the chairman Fred Walker.
Vegemite was registered as a trademark in Australia that same year. Callister used autolysis to break down the yeast cells from waste obtained from the Carlton & United brewery. Concentrating the clear liquid extract and blending with salt and celery and onion extracts formed a sticky black paste.




Callister was born in Chute, near Ballarat in the Australian state of Victoria on the 16 February 1893. The son of a teacher and post master and one of nine children, he attended the Ballarat School of Mines and later won a scholarship to the University of Melbourne. In early 1915, Callister was employed by food manufacturer Lewis & Whitty, but later that year he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. However, he was soon withdrawn from active service and assigned to the Munitions Branch, making explosives in Britain. Following the end of World War I, he married Scottish girl Katherine Hope Mundell and returned to Australia and resumed employment with Lewis & Whitty in 1919.
Following a nationwide competition with a prize of £50 to find a name for the new spread, the name "Vegemite" was selected out of a hat by Fred Walker's daughter, Sheilah. Vegemite first appeared on the market in 1923 with advertising emphasising the value of Vegemite to children's health but failed to sell very well. Faced with growing competition from Marmite, from 1928 to 1935 the product was renamed as "Parwill" to make use of the advertising slogan "Marmite but Parwill", a convoluted pun on the new name and that of its competitor; "If Ma [mother] might... then Pa [father] will." This attempt to expand market share was unsuccessful and the name was changed back to Vegemite; but did not recover lost market share.

Fred Walker was an Australian businessman and founder of Fred Walker & Co. The company is best known for creating Vegemite, a food paste and Australian cultural icon.
Walker was born in Melbourne and won a scholarship to attend Caulfield Grammar School. He worked in the food import and export industry, and founded Fred Walker & Co in Hong Kong in 1903. The company began manufacturing canned foods and bonox, a beef extract product still produced today, and grew to operate around Australia and in New Zealand.



Fred Walker began a partnership with American businessman James L. Kraft to manufacture processed cheese in 1925, and by 1930 was chairman of Kraft Walker Cheese Co, a separate company from Fred Walker & Co but managed by the same staff. He was also successful at attracting staff by offering workers social club, allowing for morning tea breaks from manufacturing, providing first aid and canteen facilities, and modern work systems that increased employee productivity.
10 years after the Vegemite brand’s initial launch, a dramatic change is given to the appearance of the jar. Multi-purpose jars are developed that can be converted into an egg cup, salt and pepper shaker or mustard pots (complete with a spoon) once the Vegemite spread has been consumed.
Sizes of Vegemite spread jars change to meet the demand in popularity – Vegemite spread became available in 2, 4, 6 and 8 ounce jars and 1 and 6 pound tins.


In 1925, Walker had established the Kraft Walker Cheese Co. as a joint venture company with J.L. Kraft & Bros to market processed cheese and, following the failure of Parwill, in 1935 he used the success of Kraft Walker Cheese to promote Vegemite. In a two-year campaign to promote sales, Vegemite was given away free with Kraft Walker cheese products via coupon redemption and this was followed by poetry competitions with imported American Pontiac cars being offered as prizes. Sales responded and in 1939 Vegemite was officially endorsed by the British Medical Association as a rich source of B vitamins. Rationed in Australia during World War II, Vegemite was included in Australian Army rations and by the late 1940s was used in nine out of ten Australian homes.

In the photo below showing 4 jars the top left is 1922 Vegemite spread debuts in an amber glass jar.
The top right is 1926 Vegemite spread, it was available in a limited edition porcelain jar
The bottom left was a 1933 Showbag Sample. And the bottom right is a porcelain jar
And probably similar as the broken jar I found at Adelaide River




Fred Walker died of heart disease in 1935. Fred Walker & Co was eventually purchased by Kraft Foods following Walker's death.

In April 1984, a 115g jar of vegemite became the first product in Australia to be electronically scanned at a checkout



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