THE iconic Australian product, MILO turns 80 this year, and it is marking its birthday with a special display at the Sydney Easter Show.
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MILO was unveiled to the world at the Easter Show in 1934 and has become a popular drink and dessert in countries all around the world.
This year's show features a recreation of a “MILO bar”, complete with workers in period costume and decorated to look like it stepped straight out of the 1930s.
MILO was invented by Nestle industrial chemist Thomas Mayne out of concern that children were not getting the nourishment they needed as Australia slowly recovered from the great economic depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
It was named after sixth century Greek wrestler Milo of Crotona who was famed for his great strength.
Mr Mayne's daughter, Margaret Butterworth, was not born when her father first invented the drink but it nonetheless played a big part in her family’s life.
“The world remembers dad as the man who invented MILO but I remember him as a doting parent and grandfather,” Mrs Butterworth said.
“He was always tinkering with or building something, whether it was a billycart for his grandkids or whatever.
“It took him about four years, from 1930 until 1934, before he was happy with the recipe for MILO and it was ready to go into production.”
Mrs Butterworth said that the family came to live in Kempsey for a time in 1939 while her father oversaw production of MILO in the Nestle factory in Smithtown.
“I was only a little girl at the time but I remember how excited I was that we had to catch a boat across the river from where we were staying to go to the factory in Smithtown,” Mrs Butterworth said.