At your General Meeting on 1/2/ 2025, John Barnao gave a fascinating and personal account of the history of greengrocers:
The arrival of the big, air-conditioned shopping centres in the 1970s resulted in a decline in many traditional, neighbourhood businesses.
This trend towards ‘shopping under one roof’ began a movement which today continues to impact local butchers and milk bars, as well as other ‘older-style’ retail traders.
John took a historically-based, nostalgic look at the lay-out and culture of the small, family-run, mainly-Italian fruit shops that were once commonly found in most shopping strips.
There was particular emphasis on the expansion of these businesses during the Banana Boom of the 1920s which arose from a newly-discovered process that controlled ripening using ethaline gas.
Characteristic of this era of fruit shops was their simplicity and the colourful ‘pyramid stacking’, used to display the produce.
The presentation included slides of suburban, country-Victoria and NSW shops, highlighting the use of decimal vs imperial price tags, weighing equipment, period-signage, leather aprons, cash registers and the now-redundant, solid wooden boxes.
Source: Notes from John Barnao Presentation recorded in 2025-03 DTHS Newsletter
Greengrocers in Melbourne
Member John Barnao spoke at the March General Meeting about the growth of Box Hill’s retail fruit shops from the 1920’s.
He also discussed how Box Hill served as a manufacturing hub, producing the tools and equipment required by the developing orchard industry in the neighbouring Doncaster area.
The opening of a steam-driven rail service to Box Hill in 1882 was the catalyst leading to a residential land boom and rapid population growth along the Maroondah Corridor.
By contrast, the well-drained hills, situated within close reach of the City, saw the Manningham district stamp its mark as Melbourne’s main supplier of fruit and agricultural produce.
To service the need of the district’s orchardists, specially- designed equipment was made by Box Hill factories, such as tractor implements and the Petty Plough from Daniel Harvey’s.
Works, and fruit washers and the ‘Bave U’ Sprayer, built by Jack Russell & Co. By taking advantage of the railway, these and other local innovations were also exported to international markets.
At the end of World War 1, Box Hill’s fruit shops offered a limited range of produce and sales were constrained by the close proximity of nearby orchards.
Most businesses were forced to supplement their income by acting as general stores or selling confectionery and aerated water (soft drinks).
Technological breakthroughs occurred in the mid- 1920’s, which finally allowed bananas to be transported from Queensland while still at their best. Advanced techniques in ripening chambers and ethylene gas, as well as fast, priority shipping through ‘Banana Alley’ (Queen Street Wharf area), led to a once casual visit to the fruit shop becoming ‘a weekly must’.
Along with steady population growth, another factor leading to the rapid increase in fruit shop turnover, was the introduction of new lines, mainly Italian staples previously unknown to many consumers, e.g. broccoli, eggplants, zucchini, garlic, fennel, new lettuce varieties etc, including a broader acceptance of tomatoes. An interesting aspect of the Age of Italian Fruiterers (mid-1920’s to early-1980’s), was that over 80% of all VIC & NSW shopkeepers originated from a single location – the volcanically active, Aeolian Islands (Isole Eolie).
Nearly all Box Hill Fruiterers can be traced back to this small Italian archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily, such as the Cincotta, Vozzo, Defina, Ferlazzo, Barnao, Russo and Alaimo families. By the mid-1980’s, their businesses had ceased – powered out by the emerging Supermarket chains and shopping centre Marts that were starting to take over the industry.
Source: Notes from a talk by John Barnao reported in 2017-06 DTHS Newsletter
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