The Brisbane Courier-Mail Wednesday 5^th November 1947

One Pint was Left

When this milk truck dashed 15ft over an embankment at Highgate Hill yesterday, one bottle of milk remained unbroken out of the dozens being carried. The truck standing at the corner of Gertrude and Gladstone Streets, Highgate Hill, at 1 p.m. suddenly bolted, broke through a guard rail, fell 15ft. on to the lower half of the street, and ended upside down on the fence of a house. The truck was extensively damaged. Maxwell Colin Dawson, driver of the truck was delivering milk when the crash occurred. Mrs. Ruth A. Bartlett, whose fence the truck fell on, said that she did not even hear the crash.

Milk was long delivered daily to homes in Brisbane in bulk as can be seen in the photo below from 1914. This caused many health problems, especially with children. See my post, Doctor A. Jefferis Turner – “Gentle Annie” , for more detail.

It’s not clear when bottled milk was introduced. However in the 1930s, milk was delivered across Brisbane in half pint, pint and quart bottles (approximately 280, 570 and 1100 mls respectively).

Milkman Highgate Hill 1914 (State Library of Queensland)

Those readers who attended Queensland schools in the 1950s and 1960s will remember the one third of a pint milk bottles delivered daily to schools across the State. The free milk scheme was introduced into Queensland schools in 1953. On hotter days, the milk acquired a particular taste by the time it was drunk at ‘little lunch’, having sat out in the heat for some hours. This was certainly the case at my primary school in Townsville!

Milk time at Newmarket State School, 1958. Queensland State Archivex