Amscol and Adelaide

Amscol gets lots of mentions on our Facebook page and it seems there are many people who remember it as an important part of their growing up in Adelaide. AMSCOL stands for Adelaide Milk Supply Co-Operative Limited and the factory was situated in Carrington Street. There are lots of memories shared about the products including Eskimo Pies, Berry Bars and the original 'brick' of ice cream in waxed cardboard. Amscol opened in 1922 and were eventually taken over by Streets in the mid to late 80's. There was also Alaska Ice Cream and Golden North which mainly supplied country SA. Our photo of the Amscol factory in Carrington Street in Adelaide (above) is from the 50's and is from the State Library of SA collection.

Recently there was some debate about whether it was Amscol or Peters who produced 'dandies'. We found a sign from Loxton Historical Village that clearly shows Amscol as the original maker of 'dandies' The sign also advertised 'bricks', dairy chocs, hi tops and twin chocs and carried the famous Amscol slogan "It's a Food, Not a Fad" I'm not sure of the date of the old advertising sign but I thought Amscol bricks were first sold when fridges were introduced, maybe mid 50's? Up until then we had an ice chest, but when the first fridges were released, they had a small rectangular freezer inside the body of the fridge and the Amscol brick fitted neatly inside.

When regular poster Andrew Heslop posted a photo of Amscol Berry Bars many of our regular readers recalled just how really delicious Amscol ice cream was. Alaska, the other big brand of Adelaide ice cream, had their factory in Thebarton and were most remembered for their ice cream delight 'Eskimo Pies' which we would have when we went to the pictures on a Saturday afternoon.