1960s

Supermarket Shopping
In the 1960s milk was still sold in a bottle with a foil lid and, in some areas, still delivered to the home. Other foods that had been delivered to the home were now available in supermarkets, which were springing up in most towns. Products were displayed on shelves in aisles. Customers (usually women) could wander down the aisles with their trolley. The spread of supermarkets brought with it a huge increase in the demand for pre-weighed and packaged foods (in glass, aluminium and plastic). Packaging and labels became an important part of marketing a product.

Frozen Foods
By 1960 nine out of ten Australian homes had a fridge, which they had to defrost once a week. Fridges, with a small freezer box, were essential for the establishment of frozen foods such as fish fingers and quick-frozen vegetables. Frozen peas were particularly popular as Australians were big pea eaters.

Convenience
Pre-weighed, pre-packaged foods and frozen foods were part of a trend towards convenience and "saving the housewife time". TV dinners were first served in 1959, the start of changes to family meal times. Plastic containers and Gladwrap appeared on the market, making it easier to store foods. In the 1960s fresh coffee and instant coffee were starting to challenge the position of tea as Australia's national drink. Many Australians who arrived from Europe after the war did not like instant coffee and the caf? culture was a natural development from the mid-1960s.

Mass Production
This is the era of mass production. The electrical engineering industry in particular experienced a boom between 1950 and 1970. In the 1960s the manufacture of electric ovens outstripped gas and fuel stoves for the first time and the trend towards convenience saw the establishment in the home of many labour-saving electrical appliances like electric frying pans, electric cake beaters and blenders.

Chicken
Chicken had always been part of the Australian diet but until the early 1960s it was usually served on special occasions. The early 1960s saw the development of large battery chicken production, and chicken appeared on the dinner plate more frequently than before World War II. Rabbit was much less popular than it had been at the start of the century.

In 1960 COLES SUPERMARKETS and WOOLWORTHS entered the supermarket business in North Balwyn Victoria.
In 1968 KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN opened its first outlet in Australia.
Margarine starts to challenge the position of butter in the 1960s.
The macadamia nut industry was established in the 1960s.
The Esky appears in 1961.

Kraft News

A Busy Decade
1960 - Canned Ravioli, Romano Wheel and Camembert were launched.
1961 - Grated Parmesan was launched.
1964 - Kraft Peanut Butter (Smooth and Crunchy). were launched with a new formula.
1965 - Cheesticks and Thousand Island Dressing. and butter portions were launched.
1968 - Mil-Lel Cheese was launched.

Also introduced but no longer on the supermarkets shelves or part of Kraft:

1960 - Slice n' bake cookies (discontinued in 1970).
1961 - Greenseas tuna and salmon (sold in 1974).
1962 - Conserves and jellies.
1962 - Dewcrisp frozen vegetables (sold in 1974).
1962 - Instant potatoes and other dried vegetables like suede, parsnip and parsley.
1963 - Refrigerated dough products.
1966 - Canned fruit/juices.
1968 - Pizza dinner packs.
1969 - Bakeo pastry mix (sold in 1972).

How well do you know your Australian history? Population 10.4 million by 1960
1960	Australian Prof. Sir Macfarlane Burnet wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on immunology. Sir John Eccles wins the Prize in 1963 for his neurological work.
1962	Australia joins the Vietnam War. By 1968, 8,000 Australian soldiers are in Vietnam.
1965	Roma Mitchell becomes the first woman to be appointed as a Supreme Court judge.
1966	Prime Minister Robert Menzies (knighted in 1963) retires and is replaced by Harold Holt, who disappears while swimming at Portsea, Victoria in 1967.
1966	Australia and New Zealand negotiate a free trade agreement
1966	Australia goes decimal and dollars and cents replace pounds, shillings and pence.
1966	The Federal Government states that migrants who are not from Europe can migrate to Australia if they have useful qualifications.
1967	Ronald Ryan is the last man to be hanged in Australia.
1967	A referendum is held asking white Australians if they think Aboriginal peoples should have the same citizenship rights, such as the right to vote. The result is "yes".
Around the world in the 1960s
1960	The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is formed.
1961	The East German Government erects a wall dividing Berlin to stop people fleeing to the West in search of a better life.
1961	Russian air force pilot Alexeyevitch Gagarin becomes the first person in space.
1962	USSR installs atomic missiles on Cuba. The fear of nuclear war looms large. USSR removes the missiles. USA ends its blockade of Cuba and promises not to invade.
1963	John F Kennedy is assassinated.
1965-1975	South Vietnamese troops were losing their fight against the Communist North and US ground troops are sent to Vietnam. In 1975 US troops pull out of Saigon and Communists finally took over South Vietnam.
1966	China reverts to basic communism, which badly damages the country's economy. The Cultural Revolution ends in 1969.
1966	Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister when India gained its independence in 1947, becomes prime minister (with a short break) until her assassination in 1988.
1968	Black American civil rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated.
1968	Soviet forces invade Czechoslovakia after the threat of democracy ("Prague Spring").
1969	American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to set foot on the moon.