Union St, Brunswick.

I’m not sure what this building was originally, but it’s very grandiose for just a milk bar … Might have to look into this one at some stage.

Being that this signage is on Union St, I thought it’d be a good place to wax lyrical on a little Tarax history.

It turns out that their brewing plant was at 190 Union St, Brunswick West, the current location of Union Square shopping centre. They left a section of the old building intact (albiet with a shitty, detail-less, cream paintjob,) but demolished the rest.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Welcome to Brunswick’s Shittiest Make-Overs! Thanks Coles!

I remember Tarax most clearly for the super classy Black Label Lemonade, and this wonderfully camp commercial. (Which, by the way, doesn’t hold a candle to the original 1970’s campaign featuring Abigail, which I was too young to have seen first time round.)

Tarax has been around since the late 1800’s as a soft drink company and they sounded like real innovators for their time. They sponsored some of the first TV shows in Melbourne, even had their own show, and supposedly brought into common use the steel can as packaging (as seen in this post.) They were bought out by Cadbury/Schwepps sometime in the late 70’s and that was the end of some of the best drink and confectionery names around … Anyone for a Glug? Or how about a:

Tab Cola
Tarino (Sunkist)
Leed (Sprite)
Mellow Yellow (Lift)
Sunny Boys
Snips
Razz
Glug
Hi C orange juice
Mr Whippy
Slades

Man, my grandparents had crates of Slades when I was a kid.