Expanding Horizons: Food

In the 1970s, most meals were prepared and eaten in the home, with dining out and take away meals being a treat rather than a regular occurrence. A typical evening meal might be meat and three vegetables, curried sausages, apricot chicken or shepherds pie. The main meal could be followed by a dessert such as ice cream or jelly.

A typical breakfast would be cereal or toast and jam. Under the Federal Government School Milk scheme, crates of milk were delivered to schools, and kids were given free milk in small glass bottles which had been left outside before drinking. It was often warm, so if you were lucky, you took Nestles Quik to add to the bottle. The school tuckshop sold sandwiches and bread rolls; lamingtons and cakes; pies, sausage rolls and chips; and sunny boys.

Children raised in the 1970s would recall Chinese take away from the Go Sing Cafe and the experience of taking your saucepan to the Chinese Restaurant to be filled, and then taking it home to be warmed on the stove. The first Pizza Hut in Australia opened in 1970 at Belfield in Sydney, five years later a Pizza Hut opened at Booval. Once franchises opened throughout the country, many a family outing or a gathering with friends occurred at the iconic chain of restaurants, which was a novelty and a true dining out experience.

Party foods could include avocado or french onion dip, prawn cocktails, cheese or chocolate fondues, cheese balls or logs, stuffed celery, deviled eggs, cob loaf dips and toothpick appetizers with cheese, olives and salami. For something sweet the party table might have included a trifle and sponge cakes. Lollies were a treat to the children of the 1970s. Saving up your pocket money to go to the corner shop with twenty cents meant that you could buy a paper bag full of lollies including the popular:

• Caramels
• Choo-Choo bars
• Cobbers
• Fags (now Fads)
• Fantales
• Lolly bracelets
• Milkos
• Musk sticks
• Redskins (now Red Rippers)
• Sherbies
• Teeth
• Toffees
• White knights
• Wizz fizz

People who grew up in this time period would also remember lolly gobble bliss bombs and space food sticks. Some of these foods are still available in the modern menu or shop in the 2020s.