J. B. Hooper Aerated Waters

John Baker Hooper commenced manufacturing aerated waters and cordials on the corner of  West & Darling Streets in the early 1870s. Prior to this in the previous decade, he had been a bootmaker in Brisbane Street opposite St Paul's,  and a publican at the Clarendon Hotel in East Street. The Hoopers lived close to the cordial factory, in Martin Street.

Almost from the beginning J. B. Hooper's aerated waters and cordials won prizes at exhibitions and agricultural shows. In 1877 the  firm was producing seltzer water, Potass water, aerated ginger beer, lemonade, sarsparilla, tonic water, and vinegar. That year J. B. Hooper had obtained the rights to produce British beverages not previously made in the young colony. During this period, as well as working their cordial factory, the Hoopers leased and ran the refreshment rooms on the original railway station in Ellenborough Street.

J. B. Hooper's son John Henry  worked in his father's business before establishing his own cordial and soft drink factory in East Street, Ipswich in early 1883.  At this same time his mother Jane Elizabeth Hooper carried on the original family aerated water manufactory in West Street, following John Baker Hooper's death in 1878. The two businesses were not connected, although the principals were related.