MACPHERSON ROBERTSON CONTINUED
our players Mr W Windsor Richards wrote a diary of the trip which makes good reading in the early 1928 Gazettes. Here is one short excerpt (Image right). So who was Macpherson Robertson?
His business was a great success taking business from the traditional British importers. MacRobertson's invented and produced famous chocolate products such as the Cherry Ripe (1924), Crunchie (1929) and Freddo Frog (1930). He expanded into related businesses such as glucose production, manufacturing of plant and machinery, timber casks, printing and production of condensed and powdered milk. He was the majority owner and driving force behind Maize Products Pty Ltd, which pioneered glucose production in Australia. He was interested in aviation and set up a joint venture company in that industry. He was reputed to be the largest taxpayer in Australia. His factories in Fitzroy Melbourne were all painted white and the area was known as White City. According to a biographer John Lack ‘he lived unpretentiously and his tastes were simple: croquet, films and boxing at the Melbourne Stadium were abiding interests. He rarely holidayed, but was an ardent motorist from 1902 and owned a fleet of Packard cars’. He was keen to keep fit and took regular morning exercise with a punching ball. He was an impressive looking man known as Mac or Mr Mac and very often seen in a white suit. I could find no photographs of him playing croquet but he does have a Crowther Smith caricature. He was also a great philanthropist and supporter of workers’ rights. In 1928
he supported a Round Australia Expedition to show the potential for motor travel in the outback. An Oldsmobile and two Karrier trucks made the 5-month journey circumnavigating Australia. The trucks contained cinematic equipment to provide entertainment in remote areas and also a supply of MacRobertsons' products! He contributed to the British, NZ and Australian Antarctic expedition of 1929/1930. Part of Antarctica is named after him - MacRobertson Land. He donated the prize money and trophy for the London to Melbourne Air Race 1934. The MacRobertson Trophy Air Race was won in 71 hours but this MacRobertson Trophy did not survive as it was presented in 1941 to the Red Cross to be melted down to help the war effort. For the Centenary of Victoria in 1934 he supported a number of projects in Melbourne. This included the building of a school the Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School (now promoted as the Mac.Rob or sometimes the mac.rob), a new bridge, the MacRobertson Bridge, over the river Yarra from Burnley to Tooruk and the development of the Botanic Gardens. He always combined his philanthropy with promotion of his businesses. He was described in The Brisbane Courier (January 1928) as “an athletic young man of 68 – white of hair, erect, kindly and brimful of energy. He is a democrat to the finger tips and takes a personal interest in his staff that is good to see.”
The man who presented this wonderful trophy. He was an
Australian entrepreneur who built up one of the most successful companies in Australia. He was born in Victoria Australia in 1859 to parents of Scottish descent. He lived in Scotland for four years from age 9 while his father worked in Fiji. He was from a humble background and his schooling was interrupted by the need to support the family. His mother returned to Australia when he was 14. He was apprenticed in the confectionery industry and in 1880 he started his own business. He went on to build a very large chocolate and sweet company, MacRobertson’s; a name he promoted with exceptional passion. He spent time in the USA in 1893 investigating the newest trends in confectionery and learning new production and marketing ideas there. He was regarded as particularly good at marketing and promoting his products. Notice that the rather ornately written MacRobertson is the same as on the Shield. It’s the way he wrote his signature and promoted his company.
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