19/04/2026
DO YOU KNOW WHO INVENTED MILO? š¦šŗš
MILOĀ®, Australia's iconic crunchy milk drink, was first introduced in 1934āa time of great economic depressionāby chemical engineer, Thomas Mayne from Smithtown, NSW.
NestlƩ wanted to develop a tonic drink that tasted good enough that children would eat it, whilst giving them the vitamins and minerals they needed, without costing families too much. The drink also had to be made from local ingredients such as malted barley, dried milk and cocoa.
The task fell to young trainee chemical engineer, Thomas Mayne who spent four years developing what we now know as MILOĀ®. He wanted to create a mix with vitamins and minerals that would dissolve when stirred, not just fall to the bottom of the glass. He couldnāt quite get there.
One day, Mayne walked into his kitchen to discover his daughter, Margaret and her brother scooping the crunchy bits of MILOĀ® powder off the top of their drinks. It was then he realised that the crunch was not a problem, but a feature! And so MILOĀ® as we know it today was bornānamed after MILOĀ® of Croton, a Greek wrestler who lived in the 6th Century BC and possessed legendary strength.
MILOĀ® Tonic Food was introduced to the public at the 1934 Sydney Royal Easter Show.
When Mayneās MILOĀ® was ready to sell, it needed to be easily distributed to families all over Australia, which saw the introduction of the iconic MILOĀ® tin. This has lived onālike MILOĀ®āto this day.
I live on the Central Coast
