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MacRobertson Confectionery Factory building

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The White City

The MacRobertson business quickly outgrew the humble bathroom beginnings depicted in ‘The Young Man and the Nail Can’ and the family home was quickly swallowed up by the rapidly expanding premises.

By 1896 the factory already covered three acres of land in Fitzroy and employed 260 workers. Each building was painted a fresh white to contrast with the grimy industrial streets of Fitzroy.

Negative - Glass, female workers at factory, c. 1925, Royal Historical Society of Victoria

RHSV MacRobertson Collection

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RHSV MacRobertson Collection

MacRobertson was supportive of women in the workforce and the majority of his factory workers were female.

To perpetuate the image of cleanliness and wholesomeness, all factory staff wore white uniforms and MacRobertson himself became an iconic figure in a white suit and hat. Mac often adopted a white suit as his own clothing both at work and in public, conscientiously aligning himself with his brand.

In 1928 Mac was described in an article for The Brisbane Courier (16th January) 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.” This portrait is supported by his behaviour towards his staff. As thanks for the loyalty shown to him by a family who had worked for the factory for three generations, MacRobertson rewarded them with the gift of a house. He established an ‘Employees’ Sick and Accident Fund’ and supported the union movement and the eight hour day. However not all staff were content with the MacRobertson employee regulations. A letter to the local newspaper from an employee with the pseudonym ‘Disinterested’ complained about the strict standards of uniform. At the factory an inspector measured the width of hair ribbons and forbade the girls for wearing jewellery during working hours.

Photograph - MacRobertson Confectionery Factory building, c. 1930, Royal Historical Society of Victoria

RHSV MacRobertson Collection

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RHSV MacRobertson Collection

Most of the MacRobertson factory buildings still stand today, although many have been converted into residential apartments.

The factory clock is still set into the front of the original office and some white walls remain, while others have been sandblasted back to their original red brick. The distinctive maroon MacRobertson signature is still visible on many of these buildings and a lane way has been named after the founder.

Film - Walking the White City, 2015, History Teachers' Association of Victoria

Original footage courtesy of David Robertson (private collection)

Film - Walking the White City, 2015, History Teachers' Association of Victoria

My name is Doug Loveless, I was employed here at the MacRobertson’s factory in Fitzroy in 1965, as the employment and safety officer.

The site is five city blocks. It employed about twelve hundred people and it manufactured chocolate and sugar confectionary such as Old Gold, Cherry Ripe, Freddo Frog.

MacRobertson was a very benevolent employer and he was a great supporter of the eight-hour-day. There was no retirement age they worked here while they were physically capable to work.

He died in 1945. His two sons, Norman and Eric whose offices were behind me here, took over the running of the business. This was the entrance to the main office, which, behind me, was a wonderful reception area, beautifully decked out in antique furniture.

On my first day of work I turned up in this street, Argyle Street where my office was, at seven o’clock, only to find there was approximately a hundred women in the street waiting to be interviewed and employed, because Christmas time was coming up and they had to pack all the Old Gold chocolates for Christmas. I well remember the first morning and the smell of cocoa and chocolate permeating right through the streets.

This was my office in Argyle Street, this was where I hired all the employees.

[Looking at album] This is a view of Argyle Street and that is my office door on the left-hand side there.

The majority of the employees here were women, mainly because of the packing jobs. They all were dressed in white uniforms and white scarves. They weren’t allowed to wear any rings or jewellery. The whole place was called the White City because all the buildings were white-washed.

In Argyle Street here we had the sugar factory where all the toffees and boiled lollies were made. Over the road here was where we stored the cocoa beans, which came in mainly from West Africa. Around the corner here was the warehouse where every morning about twenty-five trucks would pull up. On the back of the orange delivery trucks was painted a big Freddo Frog and when you opened the door it looked like Freddo Frog was waving to you!

The building at 369 Gore Street was the garage. MacRobertson was renowned for the love of his cars, and when I arrived here in ’65, Norman and Eric between them had about nine cars over there including a couple of Rolls Royces and a beautiful big Bentley.

The building behind me on my right housed a company called Colourprint, which was a printing works owned by MacRobertson’s. MacRobertson wanted to ensure that he had his own designers, artists and printers to print all his labels and packaging for his confectionary. Amazing to see today that it’s still a printing press.

We talked about the number one factory, which made all the sugar and boiled lollies. Behind me here is what we called the number two factory in Kerr Street. The bottom floor at Kerr Street was where the chocolate was made and distributed throughout the factory. The floor above it was the Old Gold packing room where girls would sit at assembly lines placing pieces of chocolate into chocolate boxes.

For me coming back here after 50 years has been somewhat nostalgic because I really enjoyed the couple of years that I had here, mainly because I could talk to all the old employees who told me of the early days of MacRobertson’s and there were some great stories of what went on in the factories.