Milk bar memories. Broken Hill NSW.

Remember those delicious icy-cold milkshakes of your youth?

You know the ones... the froth and bubbles spilled over the top of the metal milk­shake tumbler and you took care not to drink too fast or you’d get brain freeze!

Apart from enjoying your favourite flavoured milk no low-fat in those days — the milk bar was THE place to meet up with all your friends after school and at weekends.

Well, nostalgia is alive and well in Broken Hill, where Bells Milk Bar has opened its own museum.

Starting with the Museums and Galleries NSW exhibition — Milkshakes, Sundaes, Cafe Culture — the museum is set to become a permanent attraction in the outback town.

http://www.mgnsw.org.au

Once through the doors - visitors are immersed in the 1950s and ‘60s Australian milk bar culture.

With its roots in 1890s con­fectionery and cordial mak­ing, the Bells shop reflects the 1956 renovation and is one of the few remaining tra­ditional milk bars in Australia.

Stepping through the door you’ll experience a time warp so real you’ll think you’ve landed in the 1950s.

The malted milkshakes and soda spiders served at Bells are made using Les Bell’s secret recipe syrups and cordials made by hand in small batches using the antique scales.
Visitors can learn about Australia’s unique milk bar heritage while drinking a Cherry Ripe Malted Milk or sipping a Bodgie’s Blood Soda spider — out of a real metal tumbler or soda glass.

And, of course, there’s 1950s-60s music playing on the juice box and one or two 1956 magazines to peruse while you sip.

The travelling exhibition, Milkshakes, Sundaes, Cafe Culture brings together sto­ries and images from several cafes in country towns.

Broken Hill’s own milk bar history, including memo­rabilia and oral history from
local residents, is a vital part of the exhibition.

“Old style cafes and milk bars are a unique part of Australian social history and each time one closes down, we lose another part of our unique heritage,” Museums and Galleries NSW’s Maisy Stapleton said.

“From the first milk bar to open in Australia to cafes that have been run by the same family for over 90 years, these stories are remarkable and tell a great deal about our migrant history, our eating culture and our heritage.”

Bells Milk Bar is in Patton Street, Broken Hill.

Phone (08) 8087-5380 with your milk bar stories or to donate memorabilia.