Carlton Ale [picture]. (1890), H38797.

If you had an ancestor who worked at the Carlton and United Breweries or if you are simply interested in the history of the Australian brewing industry,  the CUB staff magazine What’s Brewing is a recommended read.

What’s Brewing ran between March 1950 and  June 1967 and was developed to be the voice of  Carlton and United Breweries. By the 1950’s CUB operated four breweries in Melbourne – Victoria, Yorkshire, Carlton and Abbotsford and employed well over 2000 staff. In the first issue of What’s Brewing, the General Manager Reginald Fogarty wrote that the aim of the magazine was to bring these staff together by keeping everyone informed of what went on in each section; by highlighting activities within the plant and by covering industry news. It was also a place to showcase sporting activities, social activities and personal events.

The magazine contains some terrific photographs of staff employed in particular sections. `Ladies of the Staff’ features the telephonists and typists of the Head office, the `Pay staff’ showed men filling pay envelopes with money and the `Manufacturing Area’ shows staff printing and assembling beer cartons. Each section of the brewery was also responsible for reporting staff news from their section – recent engagements and marriages, sporting triumphs, obituaries, births, retirements etc.

The social pages are one of the highlights of the magazine and feature hundreds of photographs capturing dinner dances, balls, club socials, country and seaside picnics – the annual Mornington picnic often attracted over 1000 staff and their families.  There were also`smoke socials’ – male-only formal dinners, with guest speakers and plenty of cigarettes and cigars! Sport was always a big part of life at CUB and the magazine gave detailed coverage to the activities of the various football, cricket, bowling and tug of war teams including club statistics, championship dinners and presentations.

The magazine features regular articles on the history of brewing and brewing techniques, written by Dr. Carl Resch, head brewer and production manager from 1945-1972. A section called `Our Hotels’ presents photographs of the CUB owned hotels and bars in Victoria. There are also many fascinating articles on the history of individual hotels and on the history of innkeeping throughout the world written by Robert K Cole, a Carlton brewer and historian. R. K. Cole will be known to many for his Index of Victorian hotels 1841-1949.

“Moorabbin Hotel, 973 Nepean Highway, Moorabbin. 1964
Duke of Wellington Hotel, 142-148 Flinders Street, Melbourne.1964.
The Graham Hotel, 67-73 Swanston Street, Melbourne. 1964.

 

For some other great photographs of the CUB breweries and a time line covering the history of the company from 1850 onwards, please go to the Carlton and United Breweries official history website.

If you want to discover more about the occupations of your ancestors check the library catalogue to see if we have staff journals or employee newspapers for the company or field that they worked in. Some examples of staff publications are:

See also our Researching your ancestors’ occupations research guide, provides detailed information on researching many different occupations, including publicans and brewers.

This article has 18 comments

  1. Hi,
    I am trying to find out the history of Victoria Bitter beer,do you know who I could contact to obtain the different beer can variations since 1958 and how to date the release of the different cans..
    I know Victoria Bitter was the first Australian beer to be put into cans in 1958,but what day & month,another words what is the birthday of the vb cans.
    Cheers,Pat.

    • Hi Pat
      Thanks for your comment on our post. I’ll gather some information for you and email you directly.
      Regards
      Ann Copeland

  2. Hi,
    Trying to find info of a fella called John Noonan, he was on the CUB tug of war team

    • Hi Dan, Thanks for your query. Unfortunately What’s Brewing was only produced between the years of 1950 to 1967 and what i can see John Noonan was active around the 1890s. There are many articles on John Noonan and the Tug-of-war team in the Trove Digitised Newspaper database. Try searching the keywords John Noonan tug war. Here’s one article from The Argus newspaper that’s particularly good. You could also search for tug war noonan and refine your results to the 1890s. Also, try searching our catalogue using the keywords tug of war. You will find many images of the Australian Tug of war team. Our Family History research guide called Researching your Victorian ancestors, may also help you with your research. Regards Ann Copeland

  3. Hi, I would like to know if CUB had a boat built named Windarra. I currently own the vessel and the story is CUB had it built in 1974

    • Hi Tim, Thanks for your query. Unfortunately What’s Brewing was only produced between the years of 1950 to 1967, so it will not contain any information on the history of your boat. You might like to consult the Australian general shipping register, maintained by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The register provides details on the history of ownership of registered vessels. Regards Ann Copeland

  4. My great grandfather John Noonan was on the brewery tug of war team back in 1950s Do you have any information on him Thanks

    • Hi Sharon, Thanks for your inquiry.
      We actually had a query about John Noonan posted to this blog earlier this year. I’ve transcribed my reply for you –
      Unfortunately What’s Brewing was only produced between the years of 1950 to 1967 and from what i can see John Noonan was active around the 1890s. There are many articles on John Noonan and the Tug-of-war team in the Trove Digitised Newspaper database. Try searching the keywords John Noonan tug war. Here’s one article from The Argus newspaper that’s particularly good. You could also search for tug war noonan and refine your results to the 1890s. Also, try searching our catalogue using the keywords tug of war. You will find many images of the Australian Tug of war team.
      Our Family History research guide called Researching your Victorian ancestors, may also help you with your research.
      Regards Ann Copeland

      • Hi Anne
        My father leslie reberger worked at cub in abbotsford not sure of exact years but would be around 1958 to 1964. We lived in the same street as cub. Just wondering if you would know if he was mentioned in the magazine they used to have.
        Regards Kay

        • Hi Kay, Unfortunately there isn’t an index to the What’s Brewing magazine, so the only way to see if your father was mentioned in it would be to browse through all the issues. Copies of What’s Brewing (available from 1950-1967) are held in our Offsite Store and can be ordered for viewing in the library. Simply call the library on 03 8664 7002 to request the title and arrange a time for viewing. Regards Ann

  5. Hi Ann , My father in-law Stan Erickson worked for CUB and was a collector of every thing CUB , we have a near full set of what’s brewing, missing the first 2, would you know what the value of these would be.My wife’s uncle and grandfather also worked for the brewery, they had a combined total of over 100 years service.

    • Hi Mal, What’s brewing is such a great resource, you’re so lucky to have an almost complete set. I’m afraid I don’t know what the value would be, but you could contact some antiquarian booksellers for advice. I will email you the names of some booksellers today. Best wishes Ann

  6. Earle McIntosh

    Any stories on Reg Fogarty CEO of Carlton United for years.

    • Hi Earle. Thank you for your query regarding the What’s Brewing? magazine. Unfortunately the magazine doesn’t have an index, so the only way to find articles on Reg Fogarty, would be to request copies of What’s Brewing http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1028466 from storage and browse through the issues. I also recommend that you search the Trove website (which lists material held in Australian libraries and archives, including books, magazines, images etc). Search for the phrase “Reginald Fogarty” (by putting quotation marks around the keywords it will search them as a phrase), or search for Fogarty CUB or Fogarty “Carlton and United Breweries”. You should also have a look at the Trove Digitised Newspaper. This resource provides online access to over 1000 Australian newspapers, from the early 1800s to 1954. By using the keywords and phrases I listed above, you should be able to find many articles on Sir Reginald Fogarty. Regards Ann

  7. Mrs Wendy Franceschini

    Hi, I was 16 years old when I joined the typist pool at Carlton and United Breweries in Bouverie street, Carlton in the 1950’s, I then became Mr Bowyer’s secretary when I was 17. He was a wonderful boss, he used to play for Collingwood football team, i barracked for Collingwood, it was the days of Lou Richards coming by to see Percy Bowyer that I loved. I found all the bosses great, it was a happy place to work in. I used to get them 2 glasses and a bottle of beer on a tray and take it into Mr Bowyers office, I used to say “want me to pour” Lou would say thanks love, lovely times, my name then was Wendy Cross, I was in a copy of “What’s brewing”

  8. Mrs Wendy Franceschini

    Could I buy copies of “What’s brewing” I’ve got a couple, Wendy

    • Hi Wendy, we don’t sell our collections, but you can view the item in Library if it is requested ahead of time (it is kept in our offsite storage area and requires 2 business days to retrieve).
      You may have luck checking second hand book stores in Melbourne as many of them collect historical journals and magazines.

      Kind regards,
      Carmen

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*