Long live the humble corner shop!

Once the hallmark of suburban life, where you could grab milk, bread, the paper or a bag of lollies after school, the corner shop – colloquially known as a milk bar from the 1950s – has been re-imagined in the ABC’s third Back in Time series.

Led by long-time political commentator and host Annabel Crabb, who ropes back in the Ferrone family (who re-enacted cooking trends back in time in previous series), Back in Time for the Corner Shop traces the history of this once ubiquitous cultural landmark.

“This one is different, this one is the journey of our corner store,” says Carol Ferrone, who co-stars with husband Peter and their three children, Julian, Sienna and Olivia.

“It’s the journey of a business. Not only the business side of it but the nostalgia attached to the humble Aussie corner store.”

Yes, it’s been a part of the national psyche since the 1850s. We all remember our corner shop, but do they still exist?

You’ll still see them in small corners of regional Australia and some older suburbs, but the evolution of 24/7 petrol stations, supermarkets, self-serve outlets and home delivery meant the corner store didn’t stand a chance.

It was once the cool place for a chat with the owners, inside and out of the heat – a place where fresh butter, eggs, flour and biscuits in tins on wooden shelves came wrapped in thick brown paper and home deliveries were done by horse and cart.

A valued suburban sanctuary

A place to safely send kids on bikes, share with the locals the family tragedies, war stories, successes and failures.

Ms Ferrone says she has lived and breathed every era (1850-1999) as a woman running a small corner store, a person who empathised with the hardships but also relished the community spirit the shop brought to her family.

Set in the southern Sydney bayside area of Botany, they ran the corner store for a week in each episode, with the first episode covering 70 years from 1850 to 1920.

“While it is a TV set, we became attached to the locals and they to us … we genuinely became a part of the Botany community,” she says.

“The era we made the most money was the 1950s and 60s when supermarkets weren’t common … the turnaround was when women could drive,” she laughs.

“It was the advent of women not having to walk to the local shop for groceries. They could drive to the supermarket.

“Deep freezers became a thing, so they could stock up, and suddenly we had this big shift. It was more processed food and buying in bulk.

“Suddenly our corner store was competing with the supermarkets.”

The Ferrones’ shop as it would once have been. Photo: Supplied

Authentic right down to corsets

Ms Ferrone, who was born in 1972, says her favourite store for the week was the 1950s-60s corner shop.

The corsets of the 1850s – and seven layers of clothing for the women – were hard.

“Me and the girls were shoved out the back, doing all the hard work, and not being out with the customers and socialising. We had to make products by hand [including churning butter and slicing bread].

“The 1800s were hard for us,” says Ms Ferrone, adding that not being able to socialise out the front and have equal rights hit her daughters the hardest, as did the inescapable destiny of being a housewife

“It was foreign to them.”

A typical corner shop as recorded in the the Library of NSW’s photo archives.

Dead or alive?

As the new series of Back in Time re-awakens our desire to walk up the road to buy milk, we can also thank Geelong photographer Eamonn Donnelly who immortalised the TV shop in a glossy coffee-table book and consulted on the show.

He travelled the country in 2019 wanting to discover whether they still existed.

And they do.

Mr Donnelly points out there are a few corner shops still operating, and tells TND he’s seen a resurgence of the corner shop in local cafes as more people seek out that bit of nostalgia.

Jerry’s Milk Bar in Elwood in Melbourne, completely refurbished after two lengthy COVID lockdowns, is among the oldest surviving stores [it opened in the mid 1950s] in Australia.

And let’s not forget the 1890s Bell’s Milk Bar in Broken Hill and the 1902 Niagara in Gundagai, NSW.

The corner shop in 1934 on the corner of Riley and FItzroy streets in Surry Hills, Sydney. Photo: State Library of NSW

Back In Time For The Corner Shop (the third series in the franchise) premieres on the ABC and iview on March 7 at 8pm