Lollies and Ekka go together

Let’s be honest, when it comes to Brisbane's Ekka what do we remember? Lollies and sample bags!

So says Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, a University of Queensland academic and the president of PopCAANZ, the Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Johnson-Woods said PopCAANZ had appointed as Food Area chair, confectionery historian and UQ PhD student Toni Risson.

"For the past few years Toni has been working on Australia’s unique confectionery heritage, in particular, 20th Century children’s consumption of lollies," she said.

"Fantales, Red Frogs, Choo Choo Bars, Bobbies, and Minties are the invention of Australian firms like Allen’s, Hoadley, Sweetacres, Mastercraft, and MacRobertson's.

"They provide new information about children’s sophistication as consumers, while some — like the Jaffa — define an era.

"Although the stories surrounding children’s consumption reveal important differences between the children of the Great Depression and war years, the Baby-Boomers, and the children of generations X and Y, one thing is constant: lollies have contributed to the magic of Australian childhood.

The eldest of four children, Toni Risson graduated from the Queensland College of Art and then Kelvin Grove Teachers College, spending the next 10 years teaching Art and English to Queensland secondary school students.

As a foundation year student in a degree in Contemporary Studies at the Ipswich campus of The University of Queensland, Toni became interested in writing fiction.

Her books include Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill: Greek Cafes in Twentieth-Century Australia (2007) and two books for children, Licking Lizards (2005) and Batty Business (2008).

She was featured on ABC television in a recent 7.30 program http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3261916.htm

Food is one of the fastest growing areas of research interest, and Risson expects the number of food papers to double at the next PopCAANZ conference, which will be held in Melbourne in 2012.

Media: To contact Toni Risson for an interview email t.risson@uq.edu.au or phone 0439 664 291