Icecream (& other) vendor vans

This heartwarming piece appeared in Sat.8.12.12 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' and is too good to have vanish into recycling bins.

What is the chassis?

Even I didn't photograph the vans serving us at Sandown, but I should have done so. Somewhere I have a piece on the 1940s forward-control bus, selling American donuts at South Melbourne Market. Googling brings up lots on current types: far more than just icecream.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

The man in this icecream truck from the 1960s is Reuben Schlipalius, known along the Mornington Peninsula as Mr Slip. He sold a wide range of flavours from his cart and from a shop in Sorrento. Before the motorised cart came along, his brother, Alby, sold ice cream in Frankston from a horsedrawn cart in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Reuben's grandson, Neil, says that while Reuben was the man most remembered, it was the matriarch, Joy Schlipalius, who kept the business running. "My grandparents made 42 flavours of icecream out the back of their shop in Sorrento. They used a hand chum and they'd go to the markets to buy their ingredients. "They hand-packed their quarter-pint and one-pint cartons with wooden spoons, and plum pudding was probably their signature flavour." The business was sold in 1974 when it became too expensive to make icecream. The store is now a Trigger Brothers surf shop. When Joy died, in her 90s, the bell from the icecream truck was rung at her funeral, and in honour of the family there's a Blairgowrie park called Slip's Reserve.

g'day Rodders .. there is a 1937 REO van selling doughnuts at the Victoria Market every weekend.... it appears it has never been unregistered as it still has its period plates and rego, and a mid sixties Commer van selling ice creams at Brimbank Park (Vic) also every weekend....cheers

Great reading about australian history .

That was a useful response after the kick start: it will be ages before I can grab photos of these others, but hopefully other forum members will seize the opportunity.
I have added to a fire-appliance set, and have started hearse and ambulance sets. I was about to start another set, but the Sorrento item got me into this one before I was ready. The only other item which I can find fast is this one. The date in the file name refers to a day when Melbourne was 45 degrees: common in Ouyen & Mildura and other parts of Australia, but very rare in Melbourne.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

...Mercedes Benz' original Sth Melbourne service van (loosely based on a 327/337 style front) was sitting in a residential driveway back of Broadmeadows (Vic) a few years ago....still in the service van livery....low roof and long and a real cool looking rocket

That brings back memories.

How about this one for Victorians - note Doughnut NOT Donut.

I tried to find a photo of those old silver busses that sold genuine doughnuts (the ones that had the hot jam in the middle that burned your mouth). Can someone source a photo?

Visions of a six year old mouth watering at the Show or on a Saturday morning at Victoria Markets in 1953.

Lang

SMore

This image comes from the Rousel Studios Archive Collection. Rousel Studios was a Sydney based signwriting and graphic design business. This ice cream van was photographed back around the 1930[ch8242]s and features the Waratah Ice Cream company title. The full name of the company

Post edit: After those stunning responses: the one from 'Swishy' arrived while I was typing. The fourth response gave a broken link red cross. I had hoped that 'Swishy' could identify my starting chassis, but he hasn't yet.

After that stunning response, I haven't the heart to wait to tomorrow.

Googling on 'American Doughnut Kitchen Melbourne' leads to
www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1544757/restaura...ut-Kitchen-Melbourne
www.urbanspoon.com
with links to seven photos

Those are the doughnuts of my South Melbourne childhood, and not just there: any event at Exhibition Building (now Royal Melbourne Exhibition Building) had them too. The jam held the heat: eating had to be with great care.

The vehicle in the photos, GEM761, isn't the one of my youth, even though that is a c1954 registration. It is an anonymous front: what is the chassis?
We shifted out in 1958, but the vehicle which I remember is a much older and larger silver bus.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

...that's the jigger Lang .. i couldn't help but notice the spoke wheels at the time so i checked the rego sticker......almost fell over.....

...and Rodders ....my memory of the rego numbers could be a bit dodgy.....but they were ancient numbers all the same .....cheers

I know it is not self-propelled but this is certainly the most famous "mobile" food vendor in Australia.

Still going but not making a pretence at mobility any more.

What a gourmet treat - a choice between Pie and Peas and the Pie Floater!