Freesia icecream from Murray Bridge, South Australia, in 20th Century revived in 2023 by Peter Cox of Gelista
Peter Cox (top left), who founded Gelista Premium Gelati in 2009 in Adelaide, revived the Freesia ice cream brand in 2023 after its disappeared in the 1980s. He took the new product for a taste test.by Dennis Hicks (top centre), a Jervois dairy farmer, whose family owned Freesia until it was sold in the 1980s, and Peter Smyth (top right), grandson of the original founder in Murray Bridge. Bottom left: The former Freesia ice cream factory in Seventh Street, Murray Bridge.
Images (including top by Michael X. Savvas), courtesy Murray Pioneer newspaper, Murray Bridge
Freesia icecream, becoming a traditional South Australian brand born in Murray Bridge in the 20th Century, made a comeback in 2023.
The icecream was originally developed by P. (Peter) Smyth & Sons in a former ice factory at 19 Seventh Street, Murray Bridge, in 1923. The brand didn’t emerge until the mid 1940s, suggested by founder Peter Smyth’s florist shop owner friend who happened to be working on a freesia.
Peter Smyth’s sons Laurie, Eric and Ken had joined the business during the 1930s and started expanding it. After the original building burnt down in 1949, the Smyth brothers rebuilt it and installed diesel generators and the latest American ice cream manufacturing machine. After the fire, looking for an icecream formula, the brothers adopted a recipe from an American book called Ice Cream Manufacturing.
With later ownership changes, Freesia moved its factory from Murray Bridge to Adelaide in 1982 and the brand faded away in that decade.
The Freesia revival came through Peter Cox, who said bringing Freesia back was about reigniting a traditional brandmuch like Robern Menz had done with the Polly Waffle chocolate bar. Cox, from four generations of dairy farmers in Tasmania, worked as an accountant before starting Gelista Premium Gelati in 2009. Adelaide-base family company Gelista was the first company in Australia to put ice cream or gelati into a jar in the freezer, It introduced gourmet flavours like ricotta fig and honey and was the only nationally distributed commercial producers of sherbet such as the Gelista blood orange and dark chocolate. Freesia Ice Cream was being ranged in a select independent supermarkets and specialty grocers.
Cox drove to Murray Bridge to give a taste test of the new range to two of Freesia’s former directors: Peter Smyth, grandson of the founder, and Dennis Hicks, a Jervois dairy farmer, whose family owned Freesia until it was sold in the 1980s.