Tommy Carter OAM & Dawn Rae

Tommy Carter and Dawn Rae began working together at the Royal Melbourne Show in the 1960s. Tommy was approached by Hoadley’s Chocolates, makers of the Violet Crumble and Polly Waffle, to take over management of their stalls at the annual royal shows. Tommy immediately knew they needed to develop their showbags. Hoadley’s happily gave him free rein. Tommy employed Dawn, who played cricket for the Australian women’s team and Dawn put together a team of honest and reliable staff – many of her cricketing team mates.

Then Tommy began working his marketing magic. As Dawn remembers:

Tom was the master of marketing. We've done some crazy things over the years. We've dressed people up in costume to sell a bag, we've had a wizard on a throne on the counter, anything to try and just get that little advantage over everybody else.

One of Tommy’s most successful ideas was the creation of Bertie Beetle, which came about in 1963 to compete with Cadbury’s Freddo Frog. Honeycomb was included as a way of using fragments leftover in the production of Violet Crumble. The Bertie Beetle showbag remains one of the most popular showbags at the Royal Melbourne Show today.

Tommy also did a lot of promotional work for the Royal Melbourne Show on his radio show on 97.7 FM.

I was on radio at the time and I got permission to do interviews with people all around the showgrounds … I'd talk to the people at the Show. The day before I'd record with the tape, run around and get interviews, and I'd have to invent noises because I'd say, ‘I'm just walking past the woodchop, why don't you come out and have a look at it, my father was in the woodchop in 1920.’ 

For his services to the Show, Tommy was awarded the Presidents’ Medal in 1996. Tommy and Dawn look back on their time at the Show together fondly. ‘It was a great life’, said Tommy, ‘with the Show Society and with the staff that we had they were happy days. We'd come out here and we'd enjoy it.’ ‘We did’, agreed Dawn, ‘it was fun’.