Mildura Lager ‘Make yours the Fresh One’ poster

The Heley family were soft-drink manufacturers in the small township of Ouyen, and as a result of a fire in the town the family decided to relocate to the larger northern Victorian town of Mildura on the Murray River. By 1922 the Heley family was back in business producing soft drinks and cordials for the Sunraysia and Riverina districts.

In 1965 the Northern Brewing Co. Pty Ltd was formed, and the following year Frank Heley, son of the founder, Walter Heley, began brewing low-alcohol beer. An early order from Sydney was for 320 dozen large bottles of a non-excisable low-alcohol beer called 2 ON Lager. The company began brewing standard-strength beers in 1970, marketed under such labels as Mildura Lager, Mildura Draught and Mildura Bitter. By 1980 yearly output had reached 80,000 dozen bottles of the various beers. New owners took over in 1985, and they introduced Premium Lager. Other products followed, including Koala Bear Lager and Kangaroo Beer, both attractively packaged for the US market. 

Another export product was Down Under Lager Beer, put out by Mildura Brewery Ltd (as the company was then called), but by the end of 1989 beer production had ceased.