Kiwi shoe polish and chunder

By the nineteenth century, leather shoes and boots became more affordable to the masses. To ensure the leather looked its best shoe polish became an essential accessory. The world’s best known shoe polish (Kiwi) was first made in Melbourne Australia in 1906. The polish was developed by William Ramsay (Scotsman) who named it Kiwi after the flightless bird endemic to New Zealand, the home country of his wife, Annie Elizabeth Meek Ramsay. Initially it was sold to local farmers but eventually caught on in the towns and cities. Shoe polish gave both a shoe shine as well as preserving shoe leather. Later in 1908 the product incorporated agents that added suppleness and water resistance to the leather. The market was fiercely competitive with many rival brands most used fictional figures or historical characters to advertise their products. Cobra Boot Polish was made in Sydney and advertised in The Sydney Bulletin (1909 -1920). The cartoon character used was "Chunder Loo of Akim Foo." (Chunder Loo was rhyming slang for and spew or sick). Drawn by Norman Lindsay (later by hs brother Lionel Lindsay) the adverts usually had a short poem which dealt with topical issues. As a result the adverts were very popular ensuring the Australianism, “chunder” became common use. Much later the term became forever associated with Barry Humphries’ Australian abroad, character, Barry McKenzie.

At the outbreak of World War I (1914) a gigantic demand for army boots followed and these needed to be polished easily, quickly, and efficiently. Sales in boot polish rocketed and very quickly Kiwi shoe polish became the Commonwealth troops’ favorite. A second sales peak arose with the Second World War and it was even noted by a US war correspondent at the siege of Tobruk (1941), trenches in were filled with old tins of Kiwi polish and empty bottles of Chianti. Even after hostilities the benefits of well polished boots swung advantage in the minds of Japanese women who during the Allied occupation of the country preferred boys with a shine on their boots. Despite their designer uniforms US rank and file were not dab hands with the shoe brush but once they realized there was a superior Australian boot polish, the commodity became a prize black market item. US soldiers returning from the war continued to use the product, leading to a further surge in its popularity. Kiwi shoe polish stayed Australian based for nearly 70 years.