Freddos are just bonzer!

QUESTION Are Freddo chocolate bars imported from Australia?

They are, and there’s a good reason why — they were invented in Australia and have been made there since 1930.

The name’s the giveaway. If it had been invented in Britain, it would be Freddy the Frog — try saying ‘Freddo’ in an Aussie accent.

Freddo was introduced to Australia by MacRobertson’s Confectionery Company of Victoria back in 1930. MacRobertson’s was sold to Cadbury in 1967, which incorporated the froggy icon into its range.

MacRobertson’s was founded by a Victoria legend, Macpherson Robertson (1859-1945). The son of Scottish immigrants, he was born into poverty.

Starting out using a ‘nail-can’ to make boiled sweets, he went on to establish MacRobertson’s Steam Confectionery Works in the 1880s, which became Australia’s biggest confectioners.

Renamed MacRobertson’s at the turn of the century, the business became a self-contained chocolate empire, located in a 35-acre cluster of buildings in Fitzroy, Melbourne. By 1920, MacRobertson’s employed 2,500 people and its owner was the highest taxpayer in Australia.

MacRobertson’s became known for its exquisite packaging and for products such as Cherry Ripe, Mac Mints, Target Toffee, Columbite Caramels and Clinkers.

In 1930, Robertson wanted to introduce a new range to celebrate the company’s 50 years in the business. One of these was a one-penny sweet aimed at children. he’d been considering a chocolate mouse, until an 18-year-old employee called harry Melbourne claimed it wouldn’t sell ‘because women and children are afraid of mice’. he suggested a frog instead and that it be named Freddo ‘after my best mate’. he presented a sample three days later and Freddo was born.

They were an instant success. The original looked more frog-like than it does today, was unwrapped and had the MacRobertson’s signature on the back.

In 1962, Freddo became Australia’s first animated cartoon TV character when the Freddo the Frog series, sponsored by MacRobertson’s, appeared on Channel Nine. he was joined by his pals Drongo, Flash Jack, Kanga and Wocka.

Robertson died in 1945. he had always resisted a takeover from Cadbury, who’d long coveted the Aussie giant, but his family relented in 1967. Thus, Freddo entered the British market until it was withdrawn in 1979, then relaunched in 1994. Cadbury was taken over by Kraft in 2010 (now Mondelez International).

Tom Davies, Gerringong, NSW.

QUESTION What is the stone in the middle of Chester racecourse?

CHESTER racecourse is one of the best settings for horse racing anywhere in Britain, situated in a perfect natural amphitheatre between Chester Roman Walls and the River Dee.

It was created as the river silted up over time and an island formed, known by the local people as the ‘Roodee’, a name that derives from ‘Roodeye’ or ‘Island of the Cross’, since a plain stone cross was sited on the bank or island of land left exposed when the river flooded with the tides.

Legend has it that the stone we see today is the remains of the cross that marked where a statue of the Virgin Mary was buried after falling on and killing Lady Trawst, the wife of Sytsylht, the Governor of hawarden, a village in Wales, in the 9th century. A jury found the holy Rood guilty of wilful murder and at first proposed the statue be hanged, before settling on burying it instead.

Whether this tale is true is very much open to question; others believe it to be a relic from a nearby Benedictine nunnery. One thing for certain is that it is the remains of a stone cross or ‘rood’ dating from medieval times.

Chester in the Roman period was known as Deva, after the River Dee. Its modern name is derived from the Latin ‘castra’, meaning a camp.

David Urquhart, Burntisland, Fife.

QUESTION Did Ronald Reagan sack striking air traffic controllers and replace them all?

ON AUGUST 3, 1981, nearly 13,000 of 17,000 members of the u.S. air traffic controllers’ union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organisation (Patco), walked out after contract negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) collapsed.

The recently inaugurated President Reagan ordered them to return to work, they mostly refused and, after 48 hours, he fired 11,359 air traffic controllers.

Patco had been established in 1968 and, during the 1970s, it was successful in using a series of strikes to gain retirement and retraining benefits for its members.

Patco began contract negotiations with the FAA in February 1981. Its main goals were a 32-hour working week, a $10,000 raise for all its members and a better retirement package. When they could not agree, a nationwide strike was called and some 7,000 flights were cancelled.

A furious Ronald Reagan called the strike illegal and threatened to fire any controller who had not returned to work within 48 hours. Robert Poli, the president of Patco, was found in contempt by a federal judge and ordered to pay $1,000 a day in fines.

While the strike slowed air transportation around the country, it was not as disruptive as Patco had hoped, as about 80 per cent of flights remained unaffected. Patco lost the public relations battle, too, as it was estimated that the public backed Reagan over the union by nearly a two-to-one margin.

Reagan carried out his threat and the federal government fired the 11,359 air traffic controllers. In addition, he declared a lifetime ban on the rehiring of the strikers by the FAA.

Reagan then began replacing them with a combination of about 3,000 supervisors, 2,000 non-striking air traffic controllers and 900 military controllers.

On August 17, the FAA began accepting applications for the new air traffic controllers. On October 22, the Federal Labor Relations Authority de-certified Patco.

Frances Holland, Milton Keynes, Bucks.