Life on the West Island - A family story

One of the products always on our West Island laundry shelf is Bosisto’s Sensitive Laundry Powder. The label proclaims that it contains Eucalyptus Oil from Inglewood, Victoria and that it is made by a West Island family company.

It turns out that the company is 172 years old, dating back to 1852. But the West Island story of eucalyptus oil goes back much earlier than that. For centuries, the oil from gum trees was used as a cure for wounds, rashes and colds by the First Nations peoples of our country. Even the first European settlers soon became aware of its properties. In 1788, Surgeon General John White of the First Fleet, noted in his diary that the native eucalypts contained “olfactory oil.”

A quart of oil distilled from the so-called “Sydney Peppermint”, eucalyptus piperita, was sent back to England for testing. It was reported to be much more efficacious in removing all colicky complaints than the English Peppermint; less pungent and more aromatic. But it seems that the colonists made little use of the oil for the next five decades.

However, in 1848 a Yorkshire pharmacist named Joseph Bosisto arrived in Adelaide aged 21. He moved to Victoria in search of gold but instead opened a pharmacy in Richmond, where he built a laboratory specifically to investigate the medical and pharmaceutical properties of Australian plants. Bosisto struck up a friendship with Government Botanist Baron Ferdiand von Meuller, a founder of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Victoria, who was an avid fan of the eucalypt and encouraged Joseph to investigate its medicinal properties.

In 1852, Bosisto opened a commercial eucalyptus distillery at Dandenong Creek, and within a few years had three more distilleries operating in the Melbourne hinterland. The oil became a popular medicinal product, credited with easing the symptoms of rheumatism, coughs and colds, not to mention as a tincture on sprains and sores.

Bosisto’s expanded further in 1865, when businessmen Alfred Felton and Frederick Grimwade became the distributors of Bosisto’s “Oil of Eucalyptus”. They formed a new firm, the Eucalyptus Mallee Company and purchased Antwerp Station near Dimboola, Victoria, full of low-growing Mallee eucalypts perfect for cropping. By June 1882, 40 pounds of oil had been produced for sale to England and Germany, becoming the first home-grown primary product to be exported. Three years later, Bosisto’s merged with the Antwerp operation, forming a company under the name of J. Bosisto and Company.

The benefits of eucalyptus oil gained international recognition, with the company winning many international awards. An elaborate new label was produced as well as a thousand circulars attesting to the powerful properties of oil of eucalyptus for arts, manfactures, medicine and sanitary purposes.

According to reports from the 1890s, Bosisto’s even diversified into products including asthma cigarettes (with or without tobacco) and Syrup of Red Gum for bowel complaints.

The company’s exports flourished for the next 30 years, when it cornered the world market for eucalyptus oil, sending its products to many countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. But after the end of World War II, production and shipping costs made competition difficult against growers in Europe, and sales declined.

In 1974, the Abbott family bought the original Bosisto’s company and embarked on an ambitious programme of eucalyptus plantings and development of a range of new eucalyptus oil products. The original eucalyptus plantings at Inglewood were steadily increased to a total of 10,000 hectares, with tens of thousands of productive trees.

The range of eucalyptus products has steadily expanded. In 1987, Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Spray was introduced - pure essential oil in a spray can. The company says it revolutionises eucalyptus oil use in Aussie homes, making it easier and more convenient for cleaning, laundry and freshening. This was followed by tea tree and lavender essential oils, Bosisto’s Laundry Powder (including its famous antibacterial Eucalyptus Oil), then expansion into the cleaning market with ready-to-use Multi-Purpose, Bathroom & Floor Cleaners: all with the natural cleaning power of Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Oil. Most recently, Bosisto’s has moved into aromatherapy, including the Australian Native Botanicals range of oils, mists and roll-ons.

For more than 20 years, Bosisto’s has been collaborating with the Melbourne University School of Botany on a unique eucalypt breeding program (the ‘Super Trees’ project), with the aim of radically increasing eucalyptus oil production in Australia.

Bosisto’s website says that originally, Eucalyptus Oil became a global phenomenon. Today, it’s still a staple in family homes and one thing hasn’t changed in all those years: we’re still a champion for eucalypts. Eucalyptus runs in the blood of our company’s owners, the Abbott family, brand custodians for the past 45 years.

Bosisto's farm is home to its vast Eucalypt plantations and distillery - which builds on its research and development into optimising the yield from Blue Mallees, native to the local area. Bosisto's continues to invest in the future of local oil production in Australia. There is also now a distillery museum, which has become a popular tourist attraction.

This Little Aussie Battler of a company, in the hands of two families for over 170 years, is a West Island success story. Not only can Bosisto’s fix your health ailments, but it makes your washing smell sweeter!