The milk ladle belonged to the family of Harold ‘Pop’ and Valda Marks who worked a milk run through Dairy Farmers at Cargill’s dairy, near present day Fyshwick. The collection of objects and ephemera from the family includes a duchess set which was hand embroidered in the late 1940s by the donor, Alison Ryan (née Marks) for her glory box, a sugar bag apron and business documents. The material tells many stories of how it was to run a small business in semi-rural Canberra over fifty years ago.

The dairy industry was established to service the needs of the Canberra community, and in some ways its establishment and development encapsulates the manner in which the landscape of the Canberra region was cultivated and changed in the twentieth century. The Marks’s milk run is an excellent example of the rapid urban growth of Canberra in the 1950s and the ensuing commercial opportunities beyond the public service.