Sweet return of Gold Rush-era lolly Castlemaine Rock – 140 kilometres from Castlemaine

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Its demise seven years ago was met with shock and disbelief, but in good news for those with a sweet tooth – and perhaps dentists – the beloved lolly Castlemaine Rock is back.

Confectioner Steve Scott said that for years he had been asked almost daily whether he was making the crunchy, peppermint-flavoured boiled lolly, first sold to gold diggers in the 1850s.

Confectioner Steve Scott in his Kyabram factory with a fresh batch of Castlemaine Rock lollies.

And now, at last, he can say he does.

Scott says that in the two months since his Melbourne Rock Candy Company rebooted production of the brand, sales have gone “gangbusters”, reaching 5000 jars.

One of the company’s recent online videos, demonstrating the old-fashioned methods of making Castlemaine Rock, garnered more than 49 million views on social media platform TikTok.

It’s a long way from 1853, when British immigrant baker Thomas Shinkfield Barnes first made and sold the sweet as a treat for residents of the town that would become Castlemaine.

The product was made by his descendants in Castlemaine until 2018, when Thomas’ great-great-grandson Peter Barnes made the difficult decision to close the business.

Peter told The Age at the time that a drop in sales and the rising cost of lolly tins imported from China, along with a falling Australian dollar, spelt the end after 165 years.

He sold the rights to the brand to a Melbourne company.

But two years ago, Scott, who had made an unsuccessful bid for the rights, noticed the trademark had lapsed and so registered it for himself. Scott has been in the confectionery business since he was 12.

Peter Barnes made the difficult decision to shut Castlemaine Rock in 2018.

Scott’s Melbourne Rock Candy Company now makes Castlemaine Rock in Kyabram, a small town in northern Victoria 140 kilometres north-east of Castlemaine.

Scott says his factory, which employs seven people and makes 40 other lolly lines, can make Castlemaine Rock on a larger scale and in a more mechanised, but still partly handmade, way.

Sugar, glucose and water are boiled in cauldrons and the sticky liquid is poured onto cool slabs, where flavours and colours are added and the liquid hardens into a soft toffee.

The toffee is stretched on a machine and cut into slabs of different colours that are stuck together into a large blob resembling a sausage roll.

The roll, in turn, is funnelled into a contraption that stretches it into a rope.

Another machine cuts the rope into bite-sized lollies, which are cooled by a shaking machine.

The “new” Castlemaine Rock is sold in plastic jars, not tins, and no longer features the Barnes family name. The lolly is still hand-packed.

Steve Scott cuts and sticks together solidified portions of lolly solution to make a big mass.

Scott said more than 100 stores, including a chain of Sweet As confectionery shops with a branch in Chadstone Shopping Centre, stock the reborn sweet. Online orders have come from as far as Queensland.

In Castlemaine, jars are selling for $5.50 each at the Maxi IGA. Scott sold nearly 400 jars at the Melbourne Royal Show last month.

It’s early days for the new-old Castlemaine Rock, but Scott, a confectioner for 48 years, says the feedback has been good.

Apart from its taste, it has strong nostalgic appeal, he said: “People remember it, it’s a stroll down memory lane. They say they used to have it when they were kids.

“Even when I had a stall at the Brisbane show Ekka, people would ask about it.”

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