Business News
Inventor of Freddo Frog chocolate bar to be honoured at burial
By DPA
Jan 28, 2007, 9:40 GMT

Sydney - The Australian who 76 years ago dreamed up the nation's favourite chocolate bar will be buried with a Freddo Frog flag draped over his coffin, the family of Harry Melbourne said Sunday.

Melbourne, who as an 18-year-old factory hand had the temerity to tell his employer that a chocolate mouse was unappealing, died in Melbourne on Wednesday aged 94.

'I told Macpherson Robertson that women and children were afraid of mice and it wouldn't sell,' Melbourne said in an interview six years ago. 'I was never backward in coming forward and I just piped up.'

Despite suggesting and then coming up with a prototype Freddo Frog, Melbourne never benefited from his creativity.

'Even with a cent a frog I would have been a multi-millionaire, but that's not the point - Freddo was created out of love for the firm.'

Freddo Frogs, now a Cadbury brand, come in strawberry and peppermint as well as the original milk chocolate. They sell close to 100 million a year in Australia alone.