The Beaufort Museum Celebrating the Inventor of Vegemite
A servo-turned-museum in country Victoria proves there’s always more behind a jar of Vegemite than the label lets on.
I’ve eaten Vegemite my whole life and never once wondered who invented it. It was just there, the way Tuesdays are there. It wasn’t until I tried to pass the habit on to my own kids — and watched them screw up their noses at the first bite, then the second, then the third — that I started asking bigger questions about this jar.
Why do we love it so blindly? Why does it feel like a rite of passage rather than a taste? As it turns out, there’s a real person behind Vegemite, a Victorian chemist most of us have never heard of, and a museum in a country town built to make sure his story doesn’t disappear the way most of our first tastes already have.
The sign that started it all
The Cyril Callister Vegemite Museum exists because of a road sign and a question nobody in Liza Robinson’s car could answer.
“I moved to the Pyrenees Shire 11 years ago as a tree changer,” she told me.
“One day, while driving around near my new hobby farm, I spotted a sign saying that the inventor of Vegemite had been born there. I remember thinking, What? Vegemite had an inventor? Like most Australians, I had been eating Vegemite since I was a small child, but I had never stopped to think about the person behind the jar.”
That was it. No slow build, no years of planning. “I thought, I’m going to create a Vegemite Museum and café in Beaufort.“
Liza also had half an eye on the town’s future. Beaufort sits on the Western Highway, and she knew a bypass was likely eventually. A museum, she reasoned, could give people a reason to turn off the highway rather than drive straight past.
The idea nearly stalled before it started. Liza first approached Mondelez, the company that owned the Vegemite brand at the time, and pitched the concept. They liked it — except for the name. A Vegemite Museum, specifically, was off the table.
So she went looking for Jamie Callister, Cyril’s grandson and author of The Man Who Invented Vegemite.
“I told him my slightly crazy idea, and thankfully he didn’t run for the hills. That conversation changed everything.”
What it feels like to walk in
Ask Liza what people notice first when they step through the door of servo@23, the former 1950s petrol station that now houses the museum, and she doesn’t talk about facts or dates.
“Colour. Fun. Nostalgia. And Vegemite everywhere,” she said.
“Visitors often walk through the door smiling before we’ve even said hello. There’s something wonderfully familiar about seeing the colours, old advertising, packaging, memorabilia and objects that have been sitting quietly in Australian cupboards, kitchens and memories for generations.”
It’s what happens next that turns a novelty stop into something more.
“People start discovering that there’s a much bigger story behind that famous yellow and red jar. This isn’t simply a museum about Vegemite. It’s about Cyril Callister, Australian ingenuity, food science, family, regional Victoria and the way food connects us across generations.”
Diane’s review
Very interesting. Whether you love Vegemite like me or not, like Rob, it’s well worth a stop at the museum if you’re travelling through beautiful Beaufort.
We wouldn’t have known it was there at all if Amy hadn’t mentioned it when we said we’d be heading that way — it’s a bit off the beaten track, tucked into an old petrol station. We had a couple of days planned in the campervan around Maryborough and Newstead before heading on to Castlemaine, and the museum turned out to be a lovely detour along the way.
One quirky highlight was a dress covered head to toe in Vegemite labels, apparently once worn by a former Miss Australia — not something you expect to find in a museum about a spread!
Strangers, swapping stories
If there’s a single idea holding this museum together, it’s this: a jar of yeast extract turns out to be an unusually effective way of getting people talking.
“People walk in and suddenly the memories start tumbling out,” Liza said.
“They tell us about Vegemite sandwiches packed for school, grandparents making toast, family kitchens, childhood advertising jingles and the foods they grew up with. Sometimes the memories aren’t even about Vegemite — we hear wonderful stories about Kraft block cheese and other Australian foods that were simply part of everyday family life.”
That’s the moment, she said, when the museum stops being a collection of objects and becomes something else entirely.
“It’s a place where people reconnect with their own Australian story. Quite often one visitor’s memory sparks another, and suddenly complete strangers are standing together swapping stories and laughing. You can’t manufacture that. It just happens.”
The next Cyril Callister
Jamie Callister’s involvement came with one condition, and it’s shaped the museum ever since.
Liza found him through an unlikely chain of connections — her partner’s doctor in Box Hill, Dr Ian Beasley, turned out to be Jamie’s cousin. Jamie liked the idea, but was clear about what he wanted from it.
“He wanted it to be community driven, and he wanted Cyril’s legacy to give something back,” Liza said.
“That philosophy became an important part of everything we created.”
That’s how the Cyril Callister Scholarship came about, run through Federation University in Ballarat, where Cyril himself studied, supporting regional young people studying science. In three and a half years of regular operation, the museum has funded three scholarships.
“For me, that’s one of the most meaningful parts of the whole project,” Liza said.
“We’re not simply looking backwards and celebrating what Cyril achieved. We’re helping encourage the next generation of scientists, thinkers and innovators. Who knows? The next Cyril Callister could be growing up somewhere in regional Victoria right now.”
Seniors Festival 2026: History Trivia Tour
Every year, for Victoria’s Seniors Festival, Liza runs a special guided History Trivia Tour through the museum.
“A little history, a little storytelling, a little tasting and quite a lot of fun,” she said.
“Visitors hear how this unlikely little museum came to exist, discover Cyril Callister’s remarkable story and enjoy a wonderful video presentation by Jamie Callister about his grandfather and the Australian history surrounding Vegemite.”
Nothing about it is meant to feel solemn. “We don’t believe museums should be too serious. People share their own stories, we taste some delicious Vegemite-inspired sweet treats, and occasionally everyone ends up singing the famous jingle.”
Trivia questions round things out, “usually creating plenty of laughter and a bit of friendly competition.”
Dates: Wednesday 7 October and Wednesday 21 October 2026, 11am
Duration: Approximately 1.5 hours, including a cuppa, a Vegemite-inspired treat and a 20-minute video narrated by Jamie Callister
Cost: $15 for Seniors Festival (normally $22)
Bookings: Essential — no walk-ins, and numbers are limited
Accessibility: Suitable for walkers, wheelie walkers and wheelchairs
Bookings/enquiries: book tickets online here, or phone 0414 082 754 or email cyrilcallisterfoundation@gmail.com
Making a day of it
Liza’s advice is to treat the museum as a starting point, not the whole visit. Beaufort itself is worth the extra hour or two.
“We have two terrific op shops, a lovely craft shop, a Christmas gallery and a local providore filled with crafts and regional produce,” she said.
“There’s also a delightful little art gallery on the railway station platform, which is a gem in itself.”
For food, she points visitors next door to the Flywheel Bar & Café, or Magnolia’s Restaurant on Sundays — “genuinely Melbourne quality without the Melbourne prices, although it’s small, so booking ahead is essential.”
Two traditional country pubs sit within walking distance as well.
“My advice is simple: don’t just race through Beaufort. Turn off the highway, slow down and give yourself a few hours. Come and discover the man behind one of Australia’s most famous foods, have a laugh, taste something unexpected, explore our little country town and leave with a story to tell.”
As Liza put it: “You may arrive thinking you already know Vegemite. I promise you, there’s a lot more inside the jar.”
Getting there
By car: Beaufort is roughly a two-to-two-and-a-half-hour drive northwest of Melbourne via Ballarat, on the edge of the Pyrenees Shire.
By train: Beaufort has its own V/Line station on the Ararat line, running from Southern Cross Station.
Cyril Callister Museum
23 Neill St, Beaufort VIC 3350
Open Thursday to Sunday 11am to 2pm.
Entry fee $5. Children enter free.
For enquiries and guided tour bookings, contact the Cyril Callister Foundation on 0414 082 754 or cyrilcallisterfoundation@gmail.com
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