Vegemite arrived in Australian shops in 1923 in a jar shaped like a lighthouse. It was made mainly of yeast left over in the process of brewing beer. When the yeast was concentrated, processed and refined it became a very rich source of Vitamin B. The public was not very interested when Carlton and United Breweries had previously tried to sell this waste yeast as a paste called ‘Cubex’. In 1922 food entrepreneur Fred Walker asked chemist Cyril P. Callister to make the yeast product more acceptable so it could compete against the British version Marmite. Although he had only a small amount of equipment in his tiny laboratory, it took Dr Callister only a few months to develop the paste that has become an Australian addiction. Initially, however, vegemite was not very popular, so in 1928 it was released with a new name: Pawill. This was a play on words with the competition: ‘If Marmite … then Pawill’. It was still not widely accepted until the name was changed back, it was included in soldiers’ rations during World War Two and there was a big marketing campaign. The main change to the recipe in more recent years has been to reduce the salt content from 10% to 8%.