(See our expanded entry on our sister site denihistory.com as it has more details)

November 8 2017, updated on August 17 2022

Just over two weeks ago (October 2017) we wrote about how bottles from Deniliquin’s Cordial and Beer past were on eBay.

We can now show you two of the examples we wrote about, the first one is a bottle from Collins & Son and the second is from Tru-Frute.

The Collins & Son bottle was the second example we’ve spotted on eBay in the last year and this particular bottle is a marble one complete with a stopper inside which is unusual as a Riverine Brewery Co. bottle of the same kind only has the marble, the marble is for the prevention of spilling during carbonation.

Only bits and pieces have been found about Collins & Son through available online newspaper archives.

A clue to the location of the business is a mention in 1905 of ‘the water table in Davidson Street from Mr T Collins cordial factory past Mr McGown’s shop to the creek‘

Thomas Collins died in 1928 and there was a theft in cordial preparation material in 1932 when the business was Collins Bros.

Collins & Son bottles do pop up on other auction sites and can fetch around $25 to amounts over $50 apiece depending on size and quality as they made bottles of different sizes and kinds.

The Tru-Frute bottle was the second Tru-Frute bottle on eBay at the same time but the two had different designs, this bottle has Tru on one side of the logo (four point star) and Frute on the other side and inside the logo reads Cordials Maher’s Deniliquin.

Below that reads ‘This bottle remains the property of V.P & F.T Maher Deniliquin’, has number 97 on the bottom with F1984 and a manufacturing stamp.

The Tru-Frute bottle is small slightly smaller than the Riverine Brewery Co. bottle we shown earlier.

Tru-Frute bottles can also fetch around $40 but the earlier the bottle the better as it is said that bottles from times close to the present are still in plentiful supply.

There may be a way around paying high prices on eBay and that is by going through places like ABCR Auctions and they may get you a bottle at a much lower price if nobody bids for them.

If you’ve developed a taste in collecting local bottles, search for the following nine companies.

Elliots Brewery
Riverine Brewery Co
E Ernstsen Brewery
Tru-Frute
Collins & Son
Deniston Dairy
Langman
Deniliquin Butter Factory
A. B. Jefferson

This concludes our series on the Riverine Brewery Co, Tru-Frute, E Ernstsen and Collins & Son bottles series, we hope you have enjoyed what you have read today.