10 smells every Australian remembers from growing up

Forget photos for a moment.

If you really want to travel back to childhood, close your eyes and think about the smells and suddenly you’re standing in Mum’s kitchen, or barefoot in the backyard, or maybe heading off to school with Vegemite on toast and your backpack over one shoulder.

Smell has an extraordinary way of unlocking memories we thought we’d forgotten.

Here are 10 scents that instantly transport many Australians back to growing up.

Vegemite toast before school

The smell drifted through the house before anyone was fully awake.

Toast popped from the toaster, Mum buttered it while it was still hot and spread just enough Vegemite to keep everyone happy. Add the aroma of a cup of tea or Dad’s instant coffee and suddenly it was another school morning.

Even today, one whiff can feel like putting on a school uniform again.

Fresh-cut lawn

You always knew when Dad had finally won the battle with the Victa.

The smell of freshly cut grass mixed with a hint of two-stroke exhaust drifted across the backyard, usually on a Saturday morning.

It somehow smelt like weekends, backyard cricket, sprinklers and summer all at once.

Rain on hot bitumen

Few smells are more unmistakably Australian.

After days of summer heat, the first fat raindrops hit the road and suddenly the whole neighbourhood seemed to breathe.

Kids ran outside and parents opened windows as the air changed completely.

Mum’s Sunday roast

Long before lunchtime, you knew exactly what was cooking with roast lamb, beef or pork, potatoes crisping in the oven, pumpkin caramelising and gravy bubbling away.

That smell slowly filled every room in the house.

By midday, everyone was bloody hungry.

Sunscreen at the beach

You can almost smell summer just thinking about it.

Coppertone. Banana Boat. Coconut. Hot sand. Saltwater. Murky river water.

Whether it was Lorne, Surfers Paradise, Cobram, Glenelg or Cable Beach, the scent of sunscreen still means holidays for millions of Australians.

Eucalyptus after rain

Australia has its own perfume.

A shower rolling through the bush releases that unmistakable fresh eucalyptus smell mixed with wet dirt that visitors notice immediately but locals often take for granted.

For many of us, it simply smells like home.

Vicks VapoRub

One tiny blue jar.

Unlimited healing powers.

Blocked nose? Chesty cough? Throat bad? Not sleeping well?

Out came the Vicks.

Most of us were convinced it worked before Mum even took the lid off.

Two-stroke mower exhaust

Modern battery mowers don’t smell like anything and old Victas announced themselves.

A little petrol, oil, and a puff of blue smoke.

The aroma drifted over fences as every dad in the street decided Saturday morning was the perfect time to mow.

Many Victa’s were also known in neighbourhoods as “You Rotten Bastard.”

Fresh washing on the clothes line

Before clothes dryers became common, clean sheets dried in sunshine.

The smell of sun-dried cotton and a light breeze is almost impossible to bottle.

Walking between freshly washed sheets felt like wandering through a little maze of summer.

Milo

The tin had barely been opened before the smell escaped.

Some of us made it with hot milk and others loaded it up with cold milk.

Many quietly ate spoonfuls straight from the tin when Mum wasn’t looking.

To this day, opening a fresh tin of Milo is enough to make plenty of Australians smile.

Honourable mentions

Australia’s smell memories change depending on where you grew up.

On the coast, it might be salty sea air, fish and chips wrapped in paper or the scent of mangroves at low tide. In Far North Queensland or Darwin, many readers will remember tropical rain, frangipanis in bloom, freshly cut mangoes, wet earth after the Wet, or smoky evening barbecues drifting through warm air. Country Australians might instantly think of hay bales, freshly shorn wool, eucalyptus windbreaks, horses, dusty roads or rain falling on corrugated iron sheds.

Others will swear we forgot:

• Johnson’s Baby Powder.
• The school art room.
• New tennis balls.
• Freshly sharpened lead pencils.
• The inside of Dad’s Holden or Falcon on a hot day.
• Christmas pudding.
• Grandpa’s pipe tobacco.
• Outside the local bakery.
• The corner milk bar.
• Grandma’s lavender drawer.

We often think memories live in old photographs, but sometimes they’re hiding in a loaf of toast, a freshly mown lawn or the smell of rain on a hot summer afternoon.

One breath is all it takes and suddenly you’re home again.