[4] This consisted of a five-week trip from Thursday Island and has been described as the "official beginning of tourist cruises in the South Pacific".

[10] During this period the company had a dominant role in trade in the region distributing general merchandise and collecting copra.

Its product ranges included packaged bread and other baked goods, snack foods, breakfast cereals, edible oils, and meal components.

In the 1970s the management expanded the business through acquisitions and by the early 1980s, Burns Philp was a conglomerate that controlled over 200 companies involved in about 100 separate industries.

Beginning in 1984, the management began to restructure the group to focus on retail hardware stores and food ingredients, and acquired yeast and fermentation related businesses, such as vinegar production, in Europe and the United States.

[20] One of the most significant subsidiaries of the business in terms of profit was Goodman Fielder, Australasia’s largest baker, which was floated in an IPO (initial public offering).

Burns Philp is wholly owned by Hart's private investment company Rank Group Limited.