During my recent holiday in Tasmania I took a little drive south of Hobart through the town of Kingston, and paused at an impressive old brick tower. It turned out to be a Shot Tower, in which molten lead was dropped from the top forming perfect spheres by the time they landed in a tub of water. Whilst viewing the tower I noticed on a nearby wall a small sign about Keen's Curry Powder, which summarised its creation in Kingston by a Mr Keen in the mid 1800's.
Keen's Curry and Mustard powders were regularly stocked in my household during my childhood, and I had been certain that they were English. The fact that they were really from Hobart did not ring true, so I determined to do some research. Using the details from Keen's Curry history, Keen's Mustard history and Wikipedia I determined the following strange amalgam of facts.
The mustard powder was first sold in 1742 by Keen and Sons in London. That company merged to become Keen Robinson, which was bought out by Colman's in 1903. Through another merger this became Reckitt & Colman in 1938.
The curry powder was developed by the unrelated Joseph Keen of Kingston, near Hobart, in the early 1860s. His company was sold to Reckitt & Colman in 1954, which meant that Reckitt & Colman were then responsible for both Keen's Mustard and Keen's Curry Powders.
Further complicated businessy type stuff occurred since then, resulting in the American company McCormick taking over the Keen brand in Australia in 1998. Thus, I now understand the strange route by which an Australian product and an English product come to be sold with matching names by an American company