So what becomes of a city’s old milk bars?

Twenty-one have become homes, three are now hairdressing salons and two have become florists. One old milk bar - which in decades past presumably sold lollies - has even become a denture clinic. A few stand vacant.

In 1971 the goldfields city of Bendigo was home to 76 shops classified as neighbourhood milk bars, general stores or grocers selling milk and bread. This meant that the city had one such shop for about every 600 people.

Now, an analysis by town planner Penny Loader quantifies what has long been suspected, the long-running decline of the local milk bar.

The old Spring Gully general store in Bendigo. Photo: Supplied

She found that by 2016 - despite years of growth which saw Bendigo's population more than double to about 100,000 people - the ratio of milk bars and other neighbourhood retailers selling milk and papers slumped to one for every 1852 people living in the town.

Her study also shows how some old milk bars have re-generated. "Of the eight milk bars that have retained the same location and the same role of neighbourhood retailer, the type of business inhabiting these premises has, for the majority, undergone a shift – typically one of gentrification or boutiquification – in order to remain viable," she said.

One of the eight is the Spring Gully general store, which was built more than a century ago and in another era had petrol bowsers out front.

As well as papers and bread, the Spring Gully general store sold petrol. Photo: Supplied

New owner Adam Nicoletti remembers buying a can of Coke there when it operated as a traditional general store.

In 2014 he bought the property, re-booted it and then re-opened about six months ago as a cafe - which also sells papers, milk and bread.

Inside the old Spring Gully general store. Photo: Supplied

"I just saw massive potential," he said. "The property was so big, structurally it was fantastic, it's double brick, it didn't have cracks in the walls. It's a beautiful structure."

Miss Loader said some of the modern day uses for the 68 former milk bars/general stores included an ice-cream parlour, chemist, vintage homewares retailer and real estate agency.

She fondly remembers walking to her local Bendigo milk bar as a child. "There's probably a bit of an intrinsic link to a lot of peoples' sense of place with corner shops. It's generally your first childhood freedom isn't it, if you grew up in a suburb. Going down the road and buying 50 cents worth of lollies."

Adam Nicoletti, owner of Spring Gully General Store. Photo: Glenn Daniels

The study was suggested by Trevor Budge from City of Greater Bendigo.

"What we're seeing here is not only an economic change, but also a social change," Mr Budge said.

"We always suspected that there'd been a decline (in milk bar numbers). I've lived in Bendigo 40 years and in the area that I lived in I noticed that we'd gone from six milk bars to one. And the one that was left had converted into an upmarket coffee shop/gourmet food place," he said.

Mr Budge said the surviving traditional milk bars occupied "really good sites, like on the corner of two busy roads. They're in a sort of a gap in the market, where there isn't a supermarket or another shop very close."