Lucas' Papaw Ointment

The red tube that turns up in Australian purses, glove compartments and first-aid kits is still a Brisbane product. Dr Thomas Pennington Lucas formulated it, the company dates itself to 1910, and his descendants still own and run it from Acacia Ridge, making the ointment by the same process he developed. It is cheap, it lasts, and plenty of people use it for dry lips and rough patches of skin, which makes it the rare everyday thing on this list that is also an easy, inexpensive taste of home to mail to someone overseas.