Where "Goon Bag" Comes From
Cask wine was invented in Australia in April 1965, when winemaker Thomas Angove of Angove's in Renmark, South Australia, patented the bag-in-box design — inspired by Greek and European wine skins, with a polyethylene bag inside a cardboard box. Angove had been looking for a modern alternative to the half-gallon flagon, and it is from "flagon" that "goon" is most likely derived — shortened in the standard Australian way.
The foil bag inside the cask — which collapses as wine is poured, preventing oxidation — became the defining feature in Australian student and share-house culture. Goon bags were cheap, portable, and came with the bonus of the inflated silver bag serving as an improvised camping pillow, inspiring the party game "goon of fortune," in which a bag is attached to a rotary clothesline. Few wine innovations have generated as much affection as Thomas Angove's frugal, practical, deeply Australian invention.
Source: ABC News — "Celebrating 50 years of the bag-in-box, cask wine, or goon sack"
"We pegged a goon bag to the rotary clothesline for a game of Goon of Fortune."
How Aussies Actually Use It
Famous for the game 'Goon of Fortune', where players sit under a spinning Hills Hoist clothesline and drink when the bag stops above them.
Also jokingly referred to as an emergency camping pillow once emptied and blown up.
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