History of the bushfood industry
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The modern Australian native food industry, also called the bushfood industry, had its initial beginnings in the 1970s and early 1980s, when regional enthusiasts and researchers started to target local native species for use as food.
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
had been harvesting many species for use as food (
bush tucker Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or ...
) and medicines ( bush medicine) for millennia. In the mid 1970s Brian Powell recognized the commercial potential of quangdong fruit and began its cultivation in orchards. Following this, the
CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...
became involved in quangdong research. In the late 1970s,
Peter Hardwick Peter Hardwick (born 1958) is an Australian food horticulturist and environmentalist, recognized as an early pioneer of the Australian bushfood industry. He publicly challenged the established belief that native Australian food plants were not suit ...
began investigating subtropical native plants suitable for commercial cropping, selecting fruit species like
riberry ''Syzygium luehmannii'' is a medium-sized coastal rainforest tree native to Australia. Common names include riberry, small leaved lilly pilly, cherry satinash, cherry alder, or clove lilli pilli. The habitat is Australian riverine, littoral, su ...
,
Davidsonia ''Davidsonia'' is a genus containing three rainforest tree species native to Australia, that are commonly known as the Davidson or Davidson's plum. The fruits superficially resemble the European plum, but are not closely related. All species ha ...
, and later leaf-spices, like
lemon myrtle ''Backhousia citriodora'' (common names lemon myrtle, lemon scented myrtle, lemon scented ironwood) is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, genus ''Backhousia''. It is endemic to subtropical rainforests of central and south-eastern Queens ...
,
Aniseed myrtle :''Should not be confused with Clausena anisata, a small tree native to Southeast Asia and Australia.'' ''Syzygium anisatum'', with common names ringwood and aniseed tree, is a rare Australian rainforest tree with an aromatic leaf that has an e ...
, and
Dorrigo Pepper ''Tasmannia stipitata'', commonly known as the Dorrigo pepper or northern pepperbush is a rainforest shrub of temperate forests of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. Leaves are fragrant, narrow-lanceolate to narrow-elliptic, ...
. Hardwick started targeting strong flavoured species suitable for processing, which later became the main industry strategy. In the 1980s, Hardwick worked in the New South Wales Department of Agriculture, where he met essential oils researcher, Dr Ian Southwell. Southwell played a significant role in providing the
essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...
profiles of many of the most popular native spices. In 1983, the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
's Human Nutrition Unit, headed by
Jennie Brand-Miller Janette Cecile Brand-Miller (born 1952), also known as Jennie Brand-Miller, Janette Cecile Brand and GI Jennie, is an Australian academic who holds a chair in human nutrition in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University o ...
, undertook a nutritional analysis programme analyzing bushfood for Aboriginal health.
Vic Cherikoff Vic Cherikoff is regarded as an authority on Australian native foods and its associated industry, having been involved in the selection and commercialization of many of the 35 or so indigenous Australian plant foods now in the market place. He ...
, a member of the Human Nutrition Unit team, started-up a wholesale distribution company marketing native Australian ingredients. Cherikoff played a vital role in linking-up the Aboriginal and regional bushfood research with the restaurant and food processing industry. Cherikoff also contributed to Jennifer Isaacs' book, ''Bush Food'' and authored ''The Bushfood Handbook'' and ''Uniquely Australian, A wildfood cookbook'' which publicly defined the emerging industry. In the mid-1980s several Australian-themed restaurants opened-up in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
. These included ''Rowntrees: The Australian Restaurant'', run by Chef Jean-Paul Bruneteau and Jenny Dowling. In 1996, Bruneteau, Dowling and Cherikoff opened a second restaurant, ''Riberries – Taste Australia''. ''Edna’s Table'' restaurant also opened-up and was run by brother and sister team, Chef Raymond Kersh and Jennice Kersh. The ''Red Ochre Grill'' in
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
opened-up in the early 1990s, with Andrew Fielke as its chef. Fielke also co-founded a production company, ''Australian Native Produce Industries'' (ANPI). Value-added production emerged in the late 1980s, with products marketed via mainstream retailers. Ian and Juleigh Robbins, established a line of processed sauces, jams and dried spice products through ''Robin's Foods Pty Ltd''. Boutique value-added production − such as jams, sauces and beverages – has become increasingly significant in the regional development of native foods. Small-scale trial commercial production of native food plants started to occur in the late 1980s, especially in northern
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
. In 1994 the
Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Agrifutures Australia, formerly the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), is an Australian statutory corporation set up by the Australian Government in 1990 to help fund research and development in Australian rural indu ...
and
Greening Australia Greening Australia is an Australian environmental organisation, founded in 1982, the International Year of the Tree, to protect, restore and conserve Australia's native vegetation. Greening Australia was formed by the United Nations Association ...
co-sponsored a conference on growing bushfoods near Lismore. The
2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
, in Sydney, were targeted by the developing industry as an event for promoting native foods. Various regionally based industry associations were formed to represent growers in a national process. Government agencies have become increasingly involved with new native crop development.
CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...
researcher, Dr Stephen Sykes, developed a range of native ''Citrus'' hybrids which became available through ANPI. Since 2000 the industry has continued to consolidate, with a growing overseas market for produce and greater refinement in production methods to supply the demand. Some new products have been introduced, including
Finger Lime ''Citrus australasica'', the Australian finger lime or caviar lime, is a thorny understorey shrub or small tree of lowland subtropical rainforest and rainforest in the coastal border region of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. It has ed ...
, mintbush and ''
Eucalyptus olida ''Eucalyptus olida'' is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to a restricted area of New South Wales, Australia. It has rough, flaky and fibrous bark on the trunk and larger branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower ...
''. However, while the rate of introduction of new native food-plant species has slowed since the early period of the industries conception in the 1980s, the marketing of herb and spice blends, fruit mixtures and functional extracts has grown, potentially leading the industry into new and larger market segments. Some crops initially associated mainly with bushfood, such as
lemon myrtle ''Backhousia citriodora'' (common names lemon myrtle, lemon scented myrtle, lemon scented ironwood) is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, genus ''Backhousia''. It is endemic to subtropical rainforests of central and south-eastern Queens ...
, have since broadened to also become associated with
essential oils An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...
and
cosmetics Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...
.


References

* Bruneteau, Jean-Paul, ''Tukka, Real Australian Food'', . * Cherikoff, Vic, ''The Bushfood Handbook'', . * Cherikoff, Vic and Christie, Benjamin, ''The Dining Downunder Cookbook'', . * Kersh, Jennice and Raymond, ''Edna's Table'', .


External links

* CSIRO, industry profil

* Significant Tree 292 Quangdong Tree Quor

{{Industries Bushfood, Bush food, history of Food industry History of agriculture in Australia