-
Before the english settlers arrived at botany bay, the indigenous people had lived in Australia for tens of thousands of years. They survived on the flora and fauna from the Australian bush, such as kangaroo, fish and berries. They were very spiritual and much of the information was passed down from generation to generation.
-
This is when the first fleet had settled in botany bay on exploration trips. They mainly ate the essentials, but didn't realise the natural growth around them. The indigenous people were hunter gatherers and knew the land. Unfortunately, the settlers did not.
-
The people from the first fleet did not know how the Australian land was well providing with food. They were blind to what was in front of them with their only interest being the native fish. The people had more of an industrial approach as they were more interested in planting imported foods. Their rations eventually got simplified to salt meat, flour, sugar, tea and excessive spirits. As it can be seen, the first settlers brought an inadequate amount of food for the long term.
-
Around this time, 'squatters' or reasonably privileged adventurers who purchased expensive stock, seized an expanse of land and paid male workers in rations. Their weekly rations usually consisted of 4.5kg of meat, 4.5kg of flour, 1kg sugar and 100g of tea.
-
James Harrison from Geelong created the first mechanical refrigerator though wouldn't be common until the 1920s.
-
The only significant recipes until 1864 was 2 pages published in an immigrants guide written in 1853 by Caroline Chisholm. She divided the weekly rations into seven parts with seven different ways to combine meat and flour.
-
To improve shelf-life, milling, bottling and canning became common. In this time factories manufactured Rosella tomato sauce, Arnott's biscuits, IXL jams and MacRobertson's and Small's chocolates.
-
In the past century, colonial Australia was very dependent on imports, but in this time the railways helped with providing wheat, milk, sugar and irrigated fruit. In the suburbs, the butcher, grocer, greengrocer and ice-carters would make regular visits to give people their produce.
-
Foster's beer was brewed by Americans in this time and beer turned into a national beverage.
-
This era ensued a lot of new bakery. Using desiccated coconut became a craze showing up in lamingtons. In this time Anzac biscuits, pumpkin scones and Pavlova were created and became popularised.
-
Vegemite was invented in this year.
-
In this time came chocolate crackles and Yo Yos.
-
Around this time, home deliveries became less common and T.E. Wardle pioneering the trend. Cars would replace that and carry a load from the supermarket to home.
-
In this time many people voyaged to Europe and started enjoying French, Italian, Greek and other traditional cooking.
-
In this time Australia had 83,000 dairy farms
-
By 1955, 73% of metropolitan homes had a fridge.
-
Later in this decade, fast food chains became very popularised
-
In this time Australia had about 22,000 dairy farms.
-
In this time there are around 9250 dairy farms
-
There are now only around 6500 in this period.
-
Today we have many cultures all brought together. We have a multicultural country and it can be seen as a very accepting country. Though we have a far way to go and there are problems that we have, together we are a more united country than we have ever been.
-
Food has come a long way. With 1 in 4 children being obese, but the sight of herbs and tomatoes and fresh ingredients in gardens resurfacing. Hearing chickens in neighbours backyards. Food has had it's bad times, it's good, but all people have connected through food and we're more connected as a world than ever.
