Canes Bar & Grill

When Europeans began colonising Australia in the late 1700s, most of the Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers, with spiritual values based on reverence for the land and its inhabitants. Some engaged in seasonal horticulture, but there were no large-scale farming. Indigenous recipes and methods for food preparation that have survived into our time are commonly referred to as bush tucker. Bush tucker recipes are based on locally available food sources and can therefore vary a lot from one region to the next.

Many of the European settlers in the 18th and 19th century had their culinary roots in the British Isles and this influence is still very strong in Australia. The colonisers brought not just recipes and food traditions but also farming practises that had a huge impact on Australia and changed the range of available food types on the continent. This is how agricultural products from the old world, such as sheep meat and wheat, became staples in the Australian diet.