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Author Topic: Australia by Tibrogargan January 2007 - present and 155216+ views later!  (Read 657799 times)
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CJ1
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« Reply #740 on: November 04, 2007, 04:43:30 PM »



Monkey friends : I may not have a chance to post for the next three weeks.  We are having interstate visitors from Western Australia (Hi MuminOhio!) on their first trip to Tasmania and we will be occupied showing them around the northern half of our beautiful state.  I will check in as often as possible so please feel free to post any questions etc.

For those who are interested in our state's native timbers, here is a very good site for you to enjoy.

Make sure you check out the gallery and the slideshows of some of our highlights.

http://www.tasmaniantimbers.com.au/index.html

.


Tib,

I love all the wood, but sassafras is still my favorite.  The Tasmania link was interesting too...the history and photo gallery.  You live in a very beautiful state.     
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« Reply #741 on: November 04, 2007, 05:23:14 PM »



Monkey friends : I may not have a chance to post for the next three weeks.  We are having interstate visitors from Western Australia (Hi MuminOhio!) on their first trip to Tasmania and we will be occupied showing them around the northern half of our beautiful state.  I will check in as often as possible so please feel free to post any questions etc.

For those who are interested in our state's native timbers, here is a very good site for you to enjoy.

Make sure you check out the gallery and the slideshows of some of our highlights.

http://www.tasmaniantimbers.com.au/index.html

.

Have a wonderful time with your friends!
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Lala'sMom
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« Reply #742 on: November 04, 2007, 05:56:41 PM »

Have a good time Tibro...when you get back would you elaborate on the foods that differ from region to region there and how they are similar or dissimilar to American food? You may have already done this and if so, would you repost for the dummies like me? TIA
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« Reply #743 on: November 04, 2007, 05:58:30 PM »

Have a great time Tibro   Cool
 
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« Reply #744 on: November 06, 2007, 07:55:34 AM »

Wow Tib...just catching up on your thread this morning and realized I missed the Melbourne Cup! Shows how long I've been here. Enjoy your visitors from WA, I'm sure they'll enjoy your beautiful state!
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« Reply #745 on: November 07, 2007, 08:01:39 PM »

Tib ~  that's so thoughtful of you to leave the link.  Please check in when you can.  Thank you!
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« Reply #746 on: November 17, 2007, 12:56:32 AM »

Thank you CJ1, Klaas, Lala's, Angie, Mum and Muffy for you good wishes.  We had a great but busy and exhausting time and luckily the weather was perfect - fine sunny days and temperatures around mid 70°'s to 80°.

Thank you for the suggestion about our foods Lalas.  I have been able to find a lot about what our early settlers ate (looks like it was just about anything that moved) and the types of food we enjoyed some years ago.  As our main heritage was British we had mostly their main fare but in the recent years with the influx of migrants from most other countries we have broadened our tastes and now the modern Australian fare is a mixture of British, Asian and European.  We have a large array of meats, fruit and vegetables and a wide range of fish and seafoods of which each state has their own varieties. I will continue to search for descriptions of more modern foods - so far all my searches have just turned up restaurant sites.

Hope you find this weeks posting to be interesting.

.
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« Reply #747 on: November 17, 2007, 01:11:17 AM »

AUSTRALIAN FOOD AND DRINK

Native Australians and early settlers


Aboriginals' food sources

Before white settlement, Aboriginal people survived off the native plants and animals of the Australian environment for thousands of years. Across the many different environments of Australia, they knew how to find food and water. Native mammals and birds such as kangaroo, wallaby and emu were regularly hunted and killed. Although animals were sometimes thrown straight onto the fire for cooking, there were a variety of preparation and cooking techniques. Other foods that seem less palatable to modern urban Australians - such as witchetty grubs, lizards, snakes and moths - were greatly valued.

Bush foods such as berries, roots and nectars were a vital part of the aboriginal diet in many areas. Often these required advanced preparation techniques to neutralise toxins and to make them palatable and nutritious. In certain coastal areas, shellfish were plentiful and easily harvested. Aboriginals also caught fish in the oceans and rivers using hooks, spears and fish traps. Aboriginal groups would often travel from season to season; moving to where they knew various food sources would be available. One such source was the annual Bogong moth migrations to New South Wales.

The more bountiful the area a tribe lived in, the less nomadic they were forced to be. Desert dwellers may have been on the move constantly searching for food, while coastal tribes may have remained reasonably static. Certain Aboriginal groups did more than just survive - they thrived. Some white explorers reported meeting groups of aboriginals from time to time that appeared especially healthy and well fed. But living off the land also meant that from area-to-area and season-to-season there were also times of hardship.

Food for Australia's early settlers


Upon arrival in Australia, the early settlers were confronted by a landscape and range of plants and animals that were largely foreign to them. In many places, even fresh water was scarce, especially in comparison to the rain-soaked fields of Britain and Ireland. There were some familiar animals; wild swans, ducks, geese and pigeons that were similar to their European cousins. The oceans and rivers were full of fish and eels that were not too dissimilar from the European varieties. But other game was foreign and challenging to their British tastes. Some settlers were driven by curiosity or necessity to hunt and eat the native mammals. Stuffed wombat and fried echidna were on the menu in early settlements in Van Diemen's Land, as Tasmania was known in those times.

But largely, the early settlers set their hands to producing European crops and raising European herd animals for food. Over the years, they introduced European game animals such as deer and rabbits for hunting. Many of these animals thrived in their new home and have since become pests to Australian farmers and environmentalists.
Flour was a staple item of the early settler's diet. It was usually made into bread or damper (a dense, thick bread).

The available meat was usually beef, pork or mutton (the meat of adult sheep). As there was no refrigeration, it was usually salted or dried to preserve it. Tea was the staple drink and considered a necessity, even when other items were scarce. Salt was highly prized for flavour and for preserving meat.

The settlers brought rum with them, and the fledgling colonies soon developed the capacity to produce it themselves. Rum was such a valued commodity that it became the key currency in the early years of settlement.

Food for Australia's early explorers

Australia's explorers of the early 1800s usually set off with hundreds of pounds of flour, dozens of pounds of tea and a generous amount of salt and sugar. They brought sheep or cattle for food. The oxen, and sometimes horses, had the dual role of beast of burden and food source when they were needed. Some explorers, such as Ludwig Leichhardt, were keen to observe and learn from Aboriginal food gathering and eating habits. They interacted with Aboriginals they met and exchanged food. According to Leichhardt's journals, members of his successful 1844-1845 expedition of 4,800 kilometres from Darling Downs in Queensland to Point Essington in Northern Western Australia owed their lives to the hunting and survival skills of its two Aboriginal guides, Charley Fisher and Harry Brown. They hunted game to supplement the group's provisions, catching animals such as flying foxes and magpie geese to add to the pot on many occasions. They gathered salt where it occurred naturally along riverbanks, washed in from the ocean.

By contrast other explorers, such as Edmund Kennedy and Burke and Wills preferred to kill and eat their own pack animals rather than hunt game or fish to supplement their supplies. Only when their provisions had dwindled to the point that the party was facing starvation, scurvy and dysentery did they hunt and gather food or accept the generous gifts of food presented by the friendly Aboriginals they met.

Rabbit and other meat during the Great Depression

During the tough economic times of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rabbit became a welcome commodity rather than the pest it had been to farmers. The skins could be sold for money and the meat was often the only option available to poor families. Rabbits could be caught fairly readily even in the outskirts of big cities such as Melbourne, in suburbs that are now densely populated.

In the 1990s, after years of being shunned as 'underground mutton', rabbit overcame much of its depression-time reputation as the poor person's last resort. It has been reintroduced as a respected and even fashionable gourmet food in Australian restaurants and public bars.

Whether valued exclusively for their taste or in combination with a sense of nostalgia for earlier times, other cuts of meat and offal that were once only eaten by poor people who could not afford anything else - such as ox tail, lamb shanks and kidney - have found their way onto menus in even the most expensive restaurants in Australia.

Multicultural influences on Australian cuisine

Early and 20th Century European immigrants such as Germans, Italians and French helped to pioneer and grow the Australian wine industry that had become so healthy by the 21st century. Immigration to Australia since 1945 has had a major multicultural impact upon Australian culture, and in particular upon what Australians eat and drink. For example, European migrants brought with them a preference for espresso coffee. This has overtaken tea as the most popular hot beverage ordered in restaurants and cafes. Pasta dishes, another staple of many European countries, are one of the most popular choices on the menu for many Australians.

Where once the Australian diet was based strongly upon its British and Irish heritage, by the end of the 20th century, Australians were regularly enjoying Italian, Greek, Chinese, Indian, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines cooked in restaurants and homes.

Due mainly to later immigrants to the country, Australians have a growing interest in multicultural foods and drinks from across Asia, The Middle East, Europe and Africa. Since the late 20th century there has also been a growing awareness of cultural and religious food requirements, such as Halal and Kosher practices.

Vegetarianism (the practice of eating only vegetable food) and veganism (a strict vegetarian diet that excludes any animal product) have also gained broader acceptance in Australian society, thanks in part to the important role that vegetables and vegetable products such as tofu play in Asian, Indian and other international cuisines.

Australian native food and drink in the 21st century

In the late 20th and early 21st century Australian native bush tucker foods remained mainly a novelty. Game meats such as kangaroo, wallaby, emu and crocodile are available as specialty items.

Australian seafood is highly prized domestically and is a lucrative export industry.

The macadamia nut is the only highly-commercialised Australian native food crop.

The Outback Cafe


Mark Olive, an Aboriginal chef with a passion for bush foods, has developed a new television cooking show called The Outback Cafe which not only features new recipes but also tells the local history of the Indigenous communities he visits in the series. The Outback Cafe is an ambitious project designed to assist in the development and sustainability of business and employment opportunities for Indigenous Australians.

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« Reply #748 on: November 17, 2007, 01:19:03 AM »

AUSTRALIAN FOOD SITES :

The following site contains ome interesting older style recipes that we all remember here from childhood, as well as some humour and quirky stories and hints.  The recipes are still in pounds and ounces.  All our modern recipes now have metric measurements.

http://www.oldaussierecipes.com/index.htm

This next section shows rations and stores inventories.  One interesting entry is the store of Butter rations to last 49 weeks.  One wonders what condition the butter would be in after that length of time even with our modern refrigeration. Browse the rest of the site for stories about our First Fleeters.

http://www.cedir.uow.edu.au/programs/FirstFleet/s_rations.html

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« Reply #749 on: November 17, 2007, 07:59:40 PM »

Wow.  That's interesting.  Butter to last 49 weeks  Shocked
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« Reply #750 on: November 18, 2007, 03:42:00 PM »

I don't think I ever knew what mutton was exactly...thanks.  I learn something new everyday.
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« Reply #751 on: December 01, 2007, 08:20:55 PM »

Hi Lalas - we do not see meat sold as mutton here any longer.  I remember being able to purchase "spring lamb" and also "two tooth".  If we got a less than tender joint of two tooth I can remember my father remarking that it was probably the last two teeth and not the first two.

The approximate age of sheep can be determined by the teeth. At birth, lambs have eight milk teeth, or temporary incisors, arranged in four pairs on the lower jaw. The central pair of temporary incisor teeth is shed and replaced by the permanent teeth at approximately 1 year of age. At 2 years, the second pair of milk teeth is replaced by a pair of permanent incisors. At 3 and 4 years, the third and fourth pairs of permanent teeth appear. At 4 years of age the sheep has a "full mouth." When a ewe loses some of her incisor teeth, she is called a "broken mouth." When she loses all of her teeth she is called a "gummer."

AGE OF SHEEP (teeth)
   Lamb    4 pair of Incisors   
   1 year    middle pair of Incisors   
   2 years    2nd pair of permanent Incisors   
   3 years    3rd pair of permanent Incisors   
   4 years    4th pair of permanent Incisors   
   5 years    all permanent Incisors close together   
   6 years    Incisors begin spreading apart   
   7-8 years    some Incisors broken   
   10-12 years    all Incisors missing   
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« Reply #752 on: December 01, 2007, 08:35:03 PM »

AUSTRALIAN FOODS.

A website with details of Australian Bush Foods which is becoming the latest trend in fancy restaurants.

http://www.cherikoff.net/cherikoff/index.php

Two more sites that publish modern Australian recipes :

http://australianflavour.net/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

http://www.goodrecipes.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=6



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« Reply #753 on: December 01, 2007, 08:40:03 PM »


   I meant to add that the goodrecipes.com.au site has a good Imperial to Metric conversion chart.   Rolling Eyes
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« Reply #754 on: December 02, 2007, 06:12:35 PM »


   I meant to add that the goodrecipes.com.au site has a good Imperial to Metric conversion chart.   Rolling Eyes

Thanks, that's very good of you Tib.  Will make things easier Very Happy
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« Reply #755 on: December 13, 2007, 09:15:07 AM »

Tib!  I stumbled across this on You Tube and thought of you.  Then I watched it and read the You Tube notes and realized, I WAS THERE!  I was at that convention in New Orleans and I remember loving that these guys were doing "Waltzing Matilda".  It was my first barbershop convention and my DH's first time on the International stage so I sat thru every single event that week. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZXJeWnmrPw
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« Reply #756 on: December 15, 2007, 12:56:01 AM »

Peaches - thank you so much for sharing that clip with us all.  I am sure MumInOhio is going to appreciate it also.
And how wonderful that you were there at the convention.  Lucky you.
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....And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars..  A.B (Banjo) Paterson
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« Reply #757 on: December 15, 2007, 01:11:17 AM »

Copied from Monkey Musings thread :

MumInOhio :  Posts: 1003

Re: Monkey Musings Daily Open Discussion #9 11/19 -
« Reply #281 on: December 11, 2007, 01:12:25 PM »
   
Thanks to all Santa’s helpers…..and Jerry you have been missed.

Tib….Thank you for the gift. Should arrive bright and early Christmas morning…..This morning I have read my favorite poem countless times, watched my favorite Qantas ad over and over, topped off with ‘Six White Boomers’. Going to toddle off and find ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport’. Will share a little of Australia's favorite poem.

From ‘My Country’ by Dorothea Mackellar

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
                                              (end quote)

Mum - thank you for this post - it made me cry just reading it and I am living here!

I guess you have enjoyed the YouTube posted above by Peaches and now here is the Qantas Ad song for all to enjoy :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqaCzsCSn90


This particular version is dedicated to the men and women of our Australian Defence Forces currently serving overseas, but there are other versions listed on YouTube also.

.


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« Reply #758 on: December 15, 2007, 01:17:35 AM »


Six White Boomers  :  Christmas centre-piece decoration.  Bringing to life a delightful version of the popular Australian Christmas song by Rolf Harris - "Six White Boomers".   Truly unique and whimsical, each set is an individual art piece and is made entirely by hand. 

Comprising 6 white Boomers (Kangaroos) being driven by "Koala Father Christmas" helping Little Joey to find his mum.

This decoration is made from 100 biodegradable, non-toxic natural palm fibres, with facial features, hand and feet made from seeds, nuts, pods, shells or carved from soft wood. 




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« Reply #759 on: December 15, 2007, 01:23:00 AM »

Mum - I had forgotten that the Six White Boomers will have first chomp at your bouquet and then there will be the Reindeer so I am posting a pic of it in case it arrives looking rather nibbled around the edges.

Enjoy your Christmas!   Cool



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....And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars..  A.B (Banjo) Paterson
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