Historical Overview of the Australian Food Science and Technology Industry.
Historical overview of the Australian food science and technology industry.
When the Europeans arrived in 1788, they were confronted with an arid land and food supplies far removed from what they had left behind. They encountered the Aboriginal people, a civilisation not expected, and in addition they discovered many new and varied techniques for hunting, processing and storing foods. Techniques included: leaching poison from nuts that could take days or even weeks; catching fish with nets made from natural fibres; or storing seeds wrapped in grass then covered in mud. Farrer (2005) tells how the European’s decided to ignore the knowledge of the Aboriginal people and continued their attempt at transplanting what was familiar to them. With them they brought many skills, but basic knowledge. They didn’t understand the science behind growing the produce, nor for storage, but they brought with them the technology of Britain that would later become the history of Australia.
Although Governor Phillip had access to grain and four millstones were landed at Sydney Cove in 1788, there was an unfortunate return to primitive milling techniques, using 40 iron hand mills, due to a lack of skill and knowledge. These mills were blunt within a year and the colony turned to querns and pestle & mortars – a method, Farrer (2005) warns, that had to suffice until the mid-1790’s.
From man-powered treadmills to man-powered capstan mills, to horse driven mills, to Sydney’s first windmill in 1797. Without the right men to operate the mill, it was not a great success. The first successful watermill dates from 1812 and in 1815 the first steam mill opened, though as Farrer (1999) explains, for most of the nineteenth century the motive power was water or wind. This technology was a runner stone revolving on a fixed bed stone that ground the grain, until the introduction of roller technology in the 1880’s – almost 100 years later. Loss of time & product associated with
When the Europeans arrived in 1788, they were confronted with an arid land and food supplies far removed from what they had left behind. They encountered the Aboriginal people, a civilisation not expected, and in addition they discovered many new and varied techniques for hunting, processing and storing foods. Techniques included: leaching poison from nuts that could take days or even weeks; catching fish with nets made from natural fibres; or storing seeds wrapped in grass then covered in mud. Farrer (2005) tells how the European’s decided to ignore the knowledge of the Aboriginal people and continued their attempt at transplanting what was familiar to them. With them they brought many skills, but basic knowledge. They didn’t understand the science behind growing the produce, nor for storage, but they brought with them the technology of Britain that would later become the history of Australia.
Although Governor Phillip had access to grain and four millstones were landed at Sydney Cove in 1788, there was an unfortunate return to primitive milling techniques, using 40 iron hand mills, due to a lack of skill and knowledge. These mills were blunt within a year and the colony turned to querns and pestle & mortars – a method, Farrer (2005) warns, that had to suffice until the mid-1790’s.
From man-powered treadmills to man-powered capstan mills, to horse driven mills, to Sydney’s first windmill in 1797. Without the right men to operate the mill, it was not a great success. The first successful watermill dates from 1812 and in 1815 the first steam mill opened, though as Farrer (1999) explains, for most of the nineteenth century the motive power was water or wind. This technology was a runner stone revolving on a fixed bed stone that ground the grain, until the introduction of roller technology in the 1880’s – almost 100 years later. Loss of time & product associated with