The Oldest Foods on Earth ― A History of Australian Native Foods With Recipes

This is a book about Australian food, the unique flora and fauna that nourished the Aboriginal peoples of this land for over 50 000 years. It is because European Australians have hardly ever touched these foods for over 200 years that I am writing this book.’ We celebrate cultural and culinary diversity, yet shun the foods that grew here before white settlers arrived. We love superfoods from remote, exotic locations, yet reject those that grow in our own land. We say we revere sustainable local produce, yet ignore Australian native plants and animals that are better for the land than those from Europe. In this, the most important of his books, John Newton boils down these paradoxes by arguing that if we are what you eat, we need to eat different foods, foods that will attune us to the this land and play a part in reconciling us with its first inhabitants.

John Newton is a freelance writer, journalist and novelist. He writes on food, eating, travel, farming and associated environmental issues. His most recent books are Grazing: The ramblings and recipes of a man who gets paid to eat (2010) and A Savage History: Whaling in the Pacific and Southern Oceans (2013). In 2005 he won the Gold Ladle for Best Food Journalist in the World Food Media Awards.