Bushtukka Beef - Reviving a Great Aussie Tradition
Listen to major Les Hiddins, Australia's very own Bush Tucker Man, as he recalls "The History Of Bushtukka Beef"
Right from the very beginning when the First Fleet arrived in 1788, we started a whole new tradition here in Australia (the Colony of New South Wales at the time) -"air dried beef".
The landscape they sought to explore and open up was a dangerous and daunting continent with its rugged mountain ranges, sweeping desert plains, crystal seas, eucalypt forests and up north; the impenetrable Scrub Country later to be known as Tropical Rain Forrest.
Many of the early explorers and settlers had no other option than to spice and dry their beef in the open air as it was the only way they had of preserving their supplies at that time.
Blokes like John McDouall Stuart, Eyre, Ludwig Leichhardt, Charles Sturt, Edmund Kennedy, trekked across our rugged continent, risking all, to set in place the basic foundations for this great nation of ours.
They worked hard against all the odds, eventually reaching the four corners of this massive continent. Their rations at the time were generally limited to flour, tea and sugar along with some beef. Sometimes a small portion of rum was also carried for so called "medicinal" reasons! The beef of course was rich in protein and was preserved by spicing and drying in the open air.
And when they settled the harsh Australian Outback, establishing the far flung properties and rural towns to feed our nation and beyond, quite often without the luxury of electricity or refrigeration, air dried beef continued to play a role in everyday country life.
For generations air dried Aussie beef was the principal way of providing a healthy, nutritious, protein packed tasty food that lasted for months, in our unforgiving climate out bush. That’s why I call it Bush Tucker Beef!
Today, across our cities and towns this skill and tradition has been all but lost and the flavour of this true Aussie bush tucker is almost forgotten.
Almost…. but not quite. I’m proud to say that wonderful Aussie tradition and flavour has been revived.
My Bushtukka Beef range is made from 100% prime Australian beef, air dried and spiced to perfection with no artificial preservatives, colouring or flavours. It simply doesn’t need that stuff! It’s just like it used to be done years ago out bush.
Available in four different varieties, Bushtukka Beef is the perfect, delicious, ready to eat, healthy snack to be enjoyed by young and old alike, anywhere, anytime, just as it was by our pioneers.
So, no matter if you‘re watching the footy or the cricket; enjoying a beer or a glass of wine after a hard day’s yakka; packing a school lunch or need a healthy alternative to chips and lollies for the kids; or sharing drinks and nibbles and a yarn with friends and family, be it at home, on the beach, or around the campfire; grab a pack of The Bush Tucker Man’s Bushtukka beef. Believe me……….. it’s the Fair Dinkum thing!
Click here to print or download a hard copy of "The History of Bushtukka Beef"
For more History of Bushtukka Beef in Australia, please refer to the following:
- Calvert, Albert Frederick. The Exploration of Australia. G. Philip, 1896.
- Daniel Bunce, Ludwig Leichhardt. Travels with Dr. Leichhardt in Australia. Original from the New York Public Library: W. Fairfax & Co., 1859.
- EXPLORERS.http://users.netconnect.com.au/~nacl/history/southland/10explorers.htm
- Favenc, Ernest. The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888.
- Fisher, Francis. The Dial. Jansen, McClurg, 1899.
- Fitzpatrick, Kathleen. Australian Explorers: A Selection from Their Writings. Oxford University Press, 1958.
- Haygarth, Henry William. Recollections of Bush Life in Australia: During a Residence of Eight Years. Australia: J.Murray, 1861.
- McKinlay, John. McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia. Melbourne: F.F. Bailliere, Publisher in Ordinary to the Victorian Government, 1861.
- Sidney, Samuel. The three colonies of Australia: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. Oxford University, 1852.
- Stuart, John McDouall. Explorations in Australia. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007.
- Tench, Watkin. A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay. Kessinger publishing, 2004.
- Tenison, Julian Edmund. A History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia. H.T. Dwight, 1865.
