Geographic Influences

Australia's food culture is affected by both its geography and history. Australia is a vast island continent which is approximately the same size as the United States. It has a great many different weather and climate zones, ranging from the tropics of northern Queensland to the cold mountainous wilderness of Tasmania. This allows Australians to enjoy a wide range of natural foods including pineapples, passion fruit, mangoes, bananas, pawpaw, sugar cane, macadamia nuts, grapes, oranges, lemons, apples, pears, and peaches. The great majority of Australians live in close proximity to the ocean which brings an abundance of fish, oysters, prawns (shrimp), crab, lobster, mussels, Morton Bay bugs, etc. And the climate in most areas of the continent allows for backyard gardens to be fruitful for most months of the year. All of these geographic influences make for a vast array of wonderful foods to be easily available to a large majority of Aussies