Journal articles on the topic 'Wool Prices Australia'

Time of shearing affects many aspects of wool production and sheep health but no study has examined these factors concurrently in a spring-lambing, self-replacing Merino flock in southern Australia. A 5-year field experiment compared wool production in spring-lambing Merino ewes and their progeny shorn at different times and managed under commercial conditions in south-eastern Australia. Groups of 200 adult ewes were shorn in December, March or May, and their progeny were shorn in December or October, March or June, or May or July, respectively. There was no consistent association between time of shearing and the staple strength of wool (P = 0.73). December-shorn ewes produced significantly lighter and finer fleeces (average 19.1 μm, 3.0 kg clean weight) than did March-shorn ewes (19.4 μm, 3.1 kg). Fleeces from ewes shorn in May were of similar weight to those from March-shorn ewes (3.1 kg), but they were of significantly broader diameter (19.7 μm). In young sheep, desirable changes in some wool characteristics for each shearing group were offset by undesirable changes in others. On the basis of median historical (1991–2006) wool prices, shearing ewes in March and their progeny first in June produced the greatest total value of wool over a sheep’s lifetime ($161/head). The wool values per head for other shearing times were as follows: March (weaners)–March (ewes): $158; October–December: $157; December–December: $153; July–May: $151; and May–May: $148. Thus, December and March shearing were appropriate alternatives for maximising wool value produced from a self-replacing Merino flock in south-eastern Australia, whereas May was a less preferable shearing time because it always produced wool of lesser value.

In the absence of financial information on Australian mohair enterprises we aimed to determine the gross margins (per dry sheep equivalent, DSE) and their relationships with farm inputs, productivity and mohair quality in Australian mohair enterprises. Using established Victorian Farm and Sheep Monitor Project protocols we collected data for the financial years 2004–05, 2005–06 and 2006–07 from farmers in south-eastern Australia and made comparisons with data from wool enterprises of similar farm area. Over 3 years the financial returns from mohair exceeded that from wool in terms of $/DSE ($23.0 v. 11.3) and $/ha ($132 v. $116). This result was achieved despite the mohair enterprises grazing their goats far less intensively compared with the grazing intensity of sheep (5.9 v. 10.3–11.1 DSE/ha) and by using far less phosphate fertiliser than used in the wool enterprises (2.2 v. 4.6–6.1 kg P/ha). These differences were counterbalanced by higher prices for mohair compared with fine wool ($13.15/kg v. $8.35/kg clean fibre). Gross margin for the mohair enterprise did not increase as stocking rate increased. Income from mohair sales declined as the proportion of does in the flock increased. Increasing the proportion of does in the flock was associated with a decline in the average price of mohair ($16/kg greasy at 42% does to $8/kg greasy at 83% does in the flock). This decline was closely associated with the increasing proportion of the total amount of mohair coarser than 34.0 µm (either fine hair or hair) plus stained mohair. The variation in profitability between farms indicates significant scope for many mohair enterprises to increase profit. A focus on producing finer quality mohair will increase mohair profitability.

Achieving higher lamb weaning percentages by reducing lamb mortality can improve the profitability of sheep enterprises. In this paper we estimated the financial benefits from providing shelter to reduce the mortality of twin lambs in self-replacing Merino or dual-purpose Merino flock enterprises in south-west Victoria. A whole-farm bio-economic model (MIDAS) was initially used to estimate the increase in profit from reducing mortality of twin lambs and a second analysis included the costs of using perennial grass hedges to provide the shelter during lambing. The economic value of providing shelter was tested at three rates of twinning (10, 30 and 50%), three rates of mortality without shelter (70, 50 and 30%) and two levels of reduction in lamb mortality by providing shelter (25 and 50% reduction). A sensitivity analysis to wool and lamb prices, costs of establishing the grass hedges and stocking rates in the shelter area were also tested. Overall, more than 2500 scenarios were tested. Across the range of twinning rates and levels of twin mortality tested, at standard wool and meat prices, providing shelter to the dual-purpose Merino ewe flock was always profitable ($0.05 to 11.35/ewe) and the profits from providing shelter to the self-replacing Merino ewe flock were generally lower ($0.15 to $6.35/ewe). The impacts of changing wool and lamb prices depended on enterprise type, whereas the costs of establishment of the hedges or stocking rate of ewes in the hedge area during lambing had little impact on profitability. The main factor that determined the economic return from shelter was the reduction in mortality provided by the shelter but the proportion of twin-bearing ewes in the flock and the base rate of lamb mortality without shelter was also important. Overall, based on the assumptions used, we conclude that the profitability of many sheep enterprises lambing during frequent high chill weather conditions in temperate areas of south-eastern Australia could be improved by providing low cost shelter for twin-bearing Merino ewes lambing from July to September.

Low levels of plant-available micronutrients were an inherent feature of many agricultural soils in Australia, mostly due to the prevalence of highly weathered soil parent materials. The diagnosis and correction of the widespread deficiencies of micronutrients, especially copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo) and zinc (Zn), were prerequisites for the development of productive, legume-based pastures in southern Australia. In subtropical and tropical regions, Mo deficiency commonly limited pasture-legume production. Soil treatments involving micronutrient fertiliser incorporated in soils, or applied as additives to superphosphate, were generally effective in alleviating micronutrient deficiencies. In the low-output dryland pasture systems, the annual removal of micronutrients in wool and meat is small compared with rates added in fertiliser. Hence, in general, the residues of soil-applied micronutrient fertilisers remain effective for many years, for example, up to 30 years for Cu. By contrast, shorter residual values occur for manganese (Mn) fertiliser on highly calcareous soils, and for Zn in high-output pasture systems such as intensive dairy production. In the last two decades since the recommendations for micronutrient management of pastures were developed, there have been many changes to farming systems, with likely implications for micronutrient status in pastures. First, increased cropping intensity and low prices for wool and meat have meant lower nutrient inputs to pastures or to the pasture phase of rotations with crops. However, when pastures have been rotated with crops, ongoing small additions of Cu, Zn and Mo have been common. In cropping phases of farming systems, lime application and no-till may have altered the chemical and positional availability of micronutrients in soils to pastures. However, there has been little study of the impacts of these farming-systems changes on micronutrient status of pastures or profitability of the production system. The intensification of dairy production systems may also have altered the demand for, and removal rates of, micronutrients. Soil tests are not very reliable for Mn or Mo deficiencies, and well-calibrated soil tests for boron, Cu and Zn have been developed only for limited areas of pasture production and for a limited range of species. There is limited use of plant tests for nutrient management of pastures. In conclusion, there is limited knowledge of the current micronutrient status of pastures and their effects on animal health. Pasture production would benefit from targeted investigation of micronutrients status of pasture soils, pasture plants and micronutrient-linked animal-health issues.

The productivity of spring-lambing fine wool Merino sheep grazing pastures sown in 1977 to perennial ryegrass and subterranean clover was assessed from 1989 to 1998. The pastures were fertilised each autumn with single superphosphate at 6 levels, and were stocked at a low, medium, or high stocking rate (SR) at each level of fertiliser. The average phosphorus (P) applied annually since sowing (P ) ranged from 1.6 to 32.9 kg/ha. The SRs used varied with fertiliser level in that they were higher where more fertiliser had been applied, so that the highest SR at each level of fertiliser ensured that the pastures were well utilised. Each ewe raised 1 lamb, which was removed at weaning. The influence of fertiliser on the productivity of the sheep at 4 classes (1–4) of SR (mean SR = 7.1, 10.1, 12.6, and 18.2 ewes/ha for classes 1–4, respectively) was described by: y = A−BCP, where y represents production per sheep (kg), and A, B, and C are constants. For greasy fleece weight, estimates of B and C were 1.59 and 0.84; and for SR classes 1–4, the estimates of A were 5.06, 4.89, 4.78, and 4.46, respectively. For weaning weight of lambs, estimates of B and C were 8.4 and 0.82, and estimates of A were 23.5, 22.7, 21.5, and 20.9 for SR classes 1–4. The mean fibre diameter (µm) of the wool was described by: D = 14.18+1.48 GW, where GW is the mean greasy wool produced annually per sheep (kg) averaged over all sheep and years for each of the 18 treatments. The price (cents/kg) of wool with a fibre diameter D (P D) was given by: P D = 12197+4.94P2 + 688D−0.1945P20D − 5810√D, where 20 µm wool is P20 cents/kg. Supplements were fed if the body condition of ewes fell to a predetermined level. The supplement fed per ewe each year (S), expressed as metabolisable energy (in MJ) was described by: S = −602 − 44.1S R + 178.5P + 8.71S R P +539 √SR− 338.5√P−70.8P√SR, where S R and P represent the mean stocking rate (ewes/ha) and mean P applied annually. When a current set of costs and prices was applied to these equations, the maximum gross margin for a SR of 7.1 ewes/ha was $AU119/ha with 8.6 kg P/ha applied annually, and $AU262/ha for SR of 18.2 ewes/ha with 17.6 kg P/ha applied annually. If income derived from sheep is maintained constant, intensifying the sheep enterprise from the low to the high SR system would involve increasing sheep numbers by about 17%, but would release about 55% of the farm’s area for another purpose.

Merino wethers aged 1.5 years grazed a saltland pasture comprising old man saltbush (Atriplex nummularia) with an inter-row of senesced grasses and medic for 6 weeks in autumn, in a cereal–livestock zone with a Mediterranean-type environment in South Australia. The experimental treatments were a control (old man saltbush, SB), supplementation with 250 g/sheep.day barley straw (SB + S), supplementation with 250 g/sheep.day barley grain (SB + G) and supplementation with 250 g/sheep.day barley straw + 250 g/sheep.day barley grain (SB + S + G). The sheep in SB + G finished the experimental period significantly heavier (53.6 kg, P < 0.001) than SB (51.0 kg), SB + S (50.5 kg) or SB + S + G (51.1 kg) animals. Feeding grain also increased length of wool grown daily by 16% and would have increased the value of the sheep by being able to sell them ‘out of season’ when prices are higher. Sheep supplemented with grain alone had a higher liveweight than those provided with grain and straw, a result that cannot be explained but may be associated with altered grazing behaviour. It appears that, while old man saltbush provides sheep with an acceptable intake of protein and minerals, the addition of a cereal grain supplement improves energy balance and optimises rumen protein capture to improve liveweight and wool growth performance.

Current use of reproductive technology in the Australian livestock industries is limited, though it increased in line with higher prices for beef and wool through the 1980s. The required techniques, many of which were developed in Australia, are available and the level of expertise is comparable to the best in the world. However, the extensive pastoral industries do not readily lend themselves to these procedures. Only in the dairy industry is artificial insemination used to a significant degree. On the other hand, application of the technology in the pastoral industries is confined largely to studs and breeding cooperatives which provide breeding animals for producer flocks and herds. Hence the impact of applied technology may be more widespread than first appears. Until recently, little regard was paid to application of the technology along sound breeding principles. Artificial insemination and multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET) have not been used so much in planned breeding programmes aimed at local improvement of stock, but more to proliferate genes of reputedly superior stock, imported either from overseas or elsewhere in Australia. This is particularly true of MOET, where the incentive to use it is commonly a short term cash gain made from proliferating breeding stock of a particularly valuable and usually novel strain or breed. Recent technological improvements which render the use of reproductive technology cheaper and more effective will lead to its more widespread use in commercial practice. Techniques for embryo freezing and splitting have been greatly simplified and quickly put into practice. The novel livestock technologies of in vitro oocyte maturation and fertilization have already found commercial application overseas. Fecundity-enhancing products have also been adopted by the livestock industries. There is potential value for greater use of reproductive technology in the livestock industries provided it is implemented according to sound breeding principles and provided associated management practices are applied simultaneously.

Two experiments on weaner production are reported. In experiment 1, the liveweight and wool production were measured in medium Peppin Merino sheep that grazed at 10.5 weanerstha 8 plots of a mixed Phalaris aquatica-subterranean clover pasture or 8 plots of annual pasture (Trifolium subterraneum cv. Woogenellup and volunteer annual grass species). This was repeated over 2 years using autumn-born sheep; 4 groups on each pasture type were offered no supplement, 2 groups a cereal supplement (340 goats), and 2 groups of supplement isoenergetic with the cereal group but having a high protein meal replace some of the cereal (250 g oats and 60 g protein). The feed supplement was offered over the summer (January-April). The sheep on 2 of the unsupplemented plots and 1 of the 2 plots receiving either a cereal or cereal + protein supplement were offered access to a composite mineral block formulated to meet the mineral requirements of sheep with the exception of cobalt and selenium. There were 16 sheep on each plot within each group of 16 weaners, 4 were given an intraruminal cobalt 'bullet', 4 were given 5 mg of selenium orally, 4 given cobalt plus selenium and 4 were untreated controls. Experiment 2 was in year 3 with spring-born weaners on the same plots. The mineral block treatment was discarded on the plots receiving supplement and the effect of supplementary feeding at the beginning of March was compared with feeding in early January; barley was also compared with oats and protein. The stocking rate was raised to 13.5 sheep/ha. There were no statistically significant differences in sheep liveweight due to pasture type in either of the years of experiment 1 or experiment 2. Supplementation with cereals or protein-fortified cereals resulted in a significantly ( P < 0.05) increased liveweight at the end of March (5.6 kg in year 1,2.4 kg in year 2 of experiment 1, and 2.5 kg in experiment 2), and wool production (0.49 kg clean wool in year 1 and 0.3 1 kg in year 2 in experiment 1, and 0.49 in experiment 2). There was a significant liveweight response on the perennial plots to selenium + cobalt in year 1 of experiment 1. All cobalt-treated sheep were heavier ( P < 0.001) in year 2. Neither selenium nor cobalt significantly affected liveweight in experiment 2. The proportion of Phalaris aquatica on the perennial pasture diminished from 18% to less than 9% by the end of year 2 in experiment 1. These results suggest that, if perennial pastures cannot be maintained, then their establishment in the south-west of Western Australia would not result in greater animal production than on annual pasture. Decisions on using supplements would be dependent upon feed and wool prices.

The impact of fluctuating wool prices on setting economic values (EVs) in selection indices, e.g. WOOLPLAN, are studied by modelling genetic change in a flock following index selection, Operating under different wool price regimes. Because future price changes are difficult to predict, there is no guaranteed, optimal method of determining EVs. One possibility is the use of a moving regression of the last five years' wool prices (in real terms), rather than setting the index once, or every five years, or every year, based on current prices. The ratio (R) of clean wool price to micron premium is more important than actual prices. It is suggested that the default EVs used currently in WOOLPLAN are appropriate for strong wool Merino flocks. The choice and implications of EVs in other situations are discussed.

Profitability of sheep production systems in southern Australia is optimised at a stocking rate that provides adequate nutrition for breeding ewes and enables efficient utilisation of grown pasture and supplements. In this paper we used bio-economic modelling to develop optimum liveweight1 profiles for spring-lambing Merino ewes in different environments. The modelling included the impacts of the ewe liveweight profile on the production of the ewe and the survival and lifetime wool production of her progeny. Fifteen ewe liveweight profiles were analysed for each region to determine the profitability of varying ewe liveweight at joining, varying rate of loss of liveweight after joining and the rate of gain in liveweight from the minimum to lambing. The analyses support the hypotheses that whole-farm profitability is sensitive to the liveweight profile of Merino ewe flocks and that there is a liveweight profile that maximises whole-farm profit. The variation between the most and least profitable ewe liveweight profile was $69 0002 per farm ($14.30/ewe) for south-west Victoria, $51 000 per farm ($8.70/ewe) for Great Southern Western Australia and $33 300 per farm ($9.70/ewe) for southern New South Wales. The changes in profit were due to differences in costs of feeding to achieve the ewe liveweight profile and its influence on the production of both the ewes and their progeny. Failure to include the impacts of liveweight profile on progeny survival and lifetime wool production incorrectly identifies the optimum ewe liveweight profile and provided inaccurate estimates of profitability. The optimum liveweight profiles for ewes lambing in spring were similar for all three regions and insensitive to changing commodity prices, pasture productivity and management. The optimum profile was to join ewes at ~90% of the standard reference weight of the genotype, lose a small amount of weight after joining and regain weight in late pregnancy to return to the joining weight by lambing. Regaining the liveweight lost in early pregnancy by lambing is the most important target to achieve. The cost per farm of missing this liveweight target by 1 kg was $13 000 ($2.60/ewe) for south-west Victoria, $8900 ($1.45/ewe) for Great Southern Western Australia and $5500 ($1.65/ewe) for southern New South Wales. By contrast, the cost per farm of missing the joining target by 1 kg was $5500 for south-west Victoria and less than $2000 across the other two regions. Whole-farm profit increased with increasing stocking rate up to an optimum and regardless of stocking rate there is an additional opportunity to increase whole-farm profit by up to 15% by managing ewes to achieve the optimum liveweight profile. This indicates that the optimum liveweight profile should be achieved by increasing the level of grain feeding and altering the timing of utilising the farm feed resources rather than manipulating stocking rate.

No Australian wool price hedonic studies have separated auction data into different end product-processing groups (PPR) on the basis of all fibre attributes that affect the suitability of wool sale lots for PPR. This study was conducted to assess: (1) whether including information about PPR groupings is more useful in understanding price than clustering by broad fibre diameter (FD) categories, and (2) if the ‘noise’ of macroeconomic effects on price can be reduced by using a clean price relative to the market indicator (RelPrice) formula or a log RelPrice formula compared with log price or clean price. Hedonic models using data derived from 369 918 Australian auction sale lots in 2010–2011 were estimated for these four dependent price variables. Linear FD models predicted less of price’s variance than quadratic or exponential models. Segmenting wool sale lots into 10 PPR before wool price analyses was found to increase the proportion of price variance explained and thus be worthwhile. The change in price with a change in FD, staple length and staple strength differs significantly between PPR. Calculating RelPrice or log RelPrice appears a better price parameter than clean price or log price. Comparing the RelPrice and clean price models, the mean absolute percentage errors were 6.3% and 16.2%, respectively. The differences in price sensitivity to FD, staple length and staple strength across PPR implies a complex set of price-setting mechanisms for wool as different users place different values on these wool properties. These price-setting mechanisms need to be incorporated in hedonic models for agricultural products that possess this characteristic. The wool price premiums can be used to estimate relative economic values when constructing sheep breeding selection indexes and can help determine the most profitable wool clip preparation strategies.

A global wood shortage generating real inflation-adjusted price increases for wood has been a long and widely-held expectation. This paper assesses the validity of this view by examining global trends in wood and wood-products consumption, developing a model to explain movements in wood prices and testing it empirically. No evidence was found of increasing real prices for wood over the long-term, indicating that there is no looming global wood shortage. A global wood shortage is not predicted because technology is increasing resource productivity, enabling wood products to be made using less wood, and also increasing wood supply. It is superficial to interpret this to mean that there is little to worry about from a native forest biodiversity perspective. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that real prices for wood are likely to continue to fall. This will discourage commercially-driven investment in plantation establishment on existing agricultural land. But industrial pressure will continue for a wood resource that is attractive in cost and quality terms, increasing the risk of biodiversity loss through intensification of native forest management and clearing of native forests for plantations. It is prudent to consider approaches that encourage plantation investment on existing agriculture land using the price mechanism. Currently, much private sector plantation investment is based on price expectations derived from an incorrect view of an imminent global wood shortage. Withdrawing old-growth forests from commodity wood supply is likely to increase wood prices in line with widely-held, though apparently false, expectations and also deliver an absolute best ecological outcome. As increasing volumes of wood become available from maturing plantations, government policy changes will be required to ensure that levels of logging in native forests actually decline rather than new markets being found for native forest wood. Despite its strategic commercial importance, little is known about the potential of the existing global plantation estate to supply wood. Addressing this information gap is a timely task that would enhance industry policy and clarify future plantation investment requirements.

A profit equation was developed for Australian Corriedale and Polwarth dual-purpose sheep kept for both wool and lamb production. Ten traits contribute to income and costs and were included in the breeding objective. These encompass wool production, fibre diameter, and feed intake of breeding ewes and hogget ewe replacements; sale weight and carcass fat depth of lambs; and reproductive rate and mature weight of ewes. The relative economic value for each trait in the enterprise was calculated from the profit equation using income and costs for 1 year. Overall gain ($A) and gain in each trait in the breeding objective from selection using an index of hogget greasy fleece weight, hogget fibre diameter, dam's number of lambs weaned, lamb weight, and lamb fat depth are reported. The sensitivity of the genetic changes in each trait in the breeding objective and index coefficients were assessed for a range of prices of products and feed costs. Sensitivity to changes in heritabilities and genetic correlations was also assessed. The incorporation of these maternal traits into LAMBPLAN is discussed. For the standard parameters and prices used, gain in leanness accounted for one-third of overall gain ($/ewe. s.d. of selection). Other traits that contributed to overall gain were fibre diameter (28%), reproduction (18%), and growth (14%). There was a small gain through feed intake (8%), and a very small loss in wool weight. Measures of fatness, growth, and fibre diameter were the important traits in the selection index. Inclusion of hogget greasy fleece weight and dam's number of lambs weaned each added <1% to the efficiency of the selection index. Varying the sale price for lamb and the price differentials for fibre diameter and fat depth had the greatest impact on overall gain. High lamb price increased gains in both reproduction and lamb weight, whereas, high price differentials for fibre diameter and fat mainly increased gains in the particular trait. A large range in prices for wool had very little effect on the individual traits or overall. Changing feed costs had little effect on overall gain, although high feed cost reduced gains from reproduction which were compensated by reduced feed intake. Halving the heritability value for each trait reduced overall gain, largely through reduction in the trait. Varying the genetic correlations of wool production with other traits had little effect. However, when genetic correlations of reproduction with weight, fat, and fibre diameter were varied there were changes in overall gain, largely through reproduction.

Sheep producers and their advisors utilise Australian Merino bloodline trial data to guide future sheep breeding objectives and ram selection. To adequately assess the economic outcomes from different bloodlines in the decision making process, there is a need to consider the impact of wool and sheep meat price risk. Using a steady-state wether flock model that accounts for the lifetime productivity of 268 reported Merino bloodlines and stochastic dependency in weekly wool and sheep meat prices from 28 June 2005 to 10 November 2011, gross incomes per dry sheep equivalent (GI/DSE) were calculated for a weekly time step. The analysis found that across all bloodlines and market price scenarios, GI/DSE ranged between AU$13.92 and AU$67.83, with an overall mean of AU$32.60. The individual means of bloodlines across the time series ranged from AU$37.46 to AU$25.19 GI/DSE. The coefficient of variation, used as the measure of relative risk for each bloodline, ranged from 0.24 to 0.30 with a mean of 0.25. The analysis showed that a bloodlines exposure to price risk has a curvilinear relationship to fibre diameter and fleece weight. The results from a risk-reward point of view indicate that the majority of Australian Merino bloodlines are risk-inefficient. This suggests Australian sheep producers have a significant opportunity to increase net returns and reduce price risk exposure by identifying and switching to more risk-efficient bloodlines.

Large areas of undeveloped pastures in non-arable hill country in eastern New South Wales could be improved by aerial methods. The potential economic benefits of pasture improving a portion of the hill country area were evaluated in terms of the economic welfare changes in the Australian wool industry. Hill country wool producers and international wool consumers would derive nearly all of the benefits from this process. Other Australian and international wool producers would lose economic welfare because of the reduced price from increased regional wool production. For conservative anticipated levels of pasture improvement adoption, the overall benefits to the Australian wool industry had 15-year mean present values of between $30.2 million and $122.1 million, depending on whether the introduced pasture was predominantly perennial grass or legume based. The value of this analysis is that it provides improved economic information for planning investment in new pasture technologies in the Australian livestock industries.

In the first article of this trilogy [1], the cost-price squeeze facing the Australian woolgrower was advanced as the motivation for spending more than $3 million p.a. on the Australian Wool Harvesting Programme. The first article summarized the use of technology to improve wool severing devices. This article addresses the progress of a novel technology – the use of robots to shear sheep.

Changes in the sheep industry over the last 20 years represent a trend that is unlikely to be reversed. The farm gate value of wool production has decreased from over $6 billion to ~$2.5 billion and the value of sheep meat has increased from $0.5 to $2.2 billion. Wool and meat are now on an equal footing in terms of the economic value of each sector of the industry. Future profitability of both wool and sheep meat production depends on achieving a high rate of productivity gain and improving quality attributes valued by consumers. Wool and sheep meat cannot compete on price or volume with synthetics and cotton in the textile market or with chicken and pork in the meat market. Differentiation based on quality and consistency needs to be measurable and clearly understood by consumers. The combination of genetic selection and good management can deliver improved productivity gain. Skills development and training will be essential for the industry to fully utilise available knowledge and new technologies.

This paper presents a conceptual model for estimating the maximum scale of biomass processing industry that may be supported by woody crops grown in the medium and low rainfall agricultural regions of southern Australia. The model integrates paddock scale economics, water capture by woody crops, conversion of water to woody biomass, and estimation of suitable area. It enables estimates to be made of the maximum scale of implementation of commercial woody crops in various climatic regions, and the maximum amount of woody biomass that could be produced commercially within an economic transport distance of a processing facility. To demonstrate the utility of the model, potential biomass supply is estimated for 2 Western Australian wheatbelt towns, Merredin and Narrogin. These estimates are compared with the feedstock requirements of a range of different processing industries. This paper demonstrates that the rate of converting water to biomass and water capture biomass price are key determinants of the potential scale of biomass crops and processing industries in the southern Australian wheat and wool belts and hence the potential contribution of woody crops to dryland salinity management.

Two earlier articles have considered the cost-price squeeze facing the Australian woolgrower, and the solutions being sought to reduce wool harvesting costs. The first concentrated on the improvements to existing shearing methods, especially the shearing mechanism itself. The second summarised the progress of a programme aiming to automate shearing. This concluding article considers the research which has been undertaken to evaluate chemical and biological methods of wool harvesting.

An individual merino sheep’s output of wool production is influenced by synergistic interactions of sheep genetics, climate, farm management, and nutrition available to the whole flock. The price paid to the producer for this wool commodity is determined via numerous tested parameters and /or subjective appraisal of the raw greasy wool. This research investigated the level of variation in wool cortisol (a physiological stress biomarker) and wool micron (MIC) in Merino ewes (Ovis aries), pre-partum and post-lambing (lactation/lambs at foot), using maiden ewe (n = 38) managed in an outdoor paddock in a commercial farm. The key findings of this study are; (1) wool quality indicators showed a significant variation between pre- and post- parturition including significant reduction in MIC and (2) there was a negative correlation between wool cortisol levels and wool micron pre-parturition (rs = − 0.179, p < 0.05). This relationship between wool cortisol and wool micron was positive (rs = + 0.29, p < 0.05) during post-parturition suggesting that ewes with lambs at foot ended up with finer wool (reduction in fibre diameter) but they also maintained high levels of wool cortisol. Furthermore, the comfort factor, curvature, standard deviation and spin fineness of the wool were also significantly reduced post-parturition. The results of this study show that metabolic resources partitioning in ewe associated with pregnancy and lambing can result in a reduction in wool quality indices. The activity of the HPA-axis is attenuated during late gestation and parturition as a maternal adaptation; however, the results of our study show that wool cortisol remained similar between pre- and post- lambing. This result indicates that environmental stressors that may have been operating on farm (e.g., cold winter period) could influence on maternal physiological stress response however the exact level of influence of environment conditions on ewe stress levels and productivity traits (e.g., lambing success and wool quality) warrants further investigation. In conclusion, the use of top-knot wool sampling in combination with wool cortisol analysis provides researchers with a convenient method to quantify wool quality and physiological stress simultaneously under commercial sheep production.

Global warming is an important issue in the world which it gives a negative effect on human life. One indicator of global warming is increasing greenhouse gas i.e. carbondioxide from human activities. Deforestation and forest degradation are the second largest contributor of carbon into the atmosphere, after the use of fossil fuels by industry and transportation. As lungs of the world, forest is enable to produce renewable energy sources i.e. biomass. Forest carbon stock in above ground biomass (AGB) is the greatest effect source on deforestation and forest degradation. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a study the potential of carbon in forest. The purpose of this research is to determine carbon stock value in Batang Gadis National Park, Mandailing Natal Regency, North Sumatera Province, Indonesia. The carbon potential stored in this forest vegetation is calculated using AGB allometric equation by using data in diameter at breast height (dbh = 1.3 m), height, and density of the wood for trees. Data obtained from secondary data is Asset Assessment Report which State Controlled Forest Natural Resources Batang Gadis National Park, 2016. Study locations were Pagar Gunung and Sopo Tinjak Villages. Carbon stock values were calculated and analyzed with assumption that a half of biomass part is carbon stock which using Australian carbon price about AUD $ 11.82 Australia (Australian dollars) and EU € 5 (US $ 6). The results showed that the total biomass in Pagar Gunung and Sopo Tinjak Villages amounted to 259.83 tonnes and 160.89 tonnes. From the results of the total biomass, the total carbon stocks (C) and CO2 stocks in both villages are 210.36 tonnes (129.92 tonnes in Pagar Gunung Village and 80.45 tonnes in Sopo Tinjak Village) and 772.03 tonnes (476.79 tonnes in Pagar Gunung Village and 295.24 tonnes in Sopo Tinjak Village). By using the carbon price prevailing in the market place Australia Emission Trading System (ETS) and the EU ETS (AUD $ 11.82/t CO2e and € 5 (US $ 6)/t CO2e), the value of carbon stock that can be produced from Batang Gadis National Park (Pagar Gunung and Sopo Tinjak Villages) is about Rp. 92,499,921.72 (in AUD $) or Rp. 61,654,433.67 (in US $).

The demand in the world market for high quality fine and superfine wool is increasing, responding to greater wool textile industry demands and price incentives. There are few research studies focused on hair follicle population in fine and superfine Merino sheep in Uruguay. This study evaluates the association between wool follicle population and the most relevant economical wool traits. This work was carried out on Ultrafine Australian Merino (UAM) and Dohne Merino (DM) animals (lambs and rams). Phenotypic correlations between the secondary/primary follicles (S/P) and other wool traits (fiber diameter, staple length, clean fleece weight, scoured yield, coefficient of variation of fiber diameter and comfort factor parameter, were performed using histological skin cuts. Two skin samples were extracted from each lamb at two and nine months of age. These were processed at the skin histology laboratory to obtain a histological preparation for further biopsy, being able to differentiate the structures obtained to be evaluated. The results showed in the UAM group, S/P ratio in nine-month-old lambs was greater than two-month-old lambs (31.08 vs 23.12 P< 0.05). For DM group, there were no differences in the S/P ratio between age groups. Phenotypic correlations for wool characteristics obtained were of low to medium or null magnitude in both genotypes.

This paper describes adoption rates of environmental assurance within meat and wool supply chains, and discusses this in terms of market interest and demand for certified ‘environmentally friendly’ products, based on phone surveys and personal interviews with pastoral producers, meat and wool processors, wholesalers and retailers, and domestic consumers. Members of meat and wool supply chains, particularly pastoral producers, are both aware of and interested in implementing various forms of environmental assurance, but significant costs combined with few private benefits have resulted in low adoption rates. The main reason for the lack of benefits is that the end user (the consumer) does not value environmental assurance and is not willing to pay for it. For this reason, global food and fibre supply chains, which compete to supply consumers with safe and quality food at the lowest price, resist public pressure to implement environmental assurance. This market failure is further exacerbated by highly variable environmental and social production standards required of primary producers in different countries, and the disparate levels of government support provided to them. Given that it is the Australian general public and not markets that demand environmental benefits from agriculture, the Australian government has a mandate to use public funds to counter this market failure. A national farm environmental policy should utilise a range of financial incentives to reward farmers for delivering general public good environmental outcomes, with these specified and verified through a national environmental assurance scheme.

In Australia in 2011 the Federal government introduced a voluntary offset scheme called the Carbon Farming Initiative, which allows farmers to receive carbon credits when they reduce or sequester greenhouse gas emissions. Various mitigation options have since been explored for their potential to reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions. Among these is the use of alternative pastures that lower methane (CH4) production of grazing animals such as Lotus corniculatus, a legume that contains condensed tannins that inhibit the formation of CH4 in the rumen. Lotus has other benefits for sheep production such as increased wool growth, liveweight gain and fecundity. This study modelled the potential emission, production and economic outcomes for wool and lamb enterprises that incorporate lotus in their pastures, evaluating the impact of existing farm productivity, lotus intake and carbon price. Depending on the amount of lotus consumed and the CH4 reduction rate, CH4 emissions fell by 0.02–0.38 t carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e)/ha and 0.05–0.48 t CO2e/ha on wool and prime lamb enterprises, respectively. At a price of $6/t CO2e potential offset income attributable to use of lotus across all enterprises was $0.12–2.91/ha. Increases in income from increased productivity were 15–30 times greater than from potential carbon offset income. Income was driven by the amount of lotus dry matter intake and the subsequent production benefits. Over a 10-year period prime lamb enterprises generated up to $50/ha in profit by using lotus, due to increased liveweight gain and fecundity. In most modelled scenarios wool enterprises would not cover the cost of lotus pasture establishment. This research demonstrated that 18–23% and 37–46% of lotus intake within the diet was required to generate production enough to cover pasture establishment costs on prime lamb and wool enterprises, respectively. Potential carbon offset income would not be sufficient for farmers to establish lotus without the productivity benefits. While extra profit may be gained on prime lamb enterprises through the use of lotus, problems with persistence must first be overcome for lotus to be adopted on farms.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer willingness to pay a premium for domestically manufactured products in the context of a buy-national campaign and the role of congruity in determining that willingness. Design/methodology/approach A market-stall-like context was used to conduct a stated-preference choice modelling experiment in six major cities in Australia and New Zealand. Participants were asked to choose one of three country-source alternatives for each of three product categories on display (muesli bars, toilet paper and a merino wool garment) with and without “Buy Australian Made” or “Buy New Zealand Made” stickers. A total sample of 2,160 consumers participated. Findings Strong evidence for the existence of buy-made-in effects for the muesli bar and toilet paper categories was found at the 95 per cent confidence level. Domestically made toilet paper attracted a premium in Australia (10 per cent) but a discount in New Zealand (5 per cent). Consumers in both countries indicated their willingness to pay a 14 per cent premium for domestically made muesli bars. Research limitations/implications This research design, which aimed to achieve a high level of ecological validity, precluded direct quantitative measurement of product category-COO schema congruency in the same experiment, either before or after the choice experiments. Future studies in other countries and product categories would benefit from surveying a separate sample of the same populations to directly estimate cross-population differences in COO “extreme affect” and product-COO congruence to strengthen the untangling of possibly confounding effects. Practical implications Brand managers, retail sector organisations and governments may need to reconsider the rationale for participating in buy-national campaigns, given the lack of generalisability of buy-made-in price premiums. Originality/value This paper is a rare example of an experiment to test whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for domestically made products in the context of a buy-national campaign.

Wiltshire Horn-Merino (WH-M) crosses of 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4 Merino content were compared over 10 years for wool shedding, blowfly strike frequency and wool production traits. Merinos and 1/2 Merino WH-M were compared over 4 years. For wool production traits, 1/2 and 5/8 Merino WH-M ewes were compared to Border Leicester-Merino (BL-M) ewes over 2 years. Shedding increased with age for all WH-M genotypes, with 3/4 Merinos showing less shedding than 1/2 Merinos at all ages. At 1 and 2 years of age, 5/8 Merinos were intermediate between the other 2 WH-M genotypes, but at later ages they were similar to 1/2 Merinos. All genotypes showed less shedding at the belly site than the head, neck and breech as lambs, but not at older ages. Phenotypic correlations between sites on the same sheep were high, averaging 0.85. Repeatability estimates for each site ranged from 0.26 to 0.45. Shedding increased most with age in the 1/2 Merinos, and least in the 3/4 Merinos. Little or no shoulder and back wool was shed by most sheep. All 1/2 and 5/8 Merinos and most 3/4 Merinos had bare legs and points. Blowfly strike incidence was far higher in Merinos than 1/2 Merinos, in all years. Among WH-M, blowfly strike incidence increased as Merino content increased, in all years. All WH-M were far inferior to both Merinos and BL-M in total greasy wool weight and all its components, and also in clean fleece weight, with their level of inferiority increasing as their Merino content declined. Wool fibre diameter for all WH-M was coarser than for Merinos, but was a little finer than for BL-M. Fibre diameter increased in the WH-M as their Merino content declined. All WH-M had lower wool yields than the Merinos or BL-M. In some years the 314 Merinos had lower wool yields than the 1/2 and 5/8 Merinos, which were similar in all years. Shedding caused numerous genotype x age interactions in wool weight and its components, as Merinos and BL-M did not shed, and with the WH-M shedding increased most with age in the 1/2 Merinos, and least in the 3/4 Merinos. Due to preferential shedding from the belly and other low-value areas, the WH-M inferiority in total wool weight was less severe for fleece weight. Winter shearing succeeded in harvesting some wool from WH-M that would be shed before a summer shearing, but not enough to alter rankings among genotypes. All WH-M genotypes have wool too coarse, and not enough of it, to compete as a wool sheep with the Merino at current wool prices under usual Australian pastoral conditions. In areas where mustering is difficult or blowfly strike unusually severe, WH-M genotypes may find a niche.

A farmlet experiment was conducted between July 2000 and December 2006 as part of the Cicerone Project, which sought to enhance the profitability and sustainability of grazing enterprises on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. A self-replacing Merino enterprise was grazed as the dominant livestock enterprise, together with ~20% of the carrying capacity as cattle, on each of three farmlet treatments: higher levels of soil fertility and pasture renovation with flexible rotational grazing over eight paddocks (farmlet A), moderate soil fertility and pasture renovation with flexible rotational grazing over eight paddocks (farmlet B) and moderate soil fertility and pasture renovation with intensive rotational grazing over 37 paddocks (farmlet C). Prior to commencement of the trial, the three 53-ha farmlets were allocated equivalent areas of land based on soil type, slope and recent fertiliser history. This paper describes the effects of the three pasture and grazing management strategies on the production, quality and value of the wool produced per head, per ha and per farmlet. Up until 2001 there were no differences in wool production between farmlets. Thereafter, significant differences between farmlets emerged in greasy fleece weight per head and price received per kg of fleece wool. For example, the clean fleece value averaged over the 2003–05 shearings for all hoggets, ewes and wethers was 1531, 1584 and 1713 cents/kg for farmlets A, B and C, respectively. There were small but significant differences, which varied between sheep class and year, between the farmlets in average fibre diameter and staple length but less so with staple strength. In general, while the differences between farmlets in staple strength varied over time, farmlets A and B tended to have wool with longer staple length and broader fibre diameter than farmlet C and this affected wool value per kg. Differences in wool income per ha between farmlets grew in later years as the farmlet treatments took effect. In spite of farmlet A having a slightly lower wool value per kg, after taking into account its greater fleece weight per head and its higher stocking rate, the total wool income per ha was higher than on either farmlets B or C. The average gross wool income per ha from 2003 to 2005 was $303, $215 and $180 for farmlets A, B and C, respectively. The highest amount of greasy wool produced was in 2004 when 38.2, 26.5 and 21.5 kg/ha was harvested from farmlets A, B and C, respectively. The fibre diameter profiles of 2-year-old ewes showed similar profiles for farmlets A and B but a significantly finer fibre diameter profile for farmlet C ewes due to intensive rotational grazing. However, sheep on all three farmlets produced wool with high staple strength. Multivariate analyses revealed that greasy fleece weight, staple length and staple strength were significantly positively correlated with the proportion of the farm grazed at any one time, and with soil phosphorus, legume herbage and green digestible herbage thus highlighting the significant influence of pasture and soil inputs and of grazing management on wool production and quality.

SummaryLeicester Longwool sheep are pivotal in the history of standardised sheep breeds. The breed was imported into the United States in 1990, and it was never imagined as more than a minor sideline to the array of breeds in the United States. Eighteen sheep were originally imported from Tasmania, with further contributions via semen from 12 rams in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In subsequent years the population of this breed in those source countries has plummeted, leaving the United States with the largest national flock (800). The decline in numbers worldwide have made the genetic management of the North American population increasingly important. The wool is sought by handcrafters and brings a premium price. Attention to maintaining the breed with its original fleece characteristics is an important priority, especially given the breed's role in the development of multiple longwool breeds. One divergence of the American flock from the other countries is the registration of coloured animals, and these make up 6% of the current flock.

The resilience and profitability of livestock production in many countries can be impacted by shocks, such as drought and market shifts, especially under high debt levels. For farmers to remain profitable through such uncertainty, there is a need to understand and predict a farming business’s ability to withstand and recover from such shocks. This research demonstrates the use of biophysical modelling linked with copula and Monte Carlo simulation techniques to predict the risks faced by a typical wool and meat lamb enterprise in South-Eastern Australia, given the financial impacts of different debt levels on a farming business’s profitability and growth in net wealth. The study tested five starting gearing scenarios, i.e., debt to equity (D:E) ratios to define a farm’s financial risk profiles, given weather and price variations over time. Farms with higher gearing are increasingly worse off, highlighting the implications of debt accumulating over time due to drought shocks. In addition to business risk, financial risk should be included in the analyses and planning of farm production to identify optimal management strategies better. The methods described in this paper enable the extension of production simulation to include the farmer’s management information to determine financial risk profiles and guide decision making for improved business resilience.

This article traces the journey of two indigenous textile fibres—Kala cotton and Desi Oon—and the efforts of farmers, pastoralists, craft artisans and Khamir, to conserve, sustain and promote the natural and cultural heritage that have nourished these fibres. It recreates the revival of these fibres in Kutch, a semi-arid region of India, and unfolds the technical, cultural and creative challenges that have accompanied this process—from land to the loom. Large-scale shifts in Indian agriculture have marked a significant breakdown of the value loops and deep interdependent economies between farmers, spinners, weavers, dyers and tailors. First, in the nineteenth century, when the cultivation of short staple indigenous varieties of cotton shifted to long staple cotton, which could feed the mills of Britain; and then in the late twentieth century when a global push towards hybrid, genetically modified varieties of cotton strode over the farming of more resilient local cotton varieties. Similarly, across India, vast genetic resource of sheep, yak and camels, in particular, have, for centuries, been conserved and bred by the nomadic pastoral communities of these regions. Even two and a half decade ago, the animal’s fibre was used extensively by the pastoralists themselves and fetched them a market price for the wool that was almost equal to that of meat. However, with India becoming a major sheep meat producing country, accompanied by the relaxation of tariffs on wool imports in the early nineties, the Indian wool market has moved completely to softer, longer staple wool from New Zealand, Australia and the Middle East. Today, this is the only natural fibre in which India is deficient despite having the third largest number of sheep in the world! The process of conserving indigenous cotton seeds, sheep breeds, their fibres and a range of associated textile crafts, challenge all the essential premises on which the political economy of contemporary textiles rest. However hope comes in many forms—the intense climatic variabilities and growing vulnerabilities to climate change, is compelling farmers and pastoralists to revisit the choices they have been compelled to adopt by a globalized market economy. Their growing understanding and need to revive their local cotton seeds and animal breeds, which are more adaptable and resilient to climatic variabilities, hold out a tremendous opportunity to transform the landscape of indigenous textile fibres. Through her experiences, the author stitches together a story of localization wherein Khamir attempts to restore a lost heritage and the bonds between farmers, pastoralists, spinners, weavers and dyers.

Wood forest products (WFPs) are globally important environmental products, with economic, ecological, and renewable characteristics. China is the world’s largest WFP exporter. However, many factors, such as the downturn of traditional major export markets and the rise of the price of production factors, have generated great challenges and uncertainties for China’s WFP export market. This study improves the product scope of WFPs. The category of WFPs has been expanded to 14 categories and 30 sub-categories, which is more detailed and more developed than in previous literature. Based on the United Nations’ Comtrade Database (COMTRADE), this paper uses the revised constant market share (CMS) model to measure and analyze empirically the factors affecting the export growth of China’s WFPs from the perspective of market, structure, and competitiveness. It is found that (1) the competitive effect exerts the biggest influence on export growth, followed by market size effects, with the effects of market distribution and product structure both being small; (2) wooden furniture, wooden products, plywood, paper, and its products play a main role in enhancing the competitive effect in China’s WFPs; and (3) China’s WFPs have a strong market competitiveness in other markets such as the USA, China Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Therefore, it is crucial for China’s WFP market to improve its product structure effects and market distribution effects in order for it to participate in international competition. On the other hand, considering that China’s exports of WFPs mainly consist of resource- and labor-intensive products, the improvement of standards such as the technology level, environmental protection and sustainable development, must not be ignored.

In the Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection in New South Wales, Recommendation 16.9 states: ‘Carer allowances should be reviewed periodically by an independent body and should more closely reflect the actual costs to the carer of providing care, according to the varying categories of need’ (Wood, 2008, p. 689). In 2000, estimates of the costs of foster children were developed (the Foster Care Estimates) by an ‘independent body’, the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC). Using a budget standards approach, estimates representing the ‘basic’ subsidy were based on the costs of children not in care and adjusted to more closely reflect the day-to-day cost of fostering children in statutory care. Since 2000, the estimates have been updated annually (using the Consumer Price Index). This article examines the changes to levels of allowances for statutory foster and kinship carers in all Australian jurisdictions over the period 2000–2009. It argues that the use of the internationally recognised budget standards approach to estimate ‘actual costs to carers’ has been accepted by government and more than meets the requirements of Wood's Recommendation 16.9.

In Mediterranean-type environments, livestock productivity in mixed livestock and cropping enterprises often is limited by a period of feed scarcity that extends from late autumn, when dry residues of crops and pastures from the previous growing season are being exhausted, through to early winter when green feed is just commencing. Dual-purpose crops have been developed as a source of winter green feed, while still being a source of grain at harvest. These crops increase feed availability and boost livestock productivity. This study evaluates the role and value of dual-purpose wheat and canola crops, in combination with lucerne, in mixed-enterprise farming systems that experience a Mediterranean-type climate. Using bioeconomic modelling, the value of dual-purpose crops is assessed under a range of yield, price and technical assumptions. For an Australian study region, the robust finding is that the joint inclusion of dual-purpose crops and lucerne greatly increases the farming-system profits. Under standard assumptions when the farming system is operated to maximise profit, farm profit increases by AU$68 000 (or 88% over the base case) following the inclusion of both dual-purpose wheat and canola. The increase in profit is attributable to wool and sheep sales rising by 261%, yet the proportions of crop and pasture remain similar with or without the dual-purpose crops. Importantly, the proportion of the pasture area that is lucerne greatly increases to complement the increase in feed availability generated by the dual-purpose crops. The resultant large increase in feed availability in winter and summer allows the stocking rate to increase so sheep numbers and sheep turn-off become the main source of the increase in profit. Sensitivity analysis shows that even with significant commodity price fluctuations and further reduction in grain yield caused by grazing, and exclusion of lucerne, inclusion of dual-purpose crops in these farming systems still increases farm profit.

IntroductionFood Studies is a relatively recent area of research enquiry in Australia and Magazine Studies is even newer (Le Masurier and Johinke), with the consequence that Australian culinary magazines are only just beginning to be investigated. Moreover, although many major libraries have not thought such popular magazines worthy of sustained collection (Fox and Sornil), considering these publications is important. As de Certeau argues, it can be of considerable consequence to identify and analyse everyday practices (such as producing and reading popular magazines) that seem so minor and insignificant as to be unworthy of notice, as these practices have the ability to affect our lives. It is important in this case as these publications were part of the post-war gastronomic environment in Australia in which national tastes in domestic cookery became radically internationalised (Santich). To further investigate Australian magazines, as well as suggesting how these cosmopolitan eating habits became more widely embraced, this article will survey the various ways in which the idea of “abroad” is expressed in one Australian culinary serial from the post-war period, Australian Wines & Food Quarterly magazine, which was published from 1956 to 1960. The methodological approach taken is an historically-informed content analysis (Krippendorff) of relevant material from these magazines combined with germane media data (Hodder). All issues in the serial’s print run have been considered.Australian Post-War Culinary PublishingTo date, studies of 1950s writing in Australia have largely focused on literary and popular fiction (Johnson-Wood; Webby) and literary criticism (Bird; Dixon; Lee). There have been far fewer studies of non-fiction writing of any kind, although some serial publications from this time have attracted some attention (Bell; Lindesay; Ross; Sheridan; Warner-Smith; White; White). In line with studies internationally, groundbreaking work in Australian food history has focused on cookbooks, and includes work by Supski, who notes that despite the fact that buying cookbooks was “regarded as a luxury in the 1950s” (87), such publications were an important information source in terms of “developing, consolidating and extending foodmaking knowledge” at that time (85).It is widely believed that changes to Australian foodways were brought about by significant post-war immigration and the recipes and dishes these immigrants shared with neighbours, friends, and work colleagues and more widely afield when they opened cafes and restaurants (Newton; Newton; Manfredi). Although these immigrants did bring new culinary flavours and habits with them, the overarching rhetoric guiding population policy at this time was assimilation, with migrants expected to abandon their culture, language, and habits in favour of the dominant British-influenced ways of living (Postiglione). While migrants often did retain their foodways (Risson), the relationship between such food habits and the increasingly cosmopolitan Australian food culture is much more complex than the dominant cultural narrative would have us believe. It has been pointed out, for example, that while the haute cuisine of countries such as France, Italy, and Germany was much admired in Australia and emulated in expensive dining (Brien and Vincent), migrants’ own preference for their own dishes instead of Anglo-Australian choices, was not understood (Postiglione). Duruz has added how individual diets are eclectic, “multi-layered and hybrid” (377), incorporating foods from both that person’s own background with others available for a range of reasons including availability, cost, taste, and fashion. In such an environment, popular culinary publishing, in terms of cookbooks, specialist magazines, and recipe and other food-related columns in general magazines and newspapers, can be posited to be another element contributing to this change.Australian Wines & Food QuarterlyAustralian Wines & Food Quarterly (AWFQ) is, as yet, a completely unexamined publication, and there appears to be only three complete sets of this magazine held in public collections. It is important to note that, at the time it was launched in the mid-1950s, food writing played a much less significant part in Australian popular publishing than it does today, with far fewer cookbooks released than today, and women’s magazines and the women’s pages of newspapers containing only small recipe sections. In this environment, a new specialist culinary magazine could be seen to be timely, an audacious gamble, or both.All issues of this magazine were produced and printed in, and distributed from, Melbourne, Australia. Although no sales or distribution figures are available, production was obviously a struggle, with only 15 issues published before the magazine folded at the end of 1960. The title of the magazine changed over this time, and issue release dates are erratic, as is the method in which volumes and issues are numbered. Although the number of pages varied from 32 up to 52, and then less once again, across the magazine’s life, the price was steadily reduced, ending up at less than half the original cover price. All issues were produced and edited by Donald Wallace, who also wrote much of the content, with contributions from family members, including his wife, Mollie Wallace, to write, illustrate, and produce photographs for the magazine.When considering the content of the magazine, most is quite familiar in culinary serials today, although AWFQ’s approach was radically innovative in Australia at this time when cookbooks, women’s magazines, and newspaper cookery sections focused on recipes, many of which were of cakes, biscuits, and other sweet baking (Bannerman). AWFQ not only featured many discursive essays and savory meals, it also featured much wine writing and review-style content as well as information about restaurant dining in each issue.Wine-Related ContentWine is certainly the most prominent of the content areas, with most issues of the magazine containing more wine-related content than any other. Moreover, in the early issues, most of the food content is about preparing dishes and/or meals that could be consumed alongside wines, although the proportion of food content increases as the magazine is published. This wine-related content takes a clearly international perspective on this topic. While many articles and advertisements, for example, narrate the long history of Australian wine growing—which goes back to early 19th century—these articles argue that Australia's vineyards and wineries measure up to international, and especially French, examples. In one such example, the author states that: “from the earliest times Australia’s wines have matched up to world standard” (“Wine” 25). This contest can be situated in Australia, where a leading restaurant (Caprice in Sydney) could be seen to not only “match up to” but also, indeed to, “challenge world standards” by serving Australian wines instead of imports (“Sydney” 33). So good, indeed, are Australian wines that when foreigners are surprised by their quality, this becomes newsworthy. This is evidenced in the following excerpt: “Nearly every English businessman who has come out to Australia in the last ten years … has diverted from his main discussion to comment on the high quality of Australian wine” (Seppelt, 3). In a similar nationalist vein, many articles feature overseas experts’ praise of Australian wines. Thus, visiting Italian violinist Giaconda de Vita shows a “keen appreciation of Australian wines” (“Violinist” 30), British actor Robert Speaight finds Grange Hermitage “an ideal wine” (“High Praise” 13), and the Swedish ambassador becomes their advocate (Ludbrook, “Advocate”).This competition could also be located overseas including when Australian wines are served at prestigious overseas events such as a dinner for members of the Overseas Press Club in New York (Australian Wines); sold from Seppelt’s new London cellars (Melbourne), or the equally new Australian Wine Centre in Soho (Australia Will); or, featured in exhibitions and promotions such as the Lausanne Trade Fair (Australia is Guest;“Wines at Lausanne), or the International Wine Fair in Yugoslavia (Australia Wins).Australia’s first Wine Festival was held in Melbourne in 1959 (Seppelt, “Wine Week”), the joint focus of which was the entertainment and instruction of the some 15,000 to 20,000 attendees who were expected. At its centre was a series of free wine tastings aiming to promote Australian wines to the “professional people of the community, as well as the general public and the housewife” (“Melbourne” 8), although admission had to be recommended by a wine retailer. These tastings were intended to build up the prestige of Australian wine when compared to international examples: “It is the high quality of our wines that we are proud of. That is the story to pass on—that Australian wine, at its best, is at least as good as any in the world and better than most” (“Melbourne” 8).There is also a focus on promoting wine drinking as a quotidian habit enjoyed abroad: “We have come a long way in less than twenty years […] An enormous number of husbands and wives look forward to a glass of sherry when the husband arrives home from work and before dinner, and a surprising number of ordinary people drink table wine quite un-selfconsciously” (Seppelt, “Advance” 3). However, despite an acknowledged increase in wine appreciation and drinking, there is also acknowledgement that this there was still some way to go in this aim as, for example, in the statement: “There is no reason why the enjoyment of table wines should not become an Australian custom” (Seppelt, “Advance” 4).The authority of European experts and European habits is drawn upon throughout the publication whether in philosophically-inflected treatises on wine drinking as a core part of civilised behaviour, or practically-focused articles about wine handling and serving (Keown; Seabrook; “Your Own”). Interestingly, a number of Australian experts are also quoted as stressing that these are guidelines, not strict rules: Crosby, for instance, states: “There is no ‘right wine.’ The wine to drink is the one you like, when and how you like it” (19), while the then-manager of Lindemans Wines is similarly reassuring in his guide to entertaining, stating that “strict adherence to the rules is not invariably wise” (Mackay 3). Tingey openly acknowledges that while the international-style of regularly drinking wine had “given more dignity and sophistication to the Australian way of life” (35), it should not be shrouded in snobbery.Food-Related ContentThe magazine’s cookery articles all feature international dishes, and certain foreign foods, recipes, and ways of eating and dining are clearly identified as “gourmet”. Cheese is certainly the most frequently mentioned “gourmet” food in the magazine, and is featured in every issue. These articles can be grouped into the following categories: understanding cheese (how it is made and the different varieties enjoyed internationally), how to consume cheese (in relation to other food and specific wines, and in which particular parts of a meal, again drawing on international practices), and cooking with cheese (mostly in what can be identified as “foreign” recipes).Some of this content is produced by Kraft Foods, a major advertiser in the magazine, and these articles and recipes generally focus on urging people to eat more, and varied international kinds of cheese, beyond the ubiquitous Australian cheddar. In terms of advertorials, both Kraft cheeses (as well as other advertisers) are mentioned by brand in recipes, while the companies are also profiled in adjacent articles. In the fourth issue, for instance, a full-page, infomercial-style advertisement, noting the different varieties of Kraft cheese and how to serve them, is published in the midst of a feature on cooking with various cheeses (“Cooking with Cheese”). This includes recipes for Swiss Cheese fondue and two pasta recipes: spaghetti and spicy tomato sauce, and a so-called Italian spaghetti with anchovies.Kraft’s company history states that in 1950, it was the first business in Australia to manufacture and market rindless cheese. Through these AWFQ advertisements and recipes, Kraft aggressively marketed this innovation, as well as its other new products as they were launched: mayonnaise, cheddar cheese portions, and Cracker Barrel Cheese in 1954; Philadelphia Cream Cheese, the first cream cheese to be produced commercially in Australia, in 1956; and, Coon Cheese in 1957. Not all Kraft products were seen, however, as “gourmet” enough for such a magazine. Kraft’s release of sliced Swiss Cheese in 1957, and processed cheese slices in 1959, for instance, both passed unremarked in either the magazine’s advertorial or recipes.An article by the Australian Dairy Produce Board urging consumers to “Be adventurous with Cheese” presented general consumer information including the “origin, characteristics and mode of serving” cheese accompanied by a recipe for a rich and exotic-sounding “Wine French Dressing with Blue Cheese” (Kennedy 18). This was followed in the next issue by an article discussing both now familiar and not-so familiar European cheese varieties: “Monterey, Tambo, Feta, Carraway, Samsoe, Taffel, Swiss, Edam, Mozzarella, Pecorino-Romano, Red Malling, Cacio Cavallo, Blue-Vein, Roman, Parmigiano, Kasseri, Ricotta and Pepato” (“Australia’s Natural” 23). Recipes for cheese fondues recur through the magazine, sometimes even multiple times in the same issue (see, for instance, “Cooking With Cheese”; “Cooking With Wine”; Pain). In comparison, butter, although used in many AWFQ’s recipes, was such a common local ingredient at this time that it was only granted one article over the entire run of the magazine, and this was largely about the much more unusual European-style unsalted butter (“An Expert”).Other international recipes that were repeated often include those for pasta (always spaghetti) as well as mayonnaise made with olive oil. Recurring sweets and desserts include sorbets and zabaglione from Italy, and flambéd crepes suzettes from France. While tabletop cooking is the epitome of sophistication and described as an international technique, baked Alaska (ice cream nestled on liquor-soaked cake, and baked in a meringue shell), hailing from America, is the most featured recipe in the magazine. Asian-inspired cuisine was rarely represented and even curry—long an Anglo-Australian staple—was mentioned only once in the magazine, in an article reprinted from the South African The National Hotelier, and which included a recipe alongside discussion of blending spices (“Curry”).Coffee was regularly featured in both articles and advertisements as a staple of the international gourmet kitchen (see, for example, Bancroft). Articles on the history, growing, marketing, blending, roasting, purchase, percolating and brewing, and serving of coffee were common during the magazine’s run, and are accompanied with advertisements for Bushell’s, Robert Timms’s and Masterfoods’s coffee ranges. AWFQ believed Australia’s growing coffee consumption was the result of increased participation in quality internationally-influenced dining experiences, whether in restaurants, the “scores of colourful coffee shops opening their doors to a new generation” (“Coffee” 39), or at home (Adams). Tea, traditionally the Australian hot drink of choice, is not mentioned once in the magazine (Brien).International Gourmet InnovationsAlso featured in the magazine are innovations in the Australian food world: new places to eat; new ways to cook, including a series of sometimes quite unusual appliances; and new ways to shop, with a profile of the first American-style supermarkets to open in Australia in this period. These are all seen as overseas innovations, but highly suited to Australia. The laws then controlling the service of alcohol are also much discussed, with many calls to relax the licensing laws which were seen as inhibiting civilised dining and drinking practices. The terms this was often couched in—most commonly in relation to the Olympic Games (held in Melbourne in 1956), but also in relation to tourism in general—are that these restrictive regulations were an embarrassment for Melbourne when considered in relation to international practices (see, for example, Ludbrook, “Present”). This was at a time when the nightly hotel closing time of 6.00 pm (and the performance of the notorious “six o’clock swill” in terms of drinking behaviour) was only repealed in Victoria in 1966 (Luckins).Embracing scientific approaches in the kitchen was largely seen to be an American habit. The promotion of the use of electricity in the kitchen, and the adoption of new electric appliances (Gas and Fuel; Gilbert “Striving”), was described not only as a “revolution that is being wrought in our homes”, but one that allowed increased levels of personal expression and fulfillment, in “increas[ing] the time and resources available to the housewife for the expression of her own personality in the management of her home” (Gilbert, “The Woman’s”). This mirrors the marketing of these modes of cooking and appliances in other media at this time, including in newspapers, radio, and other magazines. This included features on freezing food, however AWFQ introduced an international angle, by suggesting that recipe bases could be pre-prepared, frozen, and then defrosted to use in a range of international cookery (“Fresh”; “How to”; Kelvinator Australia). The then-new marvel of television—another American innovation—is also mentioned in the magazine ("Changing concepts"), although other nationalities are also invoked. The history of the French guild the Confrerie de la Chaine des Roitisseurs in 1248 is, for instance, used to promote an electric spit roaster that was part of a state-of-the-art gas stove (“Always”), and there are also advertisements for such appliances as the Gaggia expresso machine (“Lets”) which draw on both Italian historical antecedence and modern science.Supermarket and other forms of self-service shopping are identified as American-modern, with Australia’s first shopping mall lauded as the epitome of utopian progressiveness in terms of consumer practice. Judged to mark “a new era in Australian retailing” (“Regional” 12), the opening of Chadstone Regional Shopping Centre in suburban Melbourne on 4 October 1960, with its 83 tenants including “giant” supermarket Dickens, and free parking for 2,500 cars, was not only “one of the most up to date in the world” but “big even by American standards” (“Regional” 12, italics added), and was hailed as a step in Australia “catching up” with the United States in terms of mall shopping (“Regional” 12). This shopping centre featured international-styled dining options including Bistro Shiraz, an outdoor terrace restaurant that planned to operate as a bistro-snack bar by day and full-scale restaurant at night, and which was said to offer diners a “Persian flavor” (“Bistro”).ConclusionAustralian Wines & Food Quarterly was the first of a small number of culinary-focused Australian publications in the 1950s and 1960s which assisted in introducing a generation of readers to information about what were then seen as foreign foods and beverages only to be accessed and consumed abroad as well as a range of innovative international ideas regarding cookery and dining. For this reason, it can be posited that the magazine, although modest in the claims it made, marked a revolutionary moment in Australian culinary publishing. As yet, only slight traces can be found of its editor and publisher, Donald Wallace. The influence of AWFQ is, however, clearly evident in the two longer-lived magazines that were launched in the decade after AWFQ folded: Australian Gourmet Magazine and The Epicurean. Although these serials had a wider reach, an analysis of the 15 issues of AWFQ adds to an understanding of how ideas of foods, beverages, and culinary ideas and trends, imported from abroad were presented to an Australian readership in the 1950s, and contributed to how national foodways were beginning to change during that decade.ReferencesAdams, Jillian. “Australia’s American Coffee Culture.” Australian Journal of Popular Culture 2.1 (2012): 23–36.“Always to Roast on a Turning Spit.” The Magazine of Good Living: Australian Wines and Food 4.2 (1960): 17.“An Expert on Butter.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 4.1 (1960): 11.“Australia Is Guest Nation at Lausanne.” The Magazine of Good Living: Australian Wines and Food 4.2 (1960): 18–19.“Australia’s Natural Cheeses.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 4.1 (1960): 23.“Australia Will Be There.” The Magazine of Good Living: Australian Wines and Food 4.2 (1960): 14.“Australian Wines Served at New York Dinner.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.5 (1958): 16.“Australia Wins Six Gold Medals.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.11 (1959/1960): 3.Bancroft, P.A. “Let’s Make Some Coffee.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 4.1 (1960): 10. Bannerman, Colin. Seed Cake and Honey Prawns: Fashion and Fad in Australian Food. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2008.Bell, Johnny. “Putting Dad in the Picture: Fatherhood in the Popular Women’s Magazines of 1950s Australia.” Women's History Review 22.6 (2013): 904–929.Bird, Delys, Robert Dixon, and Christopher Lee. Eds. Authority and Influence: Australian Literary Criticism 1950-2000. Brisbane: U of Queensland P, 2001.“Bistro at Chadstone.” The Magazine of Good Living 4.3 (1960): 3.Brien, Donna Lee. “Powdered, Essence or Brewed? Making and Cooking with Coffee in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.” M/C Journal 15.2 (2012). 20 July 2016 <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/475>.Brien, Donna Lee, and Alison Vincent. “Oh, for a French Wife? Australian Women and Culinary Francophilia in Post-War Australia.” Lilith: A Feminist History Journal 22 (2016): 78–90.De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1998.“Changing Concepts of Cooking.” Australian Wines & Food 2.11 (1958/1959): 18-19.“Coffee Beginnings.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.4 (1957/1958): 37–39.“Cooking with Cheese.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.4 (1957/1958): 25–28.“Cooking with Wine.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.11 (1959/1960): 24–30.Crosby, R.D. “Wine Etiquette.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.4 (1957/1958): 19–21.“Curry and How to Make It.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.2 (1957): 32.Duruz, Jean. “Rewriting the Village: Geographies of Food and Belonging in Clovelly, Australia.” Cultural Geographies 9 (2002): 373–388.Fox, Edward A., and Ohm Sornil. “Digital Libraries.” Encyclopedia of Computer Science. 4th ed. Eds. Anthony Ralston, Edwin D. Reilly, and David Hemmendinger. London: Nature Publishing Group, 2000. 576–581.“Fresh Frozen Food.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.8 (1959): 8.Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria. “Wine Makes the Recipe: Gas Makes the Dish.” Advertisement. Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.3 (1957): 34.Gilbert, V.J. “Striving for Perfection.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 4.1 (1960): 6.———. “The Woman’s Workshop.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wines & Food 4.2 (1960): 22.“High Praise for Penfolds Claret.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 4.1 (1960): 13.Hodder, Ian. The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage, 1994.“How to Cook Frozen Meats.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.8 (1959): 19, 26.Johnson-Woods, Toni. Pulp: A Collector’s Book of Australian Pulp Fiction Covers. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2004.Kelvinator Australia. “Try Cooking the Frozen ‘Starter’ Way.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.9 (1959): 10–12.Kennedy, H.E. “Be Adventurous with Cheese.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 3.12 (1960): 18–19.Keown, K.C. “Some Notes on Wine.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 4.1 (1960): 32–33.Krippendorff, Klaus. Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004.“Let’s Make Some Coffee.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wines and Food 4.2: 23.Lindesay, Vance. The Way We Were: Australian Popular Magazines 1856–1969. Melbourne: Oxford UP, 1983.Luckins, Tanja. “Pigs, Hogs and Aussie Blokes: The Emergence of the Term “Six O’clock Swill.”’ History Australia 4.1 (2007): 8.1–8.17.Ludbrook, Jack. “Advocate for Australian Wines.” The Magazine of Good Living: Australian Wines and Food 4.2 (1960): 3–4.Ludbrook, Jack. “Present Mixed Licensing Laws Harm Tourist Trade.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.9 (1959): 14, 31.Kelvinator Australia. “Try Cooking the Frozen ‘Starter’ Way.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.9 (1959): 10–12.Mackay, Colin. “Entertaining with Wine.” Australian Wines &Foods Quarterly 1.5 (1958): 3–5.Le Masurier, Megan, and Rebecca Johinke. “Magazine Studies: Pedagogy and Practice in a Nascent Field.” TEXT Special Issue 25 (2014). 20 July 2016 <http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue25/LeMasurier&Johinke.pdf>.“Melbourne Stages Australia’s First Wine Festival.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.10 (1959): 8–9.Newton, John, and Stefano Manfredi. “Gottolengo to Bonegilla: From an Italian Childhood to an Australian Restaurant.” Convivium 2.1 (1994): 62–63.Newton, John. Wogfood: An Oral History with Recipes. Sydney: Random House, 1996.Pain, John Bowen. “Cooking with Wine.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.3 (1957): 39–48.Postiglione, Nadia.“‘It Was Just Horrible’: The Food Experience of Immigrants in 1950s Australia.” History Australia 7.1 (2010): 09.1–09.16.“Regional Shopping Centre.” The Magazine of Good Living: Australian Wines and Food 4.2 (1960): 12–13.Risson, Toni. Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill: Greek Cafés in Twentieth-Century Australia. Ipswich, Qld.: T. Risson, 2007.Ross, Laurie. “Fantasy Worlds: The Depiction of Women and the Mating Game in Men’s Magazines in the 1950s.” Journal of Australian Studies 22.56 (1998): 116–124.Santich, Barbara. Bold Palates: Australia’s Gastronomic Heritage. Kent Town: Wakefield P, 2012.Seabrook, Douglas. “Stocking Your Cellar.” Australian Wines & Foods Quarterly 1.3 (1957): 19–20.Seppelt, John. “Advance Australian Wine.” Australian Wines & Foods Quarterly 1.3 (1957): 3–4.Seppelt, R.L. “Wine Week: 1959.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.10 (1959): 3.Sheridan, Susan, Barbara Baird, Kate Borrett, and Lyndall Ryan. (2002) Who Was That Woman? The Australian Women’s Weekly in the Postwar Years. Sydney: UNSW P, 2002.Supski, Sian. “'We Still Mourn That Book’: Cookbooks, Recipes and Foodmaking Knowledge in 1950s Australia.” Journal of Australian Studies 28 (2005): 85–94.“Sydney Restaurant Challenges World Standards.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.4 (1957/1958): 33.Tingey, Peter. “Wineman Rode a Hobby Horse.” Australian Wines & Food: The Magazine of Good Living 2.9 (1959): 35.“Violinist Loves Bach—and Birds.” The Magazine of Good Living: The Australian Wine & Food 3.12 (1960): 30.Wallace, Donald. Ed. Australian Wines & Food Quarterly. Magazine. Melbourne: 1956–1960.Warner-Smith, Penny. “Travel, Young Women and ‘The Weekly’, 1959–1968.” Annals of Leisure Research 3.1 (2000): 33–46.Webby, Elizabeth. The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.White, Richard. “The Importance of Being Man.” Australian Popular Culture. Eds. Peter Spearritt and David Walker. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1979. 145–169.White, Richard. “The Retreat from Adventure: Popular Travel Writing in the 1950s.” Australian Historical Studies 109 (1997): 101–103.“Wine: The Drink for the Home.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 2.10 (1959): 24–25.“Wines at the Lausanne Trade Fair.” The Magazine of Good Living: Australian Wines and Food 4.2 (1960): 15.“Your Own Wine Cellar” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.2 (1957): 19–20.

Kangaroo Island has embraced sustainable tourism in the hope that it will maintain its integrity as a close-knit rural community. In the centre of the front cover of the Kangaroo Island 1999 Visitor Guide is a photograph of a group of Australian sea lions on a beach. Between the photograph and the garland of native wildflowers which line the border of the cover is a margin of white space. This, along with the absence of humans, conveys a sense of pristine wilderness. The front cover design with its encompassing wreath and purity of white space simulates an iconographic representation which transforms the sea lion picture into a sacred object. The garland of flowers honours the seal in its natural habitat -- the most appealing aspect of the island for the tourist (Warren, personal communication). However, hovering ambiguously among the wildflowers is the possibility that the front cover's frame represents a funeral wreath -- perhaps in memory of those early days when fur traders turned the South Australian island into a slaughterhouse. Or maybe it is as a foreshadowing of the consequences of a tourist "invasion". Despite the sacralising of the seal, the marine mammal remains a commodity to be "consumed" by those who visit. Kangaroo Islanders are aware that tourism has sounded the death knell for many small communities -- in the 1950s the Gold Coast was a small fishing village, in the 1970s Cairns was a sugar cane town -- and are attempting to impose management practices which will control the amount and type of tourism consumption in order to prevent destruction of the island's native wildlife, its fragile biological systems and the authenticity of the local community. Residents' acceptance of the significance of native fauna and flora in recent years is, to some degree, driven by a pragmatism not dissimilar to that of early fur traders: both view the seal as a commodity, although behaviour towards these protected mammals contrasts strongly with past behaviour when sealing was an especially lucrative industry. Although seal numbers have increased, their classification as an endangered species is a legacy to those days when "fur seals [and Australian sea lions] made a valuable contribution to the economy of the colony of New South Wales" as the sale of the skins enabled the new colony to buy imports (Newnham 34). By the end of the nineteenth century changing market demands and severely depleted sources meant native animal skins were no longer a major source of income. Problems of land and wildlife management increased when sheep farming was introduced. With the allocation of land to farming for soldier/settler communities in the twentieth century, heavy tree clearing and overgrazing resulted in problems of soil erosion and increasing salinity levels, problems which also confront those in mainland rural communities. Following the decline in rural commodity prices for sheep, wool and beef in the 1990s, the local community has targetted tourism as one of the preferred alternative industries. Despite some opposition, the majority of locals feel that with proper management and monitoring, sustainable tourism will offer salvation rather than destruction of their island community. Local views are evident in the high profile given to tourism by the Kangaroo Island Economic Development Board (KIDB), "whose 1998-1999 Annual Plan has identified a number of opportunities to develop the Island's tourism infrastructure, and encourage visitors to stay longer and provide more value to the Island" (Islander 9 July 1998). From 1991 to 1993-1994, 85,000 visits per annum of at least one night stay were recorded with an estimated 50,000 additional annual visitors from day trips (Kangaroo Island Regional Tourism Profile 1). By 1998 over 160,000 visitors arrive on Kangaroo Island each year. KIDB's year long visitor exit survey shows viewing the island's wildlife is the main reason why international and interstate tourists travel to the island and is one of the main reasons why intrastate visitors come (Islander 9 July 1998: 6). However, KIDB is aware of local community concern "to [facilitate] development processes particularly towards sustainable development" (UNCSD, Paper 16 22). Community concerns that tourism must be carefully managed to avoid invasion has led to a number of initiatives including the publication of the Tourism Management and Development on Kangaroo Island Working Party Report in 1984 (KI Tourism Policy 1). The publication in 1991 of the Kangaroo Island Tourism Policy acknowledged a need for the island to "diversify and strengthen its economic base" by aiming to be a "specialised destination that emphasises quality before quantity" (12). Kangaroo Island's increasing importance as an tourism destination is also significant to South Australia's ailing economy -- a fact which could impede rather than aid the island's goal to maintain control tourism management. To date they have successfully prevented large scale development. However, Democrats spokesman on Regional Development and Small Business, and local resident of the island, Ian Gilfillan, is reported to be alarmed at the South Australian government's plan to fast-track tourism development. The government's Kangaroo Island Working Group Report talks of "bypassing normal planning procedures" and claims that tourism developments should not have a maximum size imposed upon them but rather should be "determined by commercial factors". Gilfillan fears that the government's "fast-track" development policies "will not only jeopardise Kangaroo Island's unique environment, but will also ensure that profits from tourism will mostly leave the Island and go to the mainland, interstate or overseas" (Islander 22 January 1998: 1). In 1998 a residents' survey conducted by the KIDB indicated that 89 per cent of islanders felt that tourism was either "good" or "very good" for the island (Islander 14 May 1998: 2), whereas the proposed tuna farm at Penneshaw was least supported with only 17 per cent saying it was "good" or "very good" and 60 per cent saying it was "bad" or "very bad". Residents' opposition to the tuna farm is evident in a number of letters to the editor of the Islander. Newspaper articles express concern about the impact of the industry upon the local Australian sea lion population, the island's major tourist drawcard. Besides discouraging tourism, the industry might lead to the "attraction of sharks, entanglement of marine mammals and waste disposal" problems. Support from "CSIRO experts and marine researchers" also lent weight to the local position (Islander 9 Apr. 1998: 1&3). The Kangaroo Island 1999 Visitor Guide markets the island as "nature's pleasure island" implying that it welcomes low impact tourism for those who want to experience a combination of wilderness and comfort. Words such as "visitor", "guests" and "invited" construct an image of the island as a destination for those who might willingly fit Urry's definition of the Romantic traveller -- those wishing to escape so called mass or intensive tourism (46-7). A number of Letters to the Editor of the Islander reinforce the concept of the island as a supportive and hospitable community, as excerpts from the following letter illustrate: The island is magic, but it is magic because it is what it is, and the locals are unpretentious, fun loving, good hearted and innovative. Tart up the island too much and impact negatively on the natural environment and laid back style, and visitors will find somewhere else to go. Kangaroo Island is one of the last places on earth where we can experience what the planet might have been like if we hadn't wrecked it in the pursuit of wealth and power. And the locals remind us stressed out city folk of the joys of a simpler life style. (Islander 2 April 1998: 9) Trish Edwards has visited the island eight times. She advises the islanders that "visitors want to meet locals and get a feel of what it is like to live in such a magical place" and that tourism "needs the anchor of human interaction to make [a location] memorable". Her enjoyment of the island is based upon the seeming lack of "front stage/backstage" hospitality and tourist performance (MacCannell 92-93). Her letter reinforces the concern some local residents expressed to me in interviews I conducted, namely, that tourism must be contained and kept under the control of the local community so that an "invasion" does not destroy what is at the very heart of the island's appeal: its authenticity as a small rural community in a location of great natural beauty where visitors can view wildlife in its natural habitat with minimum impact to that environment. But is this realistic? Tourism is a massive global industry based on our consumer society with its insatiable demand for new experiences and new places. Travel and tourism is the world's largest industry, directly and indirectly accounting for 11.7 per cent of world's gross domestic product in 1999 (WTTC 1). There were 650 million international travellers in 1998, and predictions are that the number will double in the next decade. An estimated 30 to 40 per cent of tourist demand is for nature-based experiences (WTTC 1). This 21st century threat of invasion will be very difficult for Kangaroo Islanders to contain. References Centre for Tourism and Hotel Management Research, Griffith University, Gold Coast. Kangaroo Island Regional Tourism Profile. Adelaide: South Australian Tourism Commission, 1996. "Commission Hears of KI's Concerns." Islander 9 Apr. 1998: 1&3. Eastick, A.B. "Tourism Key to Island's Continued Growth." Islander 9 July 1998: 6. Edwards, Trish. Islander. 2 Apr. 1998: 9. "Focus is on Tourism." Islander 14 May 1998: 1-2. Kangaroo Island Tourism Commission Survey. Kent Town: Tan Research, 1998. Newnham, W.H. Kangaroo Island Sketchbook. Adelaide: Rigby, 1975. "Report Not Looking at Real Issues." Islander 22 Jan. 1998: 1. Tourism Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island South Australia 1999 Visitor Guide. TKI Inc. 1999. United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Briefing Papers, 1999. Urry, John. The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage, 1990. Warren, M. Personal interview. 16 Sep. 1998. World Travel and Tourism Council. Travel and Tourism Economic Impacts: March 1999. London: WTTC, 1999. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Sandra Brunet. "Is Sustainable Tourism Really Sustainable? Protecting the Icon in the Commodity at Sites of Invasion." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.2 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9903/tourism.php>. Chicago style: Sandra Brunet, "Is Sustainable Tourism Really Sustainable? Protecting the Icon in the Commodity at Sites of Invasion," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 2 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9903/tourism.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Sandra Brunet. (1999) Is sustainable tourism really sustainable? Protecting the icon in the commodity at sites of invasion. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(2). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9903/tourism.php> ([your date of access]).

Introduction: From Trifle to Tiramisu Tiramisu is an Italian dessert cake, usually comprising sponge finger biscuits soaked in coffee and liquor, layered with a mixture of egg yolk, mascarpone and cream, and topped with sifted cocoa. Once a gourmet dish, tiramisu, which means “pick me up” in Italian (Volpi), is today very popular in Australia where it is available for purchase not only in restaurants and cafés, but also from fast food chains and supermarkets. Recipes abound in cookery books and magazines and online. It is certainly more widely available and written about in Australia than the once ubiquitous English trifle which, comprising variations on the theme of sherry soaked sponge cake, custard and cream, it closely resembles. It could be asserted that its strong coffee taste has enabled the tiramisu to triumph over the trifle in contemporary Australia, yet coffee is also a recurrent ingredient in cakes and icings in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australian cookbooks. Acknowledging that coffee consumption in Australia doubled during the years of the Second World War and maintained high rates of growth afterwards (Khamis; Adams), this article draws on examples of culinary writing during this period of increasing popularity to investigate the use of coffee in cookery as well as a beverage in these mid-twentieth century decades. In doing so, it engages with a lively scholarly discussion on what has driven this change—whether the American glamour and sophistication associated with coffee, post-war immigration from the Mediterranean and other parts of Europe, or the influence of the media and developments in technology (see, for discussion, Adams; Collins et al.; Khamis; Symons). Coffee in Australian Mid-century Epicurean Writing In Australian epicurean writing in the 1950s and 1960s, freshly brewed coffee is clearly identified as the beverage of choice for those with gourmet tastes. In 1952, The West Australian reported that Johnnie Walker, then president of the Sydney Gourmet Society had “sweated over an ordinary kitchen stove to give 12 Melbourne women a perfect meal” (“A Gourmet” 8). Walker prepared a menu comprising: savoury biscuits; pumpkin soup made with a beef, ham, and veal stock; duck braised with “26 ounces of dry red wine, a bottle and a half of curacao and orange juice;” Spanish fried rice; a “French lettuce salad with the Italian influence of garlic;” and, strawberries with strawberry brandy and whipped cream. He served sherry with the biscuits, red wine with the duck, champagne with the sweet, and coffee to finish. It is, however, the adjectives that matter here—that the sherry and wine were dry, not sweet, and the coffee was percolated and black, not instant and milky. Other examples of epicurean writing suggested that fresh coffee should also be unadulterated. In 1951, American food writer William Wallace Irwin who travelled to, and published in, Australia as “The Garrulous Gourmet,” wrote scathingly of the practice of adding chicory to coffee in France and elsewhere (104). This castigation of the French for their coffee was unusual, with most articles at this time praising Gallic gastronomy. Indicative of this is Nancy Cashmore’s travel article for Adelaide’s Advertiser in 1954. Titled “In Dordogne and Burgundy the Gourmet Will Find … A Gastronomic Paradise,” Cashmore details the purchasing, preparation, presentation, and, of course, consumption of excellent food and wine. Good coffee is an integral part of every meal and every day: “from these parts come exquisite pate de fois, truffles, delicious little cakes, conserved meats, wild mushrooms, walnuts and plums. … The day begins with new bread and coffee … nothing is imported, nothing is stale” (6). Memorable luncheons of “hors-d’oeuvre … a meat course, followed by a salad, cheese and possibly a sweet” (6) always ended with black coffee and sometimes a sugar lump soaked in liqueur. In Australian Wines and Food (AW&F), a quarterly epicurean magazine that was published from 1956 to 1960, coffee was regularly featured as a gourmet kitchen staple alongside wine and cheese. Articles on the history, growing, marketing, blending, roasting, purchase, and brewing of coffee during these years were accompanied with full-page advertisements for Bushell’s vacuum packed pure “roaster fresh” coffee, Robert Timms’s “Royal Special” blend for “coffee connoisseurs,” and the Masterfoods range of “superior” imported and locally produced foodstuffs, which included vacuum packed coffee alongside such items as paprika, bay leaves and canned asparagus. AW&F believed Australia’s growing coffee consumption the result of increased participation in quality dining experiences whether in restaurants, the “scores of colourful coffee shops opening their doors to a new generation” (“Coffee” 39) or at home. With regard to domestic coffee drinking, AW&F reported a revived interest in “the long neglected art of brewing good coffee in the home” (“Coffee” 39). Instructions given range from boiling in a pot to percolating and “expresso” (Bancroft 10; “Coffee” 37-9). Coffee was also mentioned in every issue as the only fitting ending to a fine meal, when port, other fortified wines or liqueurs usually accompanied a small demi-tasse of (strong) black coffee. Coffee was also identified as one of the locally produced speciality foods that were flown into the USA for a consulate dinner: “more than a ton of carefully selected foodstuffs was flown to New York by Qantas in three separate airlifts … beef fillet steaks, kangaroo tails, Sydney rock oysters, King prawns, crayfish tails, tropical fruits and passion fruit, New Guinea coffee, chocolates, muscatels and almonds” (“Australian” 16). It is noteworthy that tea is not profiled in the entire run of the magazine. A decade later, in the second half of the 1960s, the new Australian gourmet magazine Epicurean included a number of similar articles on coffee. In 1966 and 1969, celebrity chef and regular Epicurean columnist Graham Kerr also included an illustrated guide to making coffee in two of the books produced alongside his television series, The Graham Kerr Cookbook (125) and The Graham Kerr Cookbook by the Galloping Gourmet (266-67). These included advice to buy freshly roasted beans at least once a week and to invest in an electric coffee grinder. Kerr uses a glass percolator in each and makes an iced (milk) coffee based on double strength cooled brewed coffee. Entertaining with Margaret Fulton (1971) is the first Margaret Fulton cookery book to include detailed information on making coffee from ground beans at home. In this volume, which was clearly aimed at the gourmet-inclined end of the domestic market, Fulton, then cookery editor for popular magazine Woman’s Day, provides a morning coffee menu and proclaims that “Good hot coffee will never taste so good as it does at this time of the day” (90). With the stress on the “good,” Fulton, like Kerr, advises that beans be purchased and ground as they are needed or that only a small amounts of freshly ground coffee be obtained at one time. For Fulton, quality is clearly linked to price—“buy the best you can afford” (90)—but while advising that “Mocha coffee, which comes from Aden and Mocha, is generally considered the best” (90), she also concedes that consumers will “find by experience” (90) which blends they prefer. She includes detailed information on storage and preparation, noting that there are also “dozens of pieces of coffee making equipment to choose from” (90). Fulton includes instructions on how to make coffee for guests at a wedding breakfast or other large event, gently heating home sewn muslin bags filled with finely ground coffee in urns of barely boiling water (64). Alongside these instructions, Fulton also provides recipes for a sophisticated selection of coffee-flavoured desserts such as an iced coffee soufflé and coffee biscuits and meringues that would be perfect accompaniments to her brewed coffees. Cooking with Coffee A prominent and popular advocate of Continental and Asian cookery in Melbourne in the 1950s, Maria Kozslik Donovan wrote and illustrated five cookery books and had a successful international career as a food writer in the 1960s and 1970s. Maria Kozslik was Hungarian by birth and education and was also educated in the USA before marrying Patrick Donovan, an Australian, and migrating to Sydney with him in 1950. After a brief stay there and in Adelaide, they relocated to Melbourne in 1953 where she ran a cookery school and wrote for prominent daily newspaper The Age, penning hundreds of her weekly “Epicure’s Corner: Continental Recipes with Maria Kozslik” column from 1954 to 1961. Her groundbreaking Continental Cookery in Australia (1955) collects some 140 recipes, many of which would appear in her column—predominantly featuring French, Italian, Viennese, and Hungarian dishes, as well as some from the Middle East and the Balkans—each with an informative paragraph or two regarding European cooking and dining practices that set the recipes in context. Continental Cookery in Australia includes one recipe for Mocha Torte (162), which she translates as Coffee Cream Cake and identifies as “the favourite of the gay and party-loving Viennese … [in] the many cafés and sweet shops of Salzburg and Vienna” (162). In this recipe, a plain sponge is cut into four thin layers and filled and covered with a rich mocha cream custard made from egg yolks, sugar and a good measure of coffee, which, when cooled, is beaten into creamed butter. In her recipe for Mocha Cream, Donovan identifies the type of coffee to be used and its strength, specifying that “strong Mocha” be used, and pleading, “please, no essence!” She also suggests that the cake’s top can be decorated with shavings of the then quite exotic “coffee bean chocolate,” which she notes can be found at “most continental confectioners” (162), but which would have been difficult to obtain outside the main urban centres. Coffee also appears in her Café Frappe, where cooled strong black coffee is poured into iced-filled glasses, and dressed with a touch of sugar and whipped cream (165). For this recipe the only other direction that Donovan gives regarding coffee is to “prepare and cool” strong black coffee (165) but it is obvious—from her eschewing of other convenience foods throughout the volume—that she means freshly brewed ground coffee. In contrast, less adventurous cookery books paint a different picture of coffee use in the home at this time. Thus, the more concise Selected Continental Recipes for the Australian Home (1955) by the Australian-born Zelmear M. Deutsch—who, stating that upon marrying a Viennese husband, she became aware of “the fascinating ways of Continental Cuisine” (back cover)—includes three recipes that include coffee. Deutsch’s Mocha Creams (chocolate truffles with a hint of coffee) (76-77), almond meringues filled with coffee whipped cream (89-90), and Mocha Cream Filling comprising butter beaten with chocolate, vanilla, sugar, and coffee (95), all use “powdered” instant coffee, which is, moreover, used extremely sparingly. Her Almond Coffee Torte, for example, requires only half a teaspoon of powdered coffee to a quarter of a pint (300 mls) of cream, which is also sweetened with vanilla sugar (89-90). In contrast to the examples from Fulton and Donovan above (but in common with many cookbooks before and after) Deutsch uses the term “mocha” to describe a mix of coffee and chocolate, rather than to refer to a fine-quality coffee. The term itself is also used to describe a soft, rich brown color and, therefore, at times, the resulting hue of these dishes. The word itself is of late eighteenth century origin, and comes from the eponymous name of a Red Sea port from where coffee was shipped. While Selected Continental Recipes appears to be Deutsch’s first and only book, Anne Mason was a prolific food, wine and travel writer. Before migrating to England in 1958, she was well known in Australia as the presenter of a live weekly television program, Anne Mason’s Home-Tested Recipes, which aired from 1957. She also wrote a number of popular cookery books and had a long-standing weekly column in The Age. Her ‘Home-Tested Recipes’ feature published recipes contributed by readers, which she selected and tested. A number of these were collected in her Treasury of Australian Cookery, published in London in 1962, and included those influenced by “the country cooking of England […] Continental influence […] and oriental ideas” (11). Mason includes numerous recipes featuring coffee, but (as in Deutsch above) almost all are described as mocha-flavoured and listed as such in the detailed index. In Mason’s book, this mocha taste is, in fact, featured more frequently in sweet dishes than any of the other popular flavours (vanilla, honey, lemon, apple, banana, coconut, or passionfruit) except for chocolate. These mocha recipes include cakes: Chocolate-Mocha Refrigerator cake—plain sponge layered with a coffee-chocolate mousse (134), Mocha Gateau Ring—plain sponge and choux pastry puffs filled with cream or ice cream and thickly iced with mocha icing (136) and Mocha Nut Cake—a coffee and cocoa butter cake filled and iced with mocha icing and almonds (166). There are also recipes for Mocha Meringues—small coffee/cocoa-flavoured meringue rosettes joined together in pairs with whipped cream (168), a dessert Mocha Omelette featuring the addition of instant coffee and sugar to the eggs and which is filled with grated chocolate (181) and Mocha-Crunch Ice Cream—a coffee essence-scented ice cream with chocolate biscuit crumbs (144) that was also featured in an ice cream bombe layered with chocolate-rum and vanilla ice creams (152). Mason’s coffee recipes are also given prominence in the accompanying illustrations. Although the book contains only nine pages in full colour, the Mocha Gateau Ring is featured on both the cover and opposite the title page of the book and the Mocha Nut Cake is given an entire coloured page. The coffee component of Mason’s recipes is almost always sourced from either instant coffee (granules or powdered) or liquid coffee essence, however, while the cake for the Mocha Nut Cake uses instant coffee, its mocha icing and filling calls for “3 dessertspoons [of] hot black coffee” (167). The recipe does not, however, describe if this is made from instant, essence, or ground beans. The two other mocha icings both use instant coffee mixed with cocoa, icing sugar and hot water, while one also includes margarine for softness. The recipe for Mocha Cup (202) in the chapter for Children’s Party Fare (198-203), listed alongside clown-shaped biscuits and directions to decorate cakes with sweets, plastic spaceships and dolls, surprisingly comprises a sophisticated mix of grated dark chocolate melted in a pint of “hot black coffee” lightened with milk, sugar and vanilla essence, and topped with cream. There are no instructions for brewing or otherwise making fresh coffee in the volume. The Australian culinary masterwork of the 1960s, The Margaret Fulton Cookbook, which was published in 1968 and sold out its first (record) print run of 100,000 copies in record time, is still in print, with a revised 2004 edition bringing the number of copies sold to over 1.5 million (Brien). The first edition’s cake section of the book includes a Coffee Sponge sandwich using coffee essence in both the cake and its creamy filling and topping (166) and Iced Coffee Cakes that also use coffee essence in the cupcakes and instant coffee powder in the glacé icing (166). A Hazelnut Swiss Roll is filled with a coffee butter cream called Coffee Creme au Beurre, with instant coffee flavouring an egg custard which is beaten into creamed butter (167)—similar to Koszlik’s Mocha Cream but a little lighter, using milk instead of cream and fewer eggs. Fulton also includes an Austrian Chocolate Cake in her Continental Cakes section that uses “black coffee” in a mocha ganache that is used as a frosting (175), and her sweet hot coffee soufflé calls for “1/2 cup strong coffee” (36). Fulton also features a recipe for Irish Coffee—sweetened hot black coffee with (Irish) whiskey added, and cream floated on top (205). Nowhere is fresh or brewed coffee specified, and on the page dedicated to weights, measures, and oven temperatures, instant coffee powder appears on the list of commonly used ingredients alongside flour, sugar, icing sugar, golden syrup, and butter (242). American Influence While the influence of American habits such as supermarket shopping and fast food on Australian foodways is reported in many venues, recognition of its influence on Australian coffee culture is more muted (see, for exceptions, Khamis; Adams). Yet American modes of making and utilising coffee also influenced the Australian use of coffee, whether drunk as beverage or employed as a flavouring agent. In 1956, the Australian Women’s Weekly published a full colour Wade’s Cornflour advertorial of biscuit recipes under the banner, “Dione Lucas’s Manhattan Mochas: The New Coffee Cookie All America Loves, and Now It’s Here” (56). The use of the American “cookie” instead of the Australian “biscuit” is telling here, the popularity of all things American sure to ensure, the advert suggested, that the Mochas (coffee biscuits topped with chocolate icing) would be so popular as to be “More than a recipe—a craze” (56). This American influence can also been seen in cakes and other baked goods made specifically to serve with coffee, but not necessarily containing it. The recipe for Zulu Boys published in The Argus in 1945, a small chocolate and cinnamon cake with peanuts and cornflakes added, is a good example. Reported to “keep moist for some time,” these were “not too sweet, and are especially useful to serve with a glass of wine or a cup of black coffee” (Vesta Junior 9), the recipe a precursor to many in the 1950s and 1960s. Margaret Fulton includes a Spicy Coffee Cake in The Margaret Fulton Cookbook. This is similar to her Cinnamon Tea Cake in being an easy to mix cake topped with cinnamon sugar, but is more robust in flavour and texture with the addition of whole bran cereal, raisins and spices (163). Her “Morning Coffee” section in Entertaining with Margaret Fulton similarly includes a selection of quite strongly flavoured and substantially textured cakes and biscuits (90-92), while her recipes for Afternoon Tea are lighter and more delicate in taste and appearance (85-89). Concluding Remarks: Integration and Evolution, Not Revolution Trusted Tasmanian writer on all matters domestic, Marjorie Bligh, published six books on cookery, craft, home economics, and gardening, and produced four editions of her much-loved household manual under all three of her married names: Blackwell, Cooper and Bligh (Wood). The second edition of At Home with Marjorie Bligh: A Household Manual (published c.1965-71) provides more evidence of how, rather than jettisoning one form in favour of another, Australian housewives were adept at integrating both ground and other more instant forms of coffee into their culinary repertoires. She thus includes instructions on both how to efficiently clean a coffee percolator (percolating with a detergent and borax solution) (312) as well as how to make coffee essence at home by simmering one cup of ground coffee with three cups of water and one cup of sugar for one hour, straining and bottling (281). She also includes recipes for cakes, icings, and drinks that use both brewed and instant coffee as well as coffee essence. In Entertaining with Margaret Fulton, Fulton similarly allows consumer choice, urging that “If you like your coffee with a strong flavour, choose one to which a little chicory has been added” (90). Bligh’s volume similarly reveals how the path from trifle to tiramisu was meandering and one which added recipes to Australian foodways, rather than deleted them. Her recipe for Coffee Trifle has strong similarities to tiramisu, with sponge cake soaked in strong milk coffee and sherry layered with a rich custard made from butter, sugar, egg yolks, and black coffee, and then decorated with whipped cream, glace cherries, and walnuts (169). This recipe precedes published references to tiramisu as, although the origins of tiramisu are debated (Black), references to the dessert only began to appear in the 1980s, and there is no mention of the dish in such authoritative sources as Elizabeth David’s 1954 Italian Food, which features a number of traditional Italian coffee-based desserts including granita, ice cream and those made with cream cheese and rice. By the 1990s, however, respected Australian chef and food researcher, the late Mietta O’Donnell, wrote that if pizza was “the most travelled of Italian dishes, then tiramisu is the country’s most famous dessert” and, today, Australian home cooks are using the dish as a basis for a series of variations that even include replacing the coffee with fruit juices and other flavouring agents. Long-lived Australian coffee recipes are similarly being re-made in line with current taste and habits, with celebrated chef Neil Perry’s recent Simple Coffee and Cream Sponge Cake comprising a classic cream-filled vanilla sponge topped with an icing made with “strong espresso”. To “glam up” the cake, Perry suggests sprinkling the top with chocolate-covered roasted coffee beans—cycling back to Maria Koszlik’s “coffee bean chocolate” (162) and showing just how resilient good taste can be. Acknowledgements The research for this article was completed while I was the recipient of a Research Fellowship in the Special Collections at the William Angliss Institute (WAI) of TAFE in Melbourne, where I utilised their culinary collections. Thank you to the staff of the WAI Special Collections for their generous assistance, as well as to the Faculty of Arts, Business, Informatics and Education at Central Queensland University for supporting this research. Thank you to Jill Adams for her assistance with this article and for sharing her “Manhattan Mocha” file with me, and also to the peer reviewers for their generous and helpful feedback. All errors are, of course, my own.References “A Gourmet Makes a Perfect Meal.” The West Australian 4 Jul. 1952: 8.Adams, Jill. “Australia’s American Coffee Culture.” Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (2012): forthcoming. “Australian Wines Served at New York Dinner.” Australian Wines and Food 1.5 (1958): 16. Bancroft, P. A. “Let’s Make Some Coffee.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 4.1 (1960): 10. Black, Jane. “The Trail of Tiramisu.” Washington Post 11 Jul. 2007. 15 Feb. 2012 ‹http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/10/AR2007071000327.html›. Bligh, Marjorie. At Home with Marjorie Bligh: A Household Manual. Devonport: M. Bligh, c.1965-71. 2nd ed. Brien, Donna Lee. “Australian Celebrity Chefs 1950-1980: A Preliminary Study.” Australian Folklore 21 (2006): 201-18. Cashmore, Nancy. “In Dordogne and Burgundy the Gourmet Will Find … A Gastronomic Paradise.” The Advertiser 23 Jan. (1954): 6. “Coffee Beginnings.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1.4 (1957/1958): 37-39. Collins, Jock, Katherine Gibson, Caroline Alcorso, Stephen Castles, and David Tait. A Shop Full of Dreams: Ethnic Small Business in Australia. Sydney: Pluto Press, 1995. David, Elizabeth. Italian Food. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. 1st pub. UK: Macdonald, 1954, and New York: Knoft, 1954. Donovan, Maria Kozslik. Continental Cookery in Australia. Melbourne: William Heinemann, 1955. Reprint ed. 1956. -----.“Epicure’s Corner: Continental Recipes with Maria Kozslik.” The Age 4 Jun. (1954): 7. Fulton, Margaret. The Margaret Fulton Cookbook. Dee Why West: Paul Hamlyn, 1968. -----. Entertaining with Margaret Fulton. Dee Why West: Paul Hamlyn, 1971. Irwin, William Wallace. The Garrulous Gourmet. Sydney: The Shepherd P, 1951. Khamis, Susie. “It Only Takes a Jiffy to Make: Nestlé, Australia and the Convenience of Instant Coffee.” Food, Culture & Society 12.2 (2009): 217-33. Kerr, Graham. The Graham Kerr Cookbook. Wellington, Auckland, and Sydney: AH & AW Reed, 1966. -----. The Graham Kerr Cookbook by The Galloping Gourmet. New York: Doubleday, 1969. Mason, Anne. A Treasury of Australian Cookery. London: Andre Deutsch, 1962. Mason, Peter. “Anne Mason.” The Guardian 20 Octo.2006. 15 Feb. 2012 Masterfoods. “Masterfoods” [advertising insert]. Australian Wines and Food 2.10 (1959): btwn. 8 & 9.“Masters of Food.” Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 2.11 (1959/1960): 23. O’Donnell, Mietta. “Tiramisu.” Mietta’s Italian Family Recipe, 14 Aug. 2004. 15 Feb. 2012 ‹http://www.miettas.com/food_wine_recipes/recipes/italianrecipes/dessert/tiramisu.html›. Perry, Neil. “Simple Coffee and Cream Sponge Cake.” The Age 12 Mar. 2012. 15 Feb. 2012 ‹http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/baking/recipe/simple-coffee-and-cream-sponge-cake-20120312-1utlm.html›. Symons, Michael. One Continuous Picnic: A History of Eating in Australia. Adelaide: Duck Press, 2007. 1st. Pub. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 1982. ‘Vesta Junior’. “The Beautiful Fuss of Old Time Baking Days.” The Argus 20 Mar. 1945: 9. Volpi, Anna Maria. “All About Tiramisu.” Anna Maria’s Open Kitchen 20 Aug. 2004. 15 Feb. 2012 ‹http://www.annamariavolpi.com/tiramisu.html›. Wade’s Cornflour. “Dione Lucas’ Manhattan Mochas: The New Coffee Cookie All America Loves, and Now It’s Here.” The Australian Women’s Weekly 1 Aug. (1956): 56. Wood, Danielle. Housewife Superstar: The Very Best of Marjorie Bligh. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2011.

IntroductionThis article is about the transformation of coffee, from having no place in the everyday lives of the people of Bangladesh, to a new position as a harbinger of liberal values and Western culture. The context is a group of Australian photojournalism students who embarked on a month-long residency in Bangladesh; the content is a Nescafé advertisement encouraging the young, middle-class Bangladesh audience to consume coffee, in a marketing campaign that promotes “my first cup.” For the Australian students, the marketing positioning of this advertising campaign transformed instant coffee into a strange and unfamiliar commodity. At the same time, the historic association between Bangladesh and tea prompted one of the photographers to undertake her own journey to explore the hidden side of that other Western staple. This paper explores the tradition of tea culture in Bangladesh and the marketing campaign for instant coffee within this culture, combining the authors’ experiences and perspectives. The outline of the Photomedia unit in the Bachelor of Creative Industries degree that the students were working towards at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia states that:students will engage with practices, issues and practicalities of working as a photojournalist in an international, cross cultural context. Students will work in collaboration with students of Pathshala: South Asian Institute of Photography, Dhaka Bangladesh in the research, production and presentation of stories related to Bangladeshi society and culture for distribution to international audiences (ECU). The sixteen students from Perth, living and working in Bangladesh between 5 January and 7 February 2012, exhibited a diverse range of cultures, contexts, and motivations. Young Australians, along with a number of ECU’s international students, including some from Norway, China and Sweden, were required to learn first-hand about life in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest and most densely populated countries. Danielle Fusco and ECU lecturer Duncan Barnes collaborated with staff and students of Pathshala, South Asian Media Institute (Pathshala). Their recollections and observations on tea production and the location are central to this article but it is the questions asked by the group about the marketing of instant coffee into this culture that provides its tensions. Fusco completed a week-long induction and then travelled in Bangladesh for a fortnight to research and photograph individual stories on rural and urban life. Barnes here sets the scene for the project, describing the expectations and what actually happened: When we travel to countries that are vastly different to our own it is often to seek out that difference; to go in search of the romanticised ideals that have been portrayed as paradise in films, books and photographs. “The West” has long been fascinated with “The East” (Said) and for the past half century, since the hippie treks to Marrakesh and Afghanistan, people have journeyed overland to the Indian sub-continent, both from Europe and from Australia, yearning for a cultural experience they cannot find at home. Living in Perth, Western Australia, sometimes called the most isolated capital city in the world, that pull to something “different” is like a magnet. Upon arrival in Dhaka, you find yourself deliciously overwhelmed by the heavy traffic, the crowded markets, the spicy foods and the milky lassie drinks. It only takes a few stomach upsets to make your Western appetite start kicking in and you begin craving things you have at home but that are hard to find in Bangladesh. Take coffee for example. I recently completed a month-long visit to Bangladesh, which, like India, is a nation of tea drinkers. Getting any kind of good coffee requires that you be in what expatriates call “the Golden Triangle” of Dhaka city—within the area contained by Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara. Here you find the embassies and a sizeable expatriate community that constitutes a Western bubble unrepresentative of Bangladesh beyond these districts. Coffee World is an example of a Western-style café chain that, as the name suggests, serves coffee beverages. It has trouble making a quality flat white. The baristas are poorly trained, the service is painfully slow, yet the prices are comparable to those in the West. Even with these disadvantages, it is frequented by Westerners who also make use of the free WiFi. In contrast, tea is available at every road junction for around 5 cents Australian. It’s ready in seconds: the kettle is always hot due to a constant turnover of local customers. It was the history of tea growing in Bangladesh, and a desire to know more about a commodity that people in the West take for granted, that most attracted Fusco’s interest. She chose to focus on Bangladesh’s oldest commercial tea garden (plantation) Sylhet, which has been in production since 1857 (Tea Board). As is the case with many tea farms in the Indian sub-continent, the workers at Sylhet are part of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority. Fusco left Dhaka and travelled into the rural areas to investigate tea production: Venturing into these estates from the city is like entering an entirely different world. They are isolated places, and although they are close in distance, they are completely separate from the main city. Spending time in the Khadim tea estate amongst the plantations and the workers’ compounds made me very aware of the strong relationship that exists between them. The Hindu teaching of Samsara refers to the continuous cycle of repeated birth, life, death and rebirth [Hinduism], which became a metaphor for me, for this relationship I was experiencing. It is clear that neither farm [where the tea is grown] nor village [which houses the people] could live without each other. The success and maintenance of the tea farm relies on the workers just as much as the workers rely on the tea gardens for their livelihood and sustenance. Their life cycles are intertwined and in synch. There are many problems in the compounds. The people are extremely poor. Their education opportunities are limited, and they work incredibly hard for very little money for their entire lives. They are bound to stay and work here and as those generations before them, were born, worked and died here, living their whole lives in the community of the tea farm. By documenting the lives of the people, I realised I was documenting the process of the lives of the tea trees at the same time. This is how I met Lolita.Figure 1. Bangladeshi tea worker, Lolita, stands in a small section of the Khadim tea plantation in the early morning. Sylhet, Bangladesh (Danielle Fusco, Jan. 2012). This woman emulated everything I was seeing and feeling about the village and the garden. She spoke about the reliance on the trees, especially because of the money and, therefore, the food, they provide for her and her husband. I became aware of the injustice of this system because the workers are paid so little while this industry is booming. It was obvious that life here is far from perfect, but as Lolita explains, they make do. She has worked on the tea estate for decades. As her husband is no longer working, she is the primary income earner. They are able, however, to live in relative comfort now their children have all married and left and it is just the two of them. Lolita describes that money lies within these trees. Money for her means that she can eat that day. Money for the managers means industrial success. Either way, whether it is in the eyes of the individual or the industry, tea always comes down to Taka [the currency of Bangladesh]. Marketing Coffee in a Culture of Tea and Betel Nut With such a strong culture of tea production and consumption and a coffee culture just existing on the fringe, a campaign by Nescafé to encourage Bangladeshi consumers to have “my first cup” of Nescafé instant coffee at the time of this study captured the imagination of the students. How effective can the marketing of Nescafé instant coffee be in a society that is historically a producer and consumer of tea, and which also still embraces the generations-old use of the betel nut as an everyday stimulant? Although it only employs some 150,000 (Islam et al.) in a nation of 150 million people, tea makes an important contribution to the Bangladesh economy. Shortly after the 1971 civil war, in which East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) became independent from West Pakistan (now Pakistan), the then-Chairman of the Bangladesh Tea Board, writing in World Development, commented:In the highly competitive marketing environment of today it is extremely necessary for the tea industry of Bangladesh to increase production by raising the per acre yield, improve quality by adoption of finer plucking standards and modernization of factories and reduce per unit cost of production so as to be able to sell more of our teas to foreign markets and thereby earn higher amounts of much needed foreign exchange for the country as well as generate additional resources within the industry for ploughing back for further development (Ali 55). In Bangladesh, tea is a cash crop that, even in the 1970s following vicious conflicts, is more than capable of meeting local demand and producing an export dividend. Coffee is imported commodity that, historically, has had little place in Bangladeshi life or culture. However important tea is, it is not the traditional Bangladesh stimulant. Instead, over the years, when people in the West would have had a cup of tea or coffee and/or a cigarette, most Bangladeshis have turned to the betel nut. A 2005 study of 100 citizens from Araihazar, Bangladesh, conducted by researchers from Columbia University, found that coffee consumption is “very low in this population” (Hafeman et al. 567). The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of betel quids (the wad of masticated nut) and the chewing of betel nuts, upon tremor. For this reason, it was important to record the consumption of stimulants in the 98 participants who progressed to the next stage of the study and took a freehand spiral-drawing test. While “26 (27%) participants had chewed betel quids, 23 (23%) had smoked one or more cigarettes, [and] 14 (14%) drank tea; on that day, only 1 (1%) drank caffeinated soda, and none (0%) drank coffee” (Hafeman et al. 568). Given its addictive and carcinogenic properties (Sharma), the people who chewed betel quids were more likely to exhibit tremor in their spiral drawings than the people who did not. As this (albeit small) study suggests, the preferred Bangladeshi stimulant is more likely to be betel or tobacco rather than a beverage. Insofar as hot drinks are consumed, Bangladesh citizens drink tea. This poses a significant challenge for multinational advertisers who seek to promote the consumption of instant coffee as a means of growing the global market for Nescafé. Marketing Nescafé to Bangladesh In Dhaka, in January 2012, the television campaign slogan for Nescafé is “My first cup”, with the tagline, “Time you started.” This Nescafé television commercial (NTC) impressed itself upon the Australian visitors, both in terms of its frequency of broadcast and in its referencing of Western culture and values. (The advertisement can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E8mFX43oAM). The NTC’s three stars, Vir Das, Purab Kohli, and leading Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, are highly-recognisable to young Bangladeshi audiences and the storyline is part of a developing series of advertisements which together form a mini-soap opera, like that used so successfully to advertise the Nescafé Gold Blend brand of instant coffee in the West in the 1980s to 1990s (O’Donohoe 242; Beale). The action takes place in Kohli’s affluent, Western-style apartment. The drama starts with Das challenging Kohli regarding whether he has successfully developed a relationship with his attractive neighbour, Padukone. Using a combination of local language with English words and sub-titles, the first sequence is captioned: “Any progress with Deepika, or are you still mixing coffee?” Suggesting incredulity, and that he could do better, Das asks Kohli, according to the next subtitle, “What are you doing dude?” The use of the word “dude” clearly refers to American youth culture, familiar in such movies as Dude, where’s my car? This is underlined by the immediate transition to the English words of “bikes … biceps … chest … explosion.” Of these four words only “chest” is pronounced in the local tongue, although all four words are included as captions in English. Kohli appears less and less impressed as Das becomes increasingly insistent, with Das going on to express frustration with Kohli through the exclamation “u don’t even have a plan.” The use of the text-speak English “u” here can be constructed as another way of persuading young Bangladeshi viewers that this advertisement is directed at them: the “u” in place of “you” is likely to annoy their English-speaking elders. Das continues speaking in his mother tongue, with the subtitle “Deepika padukone [sic] is your neighbour and you are only drinking coffee,” with the subsequent subtitle emphasising: “Deepika and only coffee.” At this point, Padukone enters the apartment through the open door without knocking and confidently says “Hi.” Kohli explains the situation by responding (in English, and subtitled) “my school friend, Das”. Padukone, in turn, responds in a friendly way to both men (in English, and subtitled) “You guys want to have coffee?” Instead of responding directly to this invitation, Das models to Kohli what it is to take the initiative in this situation: what it is to have a plan. “Hello” (he says, in English and subtitled) “I don’t have coffee but I have a plan. You and me, my bike, right now, hit the town, party!” Kohli looks down at the floor, embarrassed, while Padukone looks quizzically at him over Das’s shoulder. Kohli smiles, and points to himself and Padukone, clearly excluding Das: “I will have coffee” (in English, and subtitle). “Better plan”, exclaims Padukone, “You and me, my place, right now, coffee.” She looks challengingly at Das: “Right?,” a statement rather than a request, and exits, with Kohli following and Das left behind in the apartment. Cue voice-over (not a subtitle, but in-screen speech bubble) “[It’s] time you started” (spoken) “the new Nescafé” (shot change) “My first cup” (with an in-screen price promotion). This commercial associates coffee drinking with Western values of social and personal autonomy. For young women in the traditional Muslim culture of Bangladesh, it suggests a world in which they are at liberty to spend time with the suitors they choose, ignoring those whom they find pushy or inappropriate, and free to invite a man back to “my place, right now” for coffee. The scene setting in this advertisement and the use of English in both the spoken and written text suggests its target is the educated middle class, and indicates that sophisticated, affluent, trend-setters drink coffee as a part of getting to know their neighbours. In line with this, the still which ends the commercial promotes the Facebook page “Know your neighbours.” The flirtatious nature of the actors in the advertisement, the emphasis on each of the male characters spending time alone with the female character, and the female character having both power and choice in this situation is likely to be highly unacceptable to traditional Bangladeshi parental values and, therefore, proportionately more exciting to the target audience. The underlying suggestion of “my first cup” and “time you started” is that the social consumption of that first cup of coffee is the “first step” to becoming more Western. The statement also has overtones of sexual initiation. The advertisement aligns itself with the world portrayed in the Western media consumed in Bangladesh, and the implication is that—even if Western liberal values are not currently a possible choice for all—it is at least feasible to start on the journey towards these values through drinking that first cup of coffee. Unbeknownst to the Bangladesh audience, this Nescafé marketing strategy echoes, in almost all material particulars, the same approach that was so successful in persuading Australians to embrace instant coffee. Khamis, in her essay on Australia and the convenience of instant coffee, argues that, while in 1928 Australia had the highest per capita consumption of tea in the world, this had begun to change by the 1950s. The transformation in the market positioning of coffee was partly achieved through an association between tea and old-fashioned ‘Britishness’ and coffee and the United States: this discovery [of coffee] spoke to changes in Australia’s lifestyle options: the tea habit was tied to Australia’s development as a far-flung colonial outpost, a daily reminder that many still looked to London as the nation’s cultural capital: the growing appeal of instant coffee reflected a widening and more nuanced cultural palate. This was not just ‘another’ example of the United States postwar juggernaut; it marks the transitional phase in Australia’s history, as its cultural identity was informed less by the staid conservativism of Britain than the heady flux of New World glamour (219). Coffee was associated with the USA not simply through advertising but also through cultural exposure. By 1943, notes Khamis, there were 120,000 American service personnel stationed in Australia and she quotes Symons (168) as saying that “when an American got on a friendly footing with an Australian family he was usually found in the kitchen, teaching the Mrs how to make coffee, or washing the dishes” (168, cited in Khamis 220). The chances were that “the Mrs”—the Australian housewife—felt she needed the tuition: an Australian survey conducted by Gallup in March 1950 indicated that 55 per cent of respondents at that time had never tried coffee, while a further 24 per cent said they “seldom” consumed it (Walker and Roberts 133, cited in Khamis 222). In a newspaper article titled, “Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here”, Munro describes the impact of exposure to the first American troops based in Australia during this time, with a then seven year old recalling: “They were foreign, quite a different culture from us. They spoke more loudly than us. They had strange accents, cute expressions, they were really very exotic.” The American troops caused consternation for Australian fathers and boyfriends. Dulcie Wood was 18 when she was dating an American serviceman: They had more money to spend (than Australian troops). They seemed to have plenty of supplies, they were always bringing you presents—stockings and cartons of cigarettes […] Their uniforms were better. They took you to more places. They were quite good dancers, some of them. They always brought you flowers. They were more polite to women. They charmed the mums because they were very polite. Some dads were a bit more sceptical of them. They weren’t sure if all that charm was genuine (quoted in Munro). Darian-Smith argues that, at that time, Australian understanding of Americans was based on Hollywood films, which led to an impression of American technological superiority and cultural sophistication (215-16, 232). “Against the American-style combination of smart advertising, consumerism, self-expression and popular democracy, the British class system and its buttoned-up royals appeared dull and dour” writes Khamis (226, citing Grant 15)—almost as dull and dour as 1950s tea compared with the postwar sophistication of Nescafé instant coffee. Conclusion The approach Nestlé is using in Bangladesh to market instant coffee is tried and tested: coffee is associated with the new, radical cultural influence while tea and other traditional stimulants are relegated to the choice of an older, more staid generation. Younger consumers are targeted with a romantic story about the love of coffee, reflected in a mini-soap opera about two people becoming a couple over a cup of Nescafé. Hopefully, the Pathshala-Edith Cowan University collaboration is at least as strong. Some of the overseas visitors return to Bangladesh on a regular basis—the student presentations in 2012 were, for instance, attended by two visiting graduates from the 2008 program who were working in Bangladesh. For the Australian participants, the association with Pathshala, South Asian Media Institute, and Drik Photo Agency brings recognition, credibility and opportunity. It also offers a totally new perspective on what to order in the coffee queue once they are home again in Australia. Postscript The final week of the residency in Bangladesh was taken up with presentations and a public exhibition of the students’ work at Drik Picture Agency, Dhaka, 3–7 February 2012. Danielle Fusco’s photographs can be accessed at: http://public-files.apps.ecu.edu.au/SCA_Marketing/coffee/coffee.html References Ali, M. “Commodity Round-up: Problems and Prospects of Bangladesh Tea”, World Development 1.1–2 (1973): 55. Beale, Claire. “Should the Gold Blend Couple Get Back Together?” The Independent 29 Apr 2010. 8 Apr. 2012 ‹http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/should-the-gold-blend-couple-get-back-together-1957196.html›. Darian-Smith, Kate. On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime 1939-1945. 2nd ed. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2009. Dude, Where’s My Car? Dir. Danny Leiner. Twentieth Century Fox, 2000. Edith Cowan University (ECU). “Photomedia Summer School Bangladesh 2012.” 1 May 2012 .Grant, Bruce. The Australian Dilemma: A New Kind of Western Society. Sydney: Macdonald Futura, 1983. Hafeman, D., H. Ashan, T. Islam, and E. Louis. “Betel-quid: Its Tremor-producing Effects in Residents of Araihazar, Bangladesh.” Movement Disorders 21.4 (2006): 567-71. Hinduism. “Reincarnation and Samsara.” Heart of Hinduism. 8 Apr. 2012 ‹http://hinduism.iskcon.org/concepts/102.htm›. Islam, G., M. Iqbal, K. Quddus, and M. Ali. “Present Status and Future Needs of Tea Industry in Bangladesh (Review).” Proceedings of the Pakistan Academy of Science. 42.4 (2005): 305-14. 8 Apr. 2012 ‹http://www.paspk.org/downloads/proc42-4/42-4-p305-314.pdf›. Khamis, Susie. “It Only Takes a Jiffy to Make: Nestlé, Australia and the Convenience of Instant Coffee.” Food, Culture & Society 12.2 (2009): 217-33. Munro, Ian. “Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here.” The Age 27 Feb. 2002. 8 Apr. 2012 ‹http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/26/1014704950716.html›. O’Donohoe, Stephanie. “Raiding the Postmodern Pantry: Advertising Intertextuality and the Young Adult Audience.” European Journal of Marketing 31.3/4 (1997): 234-53 Pathshala. Pathshala, South Asian Media Academy. 8 Apr. 2012 ‹http://www.pathshala.net/controller.php›. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. Sharma, Dinesh. “Betel Quid and Areca Nut are Carcinogenic without Tobacco.” The Lancet Oncology 4.10 (2003): 587. 8 Apr. 2012 ‹http://www.lancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(03)01229-4/fulltext›. Symons, Michael. One Continuous Picnic: A History of Eating in Australia. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1984. Tea Board. “History of Bangladesh Tea Industry.” Bangladesh Tea Board. 8 Apr. 2012 ‹http://www.teaboard.gov.bd/index.php?option=HistoryTeaIndustry›. Walker, Robin and Dave Roberts. From Scarcity to Surfeit: A History of Food and Nutrition in New South Wales. Sydney: NSW UP, 1988.

Edith and John Power were a wealthy expatriate Australian couple who lived in England and Europe from the early years of the 20th century until their deaths. In 1915 John Power married Edith Lee in London before serving as a surgeon on the Western Front in the Royal Army Medical Corps. After the war Edith and John left Britain to live in Paris and Brussels in the centre of a large international group of avant-garde artists. Edith, who was twelve years older than her husband, and had been married twice before (once widowed and once divorced), was to all accounts the driving force behind John's success as an artist -- he exhibited alongside Picasso, Braque and Kandinsky -- and the great love of his life. The following comes from a book-length fictionalised biography of their lives, narrated by Edith in the early 1960s when she was ninety-two years old. This extract comes from the part of the manuscript dealing with the Nazi Occupation of the Channel Island of Jersey in the second world war; the 'safe haven' to which the Powers had fled in 1938 when war threatened. The first winter under the Germans was very hard and there were reports of old people dying of starvation and exposure. Jack had terrible chilblains and we were both very thin. Cooking fat was only available for doctors to give to invalids, and one poor chap was so desperate that he used sump oil from his car to fry up some gull eggs, and poisoned himself. Sitting down to a plate of boiled potatoes I couldn't sometimes help but reminisce about the wonderful meals we had eaten in Paris and Brussels. How decadent they seemed -- oysters, poached salmon, grilled tournedos with asparagus or a roasted duck, then a glass of champagne, a slice or two of Ange à Cheval and some wild strawberries to finish off with. I also realised how petty all our worries had been up 'til then. We would be upset if the hotel we fancied was booked out for the summer, the bath water cold or a soufflé heavy. When the stock market dropped a point or two we were devastated, and Jack used to sulk for days when he had trouble with a painting or if his frames were not exactly as ordered, the moulding wrong, the gilding scratched or too bright. Such concerns seemed absurd when we faced death every day and misery and fear were all around us. Then the prisoners-of-war arrived from Russia, dressed in rags and even thinner than us. They suffered terribly, working impossibly hard every day on the railway and underground hospital, with nowhere proper to sleep and very little to eat. We felt so sorry for them, and admired those Islanders who, although it was a serious crime, sheltered them if they managed to escape. We had another dreadful reminder of just how awful the Germans could be when they started shooting anyone caught with a crystal radio set. By the summer of 1942 Jack was very ill, although he continued to deny anything was wrong. He finally confided in me just how dire things were one afternoon when we were sitting on the terrace. We were drinking the last of our English tea and discussing how wild the garden had become. One minute Jack was saying how much he enjoyed watching everything return to its natural state, the next he was telling me that he thought he had a cancerous tumour in his kidneys and should see a doctor. I listened in a daze as he detailed the possible treatments and his prognosis, which he anticipated to be poor. Then he stood, drank the dregs in his cup, kissed me and said he had to return to the studio. He had salvaged a piece of wood from somewhere to paint on and didn't want to lose the last light. I was stunned, not wanting to believe what he had told me. I never found out whether Jack suspected the cancer before the Occupation, but if he did, I can't understand why he didn't tell me. We could have gone back to England or over to Switzerland and seen the best doctors. This still puzzles me for Jack was never reticent to seek medical treatment. Tony even laughingly called Jack a hypochondriac, he was so careful with his health, but then again, I know Jack's father had hidden the same condition from his family some forty years before. For many years after the war Ceylon tea only ever tasted of trouble and dismay to me. Nowadays everyone wants to give me tea all the time, especially the nurses. I tell them I'd really like a stiff gin and tonic, but alcohol is another of life's pleasures denied to the elderly. If I could only get out of this bed, I'd get one for myself -- a big one. I have forgotten the name of that doctor we consulted a few days later, but I remember exactly what he said. He confirmed what Jack thought, that the tumours were in his kidneys, but added that they had possibly settled in his lungs as well. In a last (but futile) effort, my poor darling was operated on by this old fashioned surgeon who had to work in the most primitive conditions; without the drugs, anaesthetics or antiseptics he needed. By that time it was difficult to find soap whatever price you were willing to pay, and I gave him some fancy little rose scented tablets to wash up with before he cut Jack open. Jack had never been a fast healer and all the odds were against him; the strain of the advancing cancer, the inadequacy of our diet and the lack of proper medicines. The only foods we could obtain were quite coarse, there was no lean meat to make beef tea or eggs for milk puddings. Jack once said to me something to the effect that the ghastly jokes of fate are not always in the best of taste but they could be extremely witty. I never, however, found anything except the most savage cruelty in his situation, that such a highly trained surgeon had to endure such a crude assault on his body, and that a wealthy philanthropist could suffer so for the want of the most basic requirements of food, firewood and pain killers. My darling, who had been so dreadful when struck down with the slightest illness, was a model patient. It took a long time, but eventually he was able to leave his bed, and the first thing he did was to boil up his own analgesics, potent narcotics which he followed with a stiff whisky. When his condition deteriorated and I had to tend to all his most intimate needs, he was always good tempered and never made me feel I was humiliating or demeaning him. We grew closer than ever, but I knew our time was running out. In another cruel twist of fate Jack was only exempted from deportation to a German internment camp by the sick certificate. An order of 1942 decreed that all the British men not born on the Channel Islands, from the young boys of sixteen to poor old men of seventy, would be transferred to Germany. Thinking about it now, it seems bizarre that such a reasonable bureaucratic rule could regulate the Germans' inhumanity. My darling's last days are as clear in my memory as if they were yesterday. He lay in our yellow bedroom, looking out over the garden to the sea. I only left his side for the briefest periods, and slept in a chair by his bed. Early one morning I woke from an uneasy doze. I looked over to Jack. His face was grey and much too old for his sixty-two years, he was no longer the boy he had always been in my heart. Lying stiffly in the middle of the bed, arms by his side, eyes and lips closed, his breathing was so shallow that his chest hardly rose or fell. I wondered if he felt the weight of the blankets or heard the wind outside. Did he even know how I sat with him? I looked out over the garden. The vegetable patches dug in the chamomile lawn were flourishing, but the grass was long, the roses run to briars, the pond filled with sludge and rotting weeds. I wanted to lie beside my darling and hold him, just as I had each night for so many years, so after I had removed my shoes and placed them together under the bed, I pulled back the sheets and lay on my side facing Jack. He didn't move. I traced my finger across his cheekbones and down his nose to the mouth I had kissed so often. His skin was cool and very dry. I moved over and pressed my body close to his and as he made no sign that this was uncomfortable, I began to relax. The house was quiet and, for the first time in weeks, I sank into a peaceful sleep. When I woke, the soft light of late afternoon was filtering through the curtains. The breeze had dropped outside and I heard a lone bird calling for its mate. Most of the birds had been killed and I thought I would put out some potato bread for him. What depths we were reduced to in those days, eating the gentle creatures around us. It was rumoured that some desperate soul had roasted and eaten a hedgehog, but I still can't believe that was true. There were so many dreadful stories in those days, you never knew what to believe. My hand found Jack's. It was icy. I willed myself not to think of it, but I knew he was gone. I touched his cheek, my fingers slightly warming the cold flesh, then I put my arms right around him and pressed my face into his neck. We lay like that for a long time. Eventually I got up, tucked the blankets around him and closed the window. Downstairs I washed in cold water and dressed in black stockings, black slip and my best black dress. My black shoes were still under Jack's bed, so I laced on my tan brogues. I found my veiled black hat and put it on the sideboard. Even though I knew it was ridiculous, I felt uncomfortable wearing brown shoes with black and returned them to the cupboard. I looked around for my pearls, and realised I had left them upstairs too. I stood outside the bedroom door for some time before I could enter. Then I went in, raised the window and sat on the chair. I don't know what I thought about, but after some time the chirping of the little bird brought me back to the present. I bent and retrieved my shoes from under the bed and placed them beside the door. I could see my pearls lying in a shining mound on top of the blankets just below his hip. As I was picking them up I finally looked at Jack properly. His eyes were closed and his face was relaxed as if in a deep dreamless sleep. He looked years younger. He wore his favourite blue striped pyjamas from Jeremyn Street, but he was a stranger to me. I kissed him for the last time, then lifted the linen sheet to cover the face I had loved so much. I turned away, picked up my shoes and left the room, closing the door behind me. Although I hadn't noticed, that dreadful Sunday, the 1st of August 1943, had been a beautifully hot summer's day, just the sort of day Jack had always loved. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Donna Lee Brien. "Just the Sort of Day Jack Had Always Loved." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.8 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/day.php>. Chicago style: Donna Lee Brien, "Just the Sort of Day Jack Had Always Loved," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 8 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/day.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Donna Lee Brien. (1999) Just the sort of day Jack had always loved. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(8). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/day.php> ([your date of access]).