August 2024
In March 1938, the Western Mail (a weekly newspaper in Western Australia) announced the opening of a ‘Bush Recipes Competition’.
Our new competition “Bush Recipes” is open from now until April 14. All recipes submitted must be taken from the natural resources of the Australian bush. Country people should find scope in this competition for their bush-craft and originality. Useful prizes are offered for entries gaining first, second and third places in the competition, which will be decided on the votes of readers in the same way as the Tight Corner contest.
In this article I review the competition entries for what they tell us about Australians’ engagement with native food in the 1930’s. The caveat here is that it is only native animals, one native fruit and a seaweed for which entries were provided.
