Tea consumption is an essential part of contemporary Australian culture, generally inherited from British tea culture though with its own distinct qualities. Small quantities of tea are grown and produced in Australia itself.
Tea consumption is an essential part of contemporary Australian culture, generally inherited from British tea culture though with its own distinct qualities. Small quantities of tea are grown and produced in Australia itself.
Historically, Aboriginal Australians drank an infusion from the plant species leptospermum (a different plant from the tea plant or Camellia sinensis). This plant is the New Zealand native Manuka. Upon landing in Australia for the first time, Captain Cook noticed the aboriginal peoples drinking it and called it tea. Today the plant is referred to as the "tea tree".
Through colonisation by the British, tea was introduced to Australia. In fact, tea was aboard the First Fleet in 1788. Tea is a large part of modern Australian culture due to its British origins. Australians drink tea and have afternoon tea and morning tea much the way the British do. Additionally, due to Australia's climate, tea is able to be grown and produced in northern Australia. [1]
In 1883, Alfred Bushell opened the first tea shop in Australia in present-day Queensland. In 1884, the Cutten brothers established the first commercial tea plantation in Australia in Bingil Bay in northern Queensland. [2] In 1899, Bushell's sons moved their enterprise to Sydney and began selling tea commercially, founding Australia's first commercial tea seller Bushell's Company. [3] In 1901, tea merchant James Griffiths (founder of Griffiths Teas) advertised the sale of "Australian-grown tea" from his property on the outskirts of Melbourne. [4]
In 1958, Allan Maruff started the first commercial tea plantings in Australia since 1886 in the Nerada valley, south of Cairns, Queensland, using seedlings from the former Cutten brother's plantation at Bingil Bay. [5] In 1969, Tea Estates of Australia (TEA) commenced tea planting adjacent to the Nerada plantation. In 1971, Nerada Tea Estates (NTE) opened Australia's first commercial tea factory. In 1973, TEA purchased NTE, ceased selling bulk tea and marketed the tea under the Nerada brand. The following year, TEA opened a small packing factory in Innisfail. In 1991, TEA opened a larger tea factory in Glen Allyn, near Malanda and a larger packaging plant the next year in Brisbane. Nerada Tea is the largest supplier of Australian grown tea, with over 400 ha (990 acres) of tea planted in the Cairns Region, producing 1,500,000 kg (3,300,000 lb) of black tea. [6]
In 1978, Mike and Norma Grant-Cook, tea planters from Ceylon, established the Madura Tea Estates in Murwillumbah (Tweed River valley) in north-eastern New South Wales. Madura produces Assam tea and green tea, which is blended with Sri Lanka (Ceylon) tea. [7]
Other tea producers include: the Byron Bay Tea Company, which produces in Byron Bay, New South Wales; [8] the Red Sparrow Tea Company which was established in 1988 in Coffs Harbour; [9] the Daintree Tea Company, established in 1978 in the Daintree River valley near Mossman, Queensland; [10] the Tinbeerwah Tea Company in the steep hills overlooking Noosa, Queensland; and the Two Rivers Green Tea Company, located near the junction of the Goulburn and Acheron Rivers at Alexandra, Victoria. [11] [12]
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Australian tea culture remains very similar to British tea culture. Tea is often offered to guests by the host and small food portions are often served during "morning tea" and "afternoon tea". The main evening meal can be called "tea".
As a result of the growing Asian population in Australia, Australian tea culture has been mixed with several Asian tea cultures found in Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, India and Sri Lanka.
Billy tea is the drink prepared by the ill-fated swagman in the popular Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda. Boiling water for tea over a campfire and adding a gum leaf for flavouring remains an iconic traditional Australian method for preparing tea, which was a staple drink of the Australian colonial period. [13]
In 2000, Australia consumed 14,000 tonnes of tea annually. [14] Tea production in Australia remains very small and is primarily in northern New South Wales and Queensland. Most tea produced in Australia is black tea, although there are small quantities of green tea produced in the Alpine Valleys region of Victoria. [15]
The Daintree National Park is located in Far North Queensland, Australia, 1,757 km (1,092 mi) northwest of Brisbane and 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Cairns. It was founded in 1981 and is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland. In 1988, it became a World Heritage Site. The park consists of two sections—Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation, with a settled agricultural area between them which includes the towns of Mossman and Daintree Village.
Mission Beach is a coastal town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Mission Beach had a population of 1,014 people.
The history of tea spreads across multiple cultures throughout thousands of years. The tea plant Camellia sinensis is native to East Asia and probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northern Myanmar. One of the earliest accounts of tea drinking is dated back to China's Shang dynasty, in which tea was consumed as a medicinal drink. An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text written by Chinese physician Hua Tuo. It first became known to the western world through Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the early 16th century. Drinking tea became popular in Britain during the 17th century. To compete with the Chinese monopoly on tea, the British introduced commercial tea production to British India. Due to the tea leaves being transported by train/road for extended periods, the tea leaves fermented and as a result, many in the West believed fermented tea is the preferred method of consumption in China. This also contributes to why fermented (black) tea is the most consumed tea in the West.
The Daintree Rainforest, also known as the Daintree, is a region on the northeastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about 105 km (65 mi), by road, north of the city of Cairns. Whilst the terms "Daintree Rainforest" and "the Daintree" are not officially defined, it is generally accepted and understood that they refer to the area from the Daintree River north to Cooktown, and from the coastline west to the Great Dividing Range. The popular tourist destination of Mossman Gorge, some 30 km (19 mi) south of the Daintree River, is often included in the definition.
Tea culture is how tea is made and consumed, how people interact with tea, and the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking.
The Daintree River is a river that rises in the Daintree Rainforest near Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland, Australia. The river is located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of Cairns in the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Wet Tropics of Queensland. The area is now primarily a tourist attraction.
Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Country. The waters of Torres Strait include the only international border in the area contiguous with the Australian mainland, between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Camellia sinensis, the source of tea leaves and buds, can be grown in much of the United States. Commercial cultivation has been tried at various times and locations since the 1700s, but tea has remained a niche crop and has never been cultivated widely in the US. As of 2020, the US mainland has one relatively large plantation with full mechanization in Charleston, South Carolina, and many small commercial tea gardens that pick tea by hand. Some growers feel that tea production is not economically viable without some mechanization, but there is evidence that unmechanized tea production is viable, albeit with lower net profit margins. Most domestically grown teas are available through mail order and online purchases.
Mossman Gorge is a rural locality in the Shire of Douglas, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Mossman Gorge had a population of 248 people.
Eucalyptus grandis, commonly known as the flooded gum or rose gum, is a tall tree with smooth bark, rough at the base fibrous or flaky, grey to grey-brown. At maturity, it reaches 50 metres tall, though the largest specimens can exceed 80 metres tall. It is found on coastal areas and sub-coastal ranges from Newcastle in New South Wales northwards to west of Daintree in Queensland, mainly on flat land and lower slopes, where it is the dominant tree of wet forests and on the margins of rainforests.
Normanbya is a monotypic genus of palms containing the single species Normanbya normanbyi, which is known by the common name black palm It is endemic to Queensland, Australia and is threatened by habitat destruction.
Bingil Bay is a coastal town, locality and bay in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Bingil Bay had a population of 438 people.
Garners Beach Burial Ground is a heritage-listed cemetery at Garners Beach Road, Garners Beach, Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1935 to 1968. It is also known as Clump Point Private Cemetery, Garners Beach Cemetery, and Wilford Hill. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 April 1999.
Glen Allyn is a rural locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Glen Allyn had a population of 109 people.
South Mission Beach is a coastal town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of South Mission Beach had a population of 968 people.
Nerada is a rural locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Nerada had a population of 88 people.
Nerada Tea is an Australian company that produces tea and coffee. The company is Australia's largest tea producer.
Madura Tea Estates is an Australian company that produces tea.
Allan Peter Maruff MRCS was an Indian-Australian medical practitioner and businessman. He was a pioneer of the tea-growing industry in Australia, as founder of Nerada Tea.
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