History of coffee growing
A brief overview of the history of coffee growing in Australia, from 1788 to the present day.
This article briefly traces the history of coffee growing in Australia.
Coffee has been grown in Australia for over 200 years, since 1788. Since 1788 Australian coffee production has gone through periods of growth and decline. One such period was between 1880 and the 1920's. A new period of growth in domestic coffee production began in the 1980's, and continues today.
First Fleet and early settlement
The first coffee plants were brought to Sydney, in the colony of New South Wales, with the very first settlers to Australia aboard the First Fleet in 1788.
A number of coffee plants or seeds were procured by Governor Phillip en-route to Australia from England, whilst the First Fleet were in Rio De Janeiro, taking on board supplies between August 7 and September 4, 1787 .Coffee was a well established crop in Brazil, and Rio was a good place to pick up viable coffee plants or seeds. (The type was likely to have been an Arabica Bourbon variety, the most common type in Brazil at the time).
Governor Phillip, writing to Lord Sydney in his journal during the Fleet's stay in Brazil, noted:
"I have been able to procure all such fruit and plants as I think likely to thrive on the coast of New South Wales, particularly the coffee, indigo, cotton, and cochineal."
Soon after the settlement was established in Port Jackson in 1788, plantings of coffee and these other crops took place, most probably at Farm Cove.
Interestingly, these early plantings in Australia mean coffee cultivation in Australia preceded by some years the introduction of coffee cultivation in Mexico (1790), Columbia (1799), and Hawaii (1825), not to mention major coffee growing regions of eastern and southern Africa such as Kenya (1893).
However as the historian G. B. Barton notes,
"With most of them Phillip's expectations were fully realised from the first; but it took time and experience to learn that coffee, cocoa, cotton, and banana plants, collected at Rio, required a rather more tropical climate than that of Botany Bay." (1)
Testament to the early challenges of cultivating coffee around Port Jackson, the Surgeon to the First Fleet, George B. Worgan, writing in June 1788, noted in his journal:
"The Spots of Ground that we have cultivated for Gardens have brought forth most of the Seeds that we put in soon after our Arrival here, and besides the common culinary Plants, Indigo, Coffee, Ginger, Castor Nut, Oranges, Lemons & Limes, Firs & Oaks have vegitated from Seed. but whether from any unfriendly deleterious Quality of the Soil or the Season. nothing seems to flourish vigorously long. but they shoot up suddenly after being put in the Ground, look green & luxuriant for a little Time, blossom early, fructify slowly & weakly and ripen before they come to their proper Size. Indeed. many of the Plants wither long ere they arrive at these Periods of Growth.." (2)
It is not known what the long-term fate of those early plantings in Sydney was.
It would not have been impossible to grow coffee in colonial Sydney. Whilst the climate as far south as Sydney may not be ideal for the cultivation of coffee, it can be done. Arabica coffee can be grown in regions where the average temperature range is between 15 - 24° C, and arabica can tolerate lower temperatures than 15° C for short periods. Some arabica hybrids can even tolerate a wider range of temperatures. No arabica coffee will, however, tolerate frost. Consequently, with a carefully chosen location, the mild climate of the Sydney settlement could theoretically have supported coffee production.
Indeed, I have had a report (3) that in 1801 a Phillip de Clune (possibly one of the several French convicts tasked to establish wine growing in the colony) had a farm on Rogans Hill in Sydney, some 26km north west of Sydney, cultivating coffee, peaches and grapes. Unfortunately Phillip died in 1803, perhaps at the hand of convicts who escaped from the Castle Hill prison farm. His house still stands and is the subject of a National Trust order. And even today some people in the Castle Hill region of Sydney are still successfully growing coffee in their back-yards. Furthermore, at the present time there is a viable coffee plantation at Berry in NSW, located some 100km south of Sydney, proof that arabica coffee can be grown even further south than Sydney.
However it seems unlikely that the early colonists had the expertise or motivation to successfully cultivate coffee under the perhaps less than ideal conditions that prevailed in Sydney. Furthermore, from the very first days of settlement in Sydney the colony faced severe food shortages that threatened its viability and the survival of the settlers. Under these circumstances it is not likely that the cultivation of non-staple crops like coffee in the Sydney area would have been a priority for the colonial administration of Governor Phillip and his immediate successors.
Establishment of coffee at Norfolk Island
At almost the same time that the colony was being established in Sydney, preparations were also being made to establish a settlement at Norfolk Island, to prevent the island falling to the French, to secure its strategic resources of timber and flax, and to establish it as another food supply for the struggling Sydney colony.
Accordingly, on 6 March 1788 the British flag was raised on Norfolk Island, and a small agricultural settlement of 23 people was established there. This was reinforced in March of 1790 by 300 more convicts and troops, who went on to grow maize, wheat, potatoes, cabbage, timber, flax and fruit, and quite probably coffee, with some success. However by 1808 preparations began (including "..sufficient men to be left to cultivate the coffee & tend the sheep remaining there" (4) to progressively abandon the settlement at Norfolk Island, as it was becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, and by 1814 all the occupants of the island had been evacuated, all the buildings razed, and the island was left to return to nature.
The successful cultivation of coffee in Norfolk Island must have been well known to the early Sydney colonists, however. Periodically after 1814, with special permission from the colonial government in Sydney, several travellers stopped at Norfolk Island to collect coffee plants to take to other Pacific Island destinations for cultivation there. For example, in May 1818 permission was given to John Giles, a missionary heading to the Friendly Islands, to collect coffee, sugar and cotton plants from Norfolk Island, and in April 1819, permission was granted to a John Nicolson of the brig 'Haweis' to procure coffee plants from Norfolk Island for cultivation at Otaheite and the Society Islands. (5)
In the second period of settlement of Norfolk Island as an infamously hellish penal settlement (1825 - 1855), and from 1855 to date, little further is heard of coffee cultivation in Norfolk Island. (That is, of course, until recently, and now coffee is making a welcome return to cultivation on Norfolk Island thanks to the efforts of the Norfolk Island Coffee Plantation.)
Movement towards a commercial coffee industry 1860 - 1880
After these early difficulties with coffee cultivation in NSW and Norfolk Island, little more is known of coffee growing in Australia until the 1860's. By then, the sub-tropical areas of more promise for coffee cultivation further north along the NSW coast, into Queensland, and further afield, were becoming settled and available to agriculture.
Perhaps the earliest recorded attempt during this period to grow coffee on a substantial basis was in the west of the continent, in Western Australia.
Between 1870 and 1873, the Reverend Charles Grenfell Nicolay established an experimental coffee plantation on the western slope of the Moresby Flat Topped Range, about 10km east of Geraldton, and some 400 km north of Perth.
As the fledgling colonial government of Western Australia was keen to stimulate the development of cash crops suitable for export to the other colonies, and perhaps further, Rev Nicolay was granted 640 acres (250 hectares) and £100 by the colonial government, as well as access to a labour force, to establish an experimental coffee plantation. This support was forthcoming on the basis of the claims of Rev Nicolay that the climate of Geraldton was similar to some parts of Brazil where coffee flourished. It is unknown what proportion of that 640 acres was cultivated, but by 1871 a large coffee crop was in the ground there.
However, due to the reported depredations of 'the common enemies birds and grubs', and 'the strong northerly winds which prevailed all last summer', as well as the unsuitably arid climate for coffee of Geraldton (not to mention the horticultural ignorance of Rev Nicolay) after two growing seasons the government withdrew its support, and the project collapsed, possibly without producing a bean. The site is marked today by the well known Coffee Pot structure and Waggrakine Well. (6)
On the other side of the continent, a few years prior to the establishment of Rev Nicolay's plantation in Geraldton, in an effort to stimulate the development of agriculture in Queensland, the Sugar and Coffee Regulations Act of 1864 was passed by the Queensland Parliament. The Sugar and Coffee Regulations Act of 1864 allowed persons or companies to select blocks over 2 acres in size anywhere in the colony outside of towns and cities. For the first three years, the rent was one shilling per acre. Provided the lessee had spent at least one pound per acre on improvements, and had cultivated at least 5 percent of the land with coffee or sugar cane (a matter subject to periodic, but cursory, official inspection), the lessee could purchase the land at any time for £1 per acre. While these regulations were certainly the catalyst for the beginning of the sugar industry in Queensland, they appear to have had a less stimulating effect on coffee production.
While an observer could note, in 1870, writing about Mackay in Queensland, that:
Mackay has been referred to as ‘the garden of Queensland’ …everything which has been tried has grown to perfection … maize, arrowroot, yams, cassava, pumpkin, sweet potato, English vegetables, tropical fruits, mango, tobacco, coffee etc.
The earliest evidence of a coffee plantation established in Mackay or anywhere else in Queensland comes some time later, in 1877, when a John Marcus Costello bought land in the hill country at Habana, near Mackay. He reportedly produced good coffee crops there for a period of eight years before difficulties associated with marketing outside of Mackay and government regulations on the use of ‘coloured’ labour forced closure. (7) (Interestingly enough, coffee production has now resumed in Mackay, and some remnant arabica coffee bushes from that period - which may have hybridised in novel new ways - have been found and will be used by the new producers).
Commercial coffee growing takes root c1880 - 1920
Signs of a viable, widespread coffee industry began to emerge in Australia for the first time in the 1880's. The Sugar and Coffee Regulations Act of 1864 may finally have had an effect on Queensland coffee production, as may some of the problems of disease or disaster which beset the sugar-cane industry at the time. Together, these factors could have encouraged some Queensland cane farmers to try another crop, or just to diversify. The market conditions may also have generally become more favorable for coffee too in the 1880's. Colonial Australians and 19th century Britons had a vigorous appreciation of coffee, and as the population of the colonies grew, this may have created an increasingly attractive domestic market for coffee.
The market opportunity for Australian coffee also improved significantly in the 1880's due to an unfortunate agricultural disaster in Ceylon. In the 19th century the main coffee growing centre of the British Empire and indeed the world was Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka). In the 1870s, an outbreak of coffee leaf rust disease devastated coffee plantations in Ceylon. It led to the eventual abandonment of these plantations and a massive switch-over of production in Ceylon from coffee to tea. (This catastrophe was also largely responsible for the British and Australian national beverage becoming tea). (8)
Alternative sources of supply for coffee within the Empire were suddenly required, and as Australia had the right climate to grow coffee, and was free of leaf rust disease and other pests of coffee, coffee plantations were soon being established in several tropical locations in the Australian colonies.
Commercial coffee plantations soon began to emerge, especially in the far north of Queensland, and northern NSW. In 1884 a tea and coffee plantation was established at Bingal Bay, 120km south of Cairns by the four brothers of the Cutten family, as part of a 3000 acre (1200 hectare) farming enterprise of which tea and coffee were but a part. Of the four brothers, Herbert Frederick Cutten took responsibility for the tea and coffee side of the business. The tea project failed in 1895, but coffee growing thrived, and by 1895 the Cullen family were the largest coffee growers in Australia.
Unfortunately, their farming operations were totally destroyed by a major cyclone or what the Bureau of Meteorology has called a 'super typhoon' which on 10 March 1918 passed directly over their region, killing 100 people, and generating a phenomenal storm surge that hit the area like a tidal wave, driving water 3.6m deep hundreds of metres inland. Some of their tea bushes, and probably some of their coffee trees as well, apparently live on amidst the rainforest in the region to the present day. (9)
Other far north Queensland coffee pioneers include Gerhard Windhaus, a German immigrant who also successfully grew coffee on 8-10 acres on a site near Halloran's Hill, just outside of Atherton, between 1900 and 1926, winning many regional awards and distributing his coffee under the banner 'Guaranteed, absolutely pure', a theme echoed by many contemporary Australian coffee producers. In the mid-1920's, Windhaus left coffee growing and moved into tobacco growing in the Mareeba/ Dimbulah area.
 (Image from NQ Collection, James Cook University) |
A typical Far North Queensland coffee plantation scene of the period, c.1900. Note the pruned trees to facilitate hand-harvesting, as well as the lush rainforest surrounding the plantation. Note also the unusual farming 'poncho' attire in use. |
Further south in Queensland, there were also active centres of coffee production in several other regions, including around Nambour, Maroochydore, and Buderim.
Buderim was home to another German immigrant, Gustav Adolf Reibe who was also a pioneering coffee producer and an active grower for 20 years. Reibe had previously grown sugar cane and bananas in the Buderim region but in 1898 selected land on the north eastern slope of Buderim and planted coffee between clumps of bananas, with satisfactory results.
 (Image from the Maroochy Library Heritage Image collection). |
Mr Reibe pictured with a device of his own manufacture, apparently for the processing of coffee after harvest, c.1901. |
Although Queensland appears to have produced the bulk of Australia's coffee output, during the same 1880 - 1920 period coffee production also became established in the northern rivers district of New South Wales. The remnant coffee trees still growing wild in the hills of the region are testament to the former existence of a coffee industry there.
There is also evidence to suggest that coffee plantations were also established in what is now the Northern Territory, near Rum Jungle or Batchelor, perhaps as early as 1880.
The Australian coffee industry seems to have been successful on many fronts during the period. There were possibly 50-60 active plantations, and Australian coffee output was, at its peak, supplying it is said 40% of the requirements of the Australian market. In 1901-2, a conservative estimate of the Queensland crop alone put the total area commercially devoted to coffee at 547 acres (220 hectares), declining to 256 (100 hectares) acres in 1906-7. (10)
It was also apparently of good quality too, reportedly winning numerous prestigious awards at international produce contests, with arabica beans grown in the northern rivers region of NSW winning awards in Paris, Marseille and Rome in the mid 1880’s, Buderim coffee winning a gold medal in 1901 at an exhibition of empire produce in London, and a coffee from Hervey Bay winning a medal in London in 1908. Australian coffee was also apparently winning a strong following in Europe.
However the industry started to decline from around the time of World War 1, it seems, probably under pressure from a range of factors.
These factors may have included an unfortunate string of natural disasters. A cyclone swept through the Cairns region in 1911 and caused widespread damage. In 1912 a black frost wiped out the coffee crop in Kuranda, near Cairns. In 1918 two severe cyclones hit north Queensland. The first cyclone of January 1918 generated un-precedented flooding and inflicted significant damage on crops and property in the region from Mackay to Rockhampton. The second cyclone was the one of March 1918 near Cairns, which not only wiped out the coffee and tea plantations of the Cullen family, perhaps the largest coffee producers in Australia at the time, but which also caused wide-spread damage inland on the Atherton Tablelands, where many other coffee producers had their plantations.
Market forces also probably took their toll on the local industry, including competition from cheap imported coffee beans, and rising domestic labour costs, especially after kanaka labourers were compulsorily repatriated in 1906, which made it increasingly un-economic to produce coffee domestically, as coffee is a very labour intensive crop.
Additional factors may have been the rising costs and difficulties in transporting coffee to export markets, the apparent lack of any tariff protection or bounty schemes for coffee producers, and no doubt the difficulties of marketing the local crop to Australian consumers in a way that would justify paying a premium for it in order to cover higher production costs. It is also likely that the significant disruption to domestic and export markets caused by the First World War played a part. The 1920's were also a period of declining commodity prices world wide, and were a very tough period for Australian farmers in general. And then of course came the Depression.
Some combination of these factors led the industry to fall into decline, with many growers switching to other crops, like the Windhaus family and others did in the mid 1920's (resulting in Mareeba becoming Australia's tobacco capital rather than its coffee capital) or just leaving the land. By the time of World War 2, there was no trace of any coffee growing industry in Australia anymore.
There was some Australian activity in coffee production after World War 2, but this seems to have been mainly in relation to helping to develop the coffee industry in Papua New Guinea, which was an Australian overseas territory until it achieved independence in 1975.
Coffee industry revival, 1980 to the present...
Beginning in the early 1980's, a coffee growing industry began to re-emerge in Australia, both in the northern rivers area of NSW and in far north Queensland.
Pioneers of the new industry in NSW include dynamic retirees Joy Phelps and Joan Dibden, the owner-operators of Wombah Coffee, based at the small village of Woombah, between Maclean and Iluka, who planted their first coffee seedlings in March 1982. A little earlier, in far north Queensland in about 1980 Nat Jaques of Jaques Australian Coffee was establishing his first coffee plantation in Australia at Mareeba, and also in 1980 Bruno Maloberti of North Queensland Gold Coffee switched over from growing tobacco to growing coffee, also in Mareeba.
In the course of the 1980's, and particularly in the late 1990's, more commercial coffee growers emerged across northern NSW and a number of regions of Queensland. Many were farmers who had previously grown other crops such as avocados (for example, in the case of Zentvelds), bananas (John Nilon of Rosebank Gold), or tobacco (eg NQ Gold), only a few had grown coffee before (eg Jaques), and many were new entrants to agriculture entirely, including some of the largest current producers, like Capricorn Coast Coffee at Yeppoon or MountainTop Coffee at Georgica. Consequently, in the space of little over 20 years, the industry has grown from one or two producers to probably in excess of 120 (many of whom are featured on this site in the Producers section), and from having probably less than 50 hectares planted, to more than 1000 hectares planted today.
The renewed interest in coffee production could be due to a number of factors.
For many growers, it just seemed commercially attractive again to get into coffee. The coffee marketplace in Australia was strong, and anchored by a long-term growth in Australian per-capita coffee consumption. Australian's were now consuming more coffee per capita per annum (2.4kg) than tea (0.9kg). The local coffee marketplace was also substantial - in 2001, retail coffee sales were estimated to be $636 million, based mainly on processing 44,000 tonnes of imported beans. Whilst instant coffee comprised 80 per cent of sales, the quality (and higher margin) end of the retail market in roast and ground coffee sales was worth $96 million. This part of the market had grown 30 per cent over the previous five years, but was being exclusively serviced by 12–15000 tonnes of imported arabica beans per annum. A cafe culture had also become entrenched in Australia, driving demand for premium coffee products. So there seemed opportunities in the local market to pursue that might not have been there prior to the 1980's. Export markets for premium Australian coffee, as a distinctive gourmet product with attractive environmental credentials, also seemed promising.
Other factors may also have played a role. Prices for other crops like tobacco were declining. Various State and federal government agricultural agencies had been actively working to stimulate the local coffee industry throughout the 1980's and 1990's, and generated a stream of workshops, market studies, research reports, producer study grants, how-to guides, and test plantings. Coffee as a product also perhaps simply has more allure and magic than boring crops like bananas or avocadoes. Because of the relatively high value of the crop, typically high crop yields per hectare, and the relatively low capital and chemical requirements of growing it, it also seemed possible to obtain a reasonable return from coffee from relatively small land-holdings, making it affordable for many small family businesses to get into coffee growing full-time, or as a sideline.
But perhaps the most significant factor in the revival of substantial commercial interest in the industry was the development, in Brazil and Australia over the last 20 years of mechanised coffee harvesting machines. These machines changed the economics of the industry by dramatically reducing the costs of harvesting coffee, taking out of the equation the labour cost disadvantage of growing coffee in Australia that had contributed to killing off the industry in Australia 80 years ago. To illustrate the dramatic grower productivity transformation these machines promise, at present labour costs, these harvesters are able to reduce the harvesting cost component of dry green bean from over $6 per kg for hand-harvesting, down to 60 cents per kg - one tenth of the cost of hand harvesting. And a machine can harvest up to 10,000 trees in a day. (11)
The future
The future of the 2nd wave of the Australian coffee growing industry seems promising. Production over the short-term to 2007/8 is forecast to grow by more than 300%, to some 1600 tonnes of dried green bean, up from some 500 tonnes in 2002. That's still a drop in the ocean compared to the volume of coffee imports, but it is solid growth by any account.
A greater range of participants are entering the market, including some large scale, investment scheme driven producers, and some overseas investors. Some producers have been able to demonstrate success in building their brands locally, and in achieving export sales into attractive and demanding markets such as Japan, Germany and the USA. Many Australian producers also seem to be fully in tune with market trends that could assist local growers build a positive profile for their products and Australian coffee generally, and achieve a price premium. These established trends include consumer enthusiasm for organic and sustainably grown, environmentally friendly products, and for healthy food and beverages.
Additionally, with some government hand-holding, the industry is also establishing good frameworks and protocols around chemical usage and environmental practices, as well as around quality control, R&D and industry unity, which may help the industry develop more coherently, and help it successfully move the expected boost in production volumes into the marketplace. The industry still has some way to go in improving its practical invisibility in the domestic marketplace however (a matter in which this site is happy to assist), and in establishing better relationships with domestic distributors, roasters, cafes and restaurants, retailers and consumers. In these areas, further work is needed.
The medium to long term prospects for the industry are harder to forecast. Some have argued that a limited supply of land suitable for coffee cultivation, and competing land use and price pressures from urbanisation, may set a de-facto cap on future growth prospects, at least in some areas. However, the abundance of current growing locations across NSW and QLD - and the historical record of coffee production even further afield, as well as the cultivation flexibility of some arabica varieties - suggests that it may be difficult to judge the industry's growth prospects on this basis.
In the medium term, the capacity of the industry to capture a substantial proportion of the domestic roast and ground coffee market - currently about $100 million, using around 12 - 15,000 tonnes of imported arabica bean annually - seems promising, although there will be challenges. Over the longer term, it may even be possible for the industry to re-capture the 40% share of the total retail coffee market the earlier Australian coffee industry apparently enjoyed for a period. For this to be achieved, however, would mean reaching a production level of some 20,000 tonnes or more per annum of dried green bean, and establishing substantial production, marketing and distribution structures around the local crop that are only just now beginning to form. But it has been done before even within the coffee industry, and by other local beverage industries such as of course wine, and to a lesser extent, even tea.
A final word: E.J Banfield on the Australian coffee industry, 1908
In closing, the final word on the history of the coffee industry in Australia should belong to E.J. Bansfield, (1852-1923), the well-known Australian journalist and naturalist, celebrated for his accounts of living on Dunk Island in Queensland early last century. He wrote extensively and knowledgeably on many elements of tropical life and industry in Australia at the turn of the century, including the coffee industry.
What is striking in reading the passage below, excerpted from his 1908 book "The Confessions of a Beachcomber" is how little has changed in the basics of the industry, and also how apt his observations remain, even today, about the coffee marketplace, and the challenges Australian growers face.
Chapter 2
"[..]
A coffee plantation suggests pleasant, picturesque and spicy things. The orderly lines of the plants, in glossy green adorned for a brief space with white, frail, fugitive flowers distilling a deliciously sweet and grateful odour, the branches crowded with gleaming berries, green, pink and red, present pleasing aspect. As a change to the scenery of the jungle, a coffee estate has a garden-like relief.
But picking berry by berry is slow and monotonous work, vexatious, too, to those mortals whose skin is sensitive to the attacks of green ants. Then comes the various processes of the removal of the pulp, first by machinery, finally by the fermentation of the still adhering slimy residuum; then the drying and saving by exposure to the sun on trays or on tarpaulins until all moisture is expelled; and the hulling which disintegrates the parchment from the twin berries; then winnowing, and finally the polishing.
Do drinkers of the fragrant and exhilarating beverage realise the amount of labour and care involved before the crop is taken off and preserved from deterioration and decay? A few berries that may have become mildewed during the slow, tedious and anxious process of drying in the sun, may violate the delicate flavour and aroma which the grower has been at pains to secure and fix.
In coffee it is as with many other features of rural life in Australia. The men who undertake the production are for the most part those who have gained their knowledge by personal experience on the spot. Reading and the advice of experts who have graduated in countries where climatic conditions are diverse and where the labour is cheap, yet skilled by reason of generation after generation of occupation in it, do not complete necessary knowledge. Problems have to be faced that have no theoretical nor official solution, and blunders paid for, until by the process of the elimination of mistakes the right way is discovered. Losses mount up until either patience and means are exhausted, or success crowns the application of intelligent enterprise.
Then, when the coffee planter, self-taught, in each and all of the departments of culture and preparation, glories in the assurance of his capabilities to offer to the world an article of indubitable character, he discovers that the vulgar world, for the most part, prefers its coffee duly adulterated; indeed has become so warped and perverted in perception that the pure and undefiled article is looked upon with suspicion and distaste. Its flavour and aroma are quite foreign to the ordinary coffee drinker. The contaminated beverage is regarded as pure, and the genuine article is soundly condemned as an imposition, and the seller of it is liable to be accused of fraud. [..] If coffee is not muddy and thick and does not possess a mawkish twang of liquorice, it is suspected. The delicate aromatic flavour, the fragrant odour, the genial and stimulant effects are now almost unknown, except in limited circles.
North Queensland is capable of growing far more than sufficient coffee for the Commonwealth, but coffee is not a popular Australian beverage, and as it entirely loses its specific balsam and identity under the manipulation of manufacturers, it cannot get the chance of becoming popular. Australian wines, Australian spirits and Australian coffee might well be the popular beverages of Australians. But preference is given to foreign importations, of the genuineness of some of which there are strong grounds for suspicion; or in the case of coffee its elements are so disguised by adulteration that a revolution in public taste must take place before it can possibly find general favour."
full text at: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/b21cn
v1.2. 21 June 2004 © Steven Byrne 2004.
References:
- G. B. Barton - 1889, History of New South Wales From the Records, VOLUME 1 - GOVERNOR PHILLIP 1783-1789
http://www.freewebz.com/matthewshistory/barton_sea.html - George B. Worgan, Journal of a First Fleet Surgeon, writing in 1788, (Letter, June 12-18 1788):
http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/worjour.pdf - Personal communication from Clayton Pine, of Pine Tea and Coffee coffee roasters, Sydney, 15 June 2004.
- Colonial Secretary's Papers Index, 1788-1825, State Records of NSW
(Reel 6001; SZ760 p.127b)
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/colsec/n/f41c%5Fn%2D13.htm - Colonial Secretary's Papers Index, 1788-1825, State Records of NSW,
(Reel 6006; 4/3498 p.210)
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/colsec/f/f20c%5Ffli%2Dfy%2D16.htm and
(Reel 6006; 4/3500 p.94)
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/colsec/t/f56c%5Fti%2Dty%2D09.htm - Assessment Document for Place No: 00475 Name: Coffee Pot and Waggrakine Well,
Heritage Council of Western Australia, Perth. http://www.heritage.wa.gov.au/ - THE SUGAR INDUSTRY: Understanding the role of sugar in the development of Mackay and its hinterland, Mackay City Council, 2002
http://www.mackay.qld.gov.au/__data/page/634/Sugar_Study_Document.pdf&e=747 - Australian Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests, Coffee Leaf Rust,
http://www.affa.gov.au/content/schools/rl/8063.htm - Australian Tea Industry Forum, Aussie Tea History
http://www.tea.org.au/history/sub2.html - AGRICULTURE - THE EARLY YEARS, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/c311215.NSF/0/a8c271363703d94eca256d48001323f1?OpenDocument - Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, R&D Plan for the Australian Coffee Industry 2003-2008. May 2003.
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/NPP/03-056sum.html