Amazing Australian Products

Due to its unique location, climate, flora and fauna, and not least thanks to its ingenious and resourceful people, Australia produces some pretty amazing products.

Australia even sells camels to Arabia, olive oil to Greece, wine to France and pasta to Italy!

Backless G-strings

A Gold Coast woman had a problem with her G-string showing and asked her daughters for advice as she could not see their G-strings poking out. She was shocked to hear her daughters were not wearing any underwear at all and she started work on her project of inventing underwear that does not stick out of your pants. It took 50 prototypes until she ended up with a design that replaces the back with two bra-style straps under the bottom. This may sound like a joke to you but at the time of writing this she is that serious about it that she has already spent $300,000 on the first production of 35,000 and she is patenting her invention across the world.

Banana wine

Paradise Wines in Mission Beach is Australias first and largest winery to specialize in gourmet banana wine. A wine that stands alone in its uniqueness. Mary Lankester, Rural Woman of the Year, founded Paradise Wines Pty Ltd in 2000. The family owned Company has researched and developed a range of gourmet tropical wines utilising exotic fruits grown in the pristine environment of tropical North Queensland Australia. Production began in June 2003 and the Cellar Door Winery opened to the public in November 2003 for tastings and inspections. At present the wines are available online for Australian wine lovers , see their website or email them for enquiries.

Camels

Photo by Rob Lapaer of Rainforest Hideaway B&B, Cape Tribulation

Exporting camels to the Middle-East may sound like carrying water to the sea (or coal to Newcastle as they say here ) but the camels in Africa that normally supplies Arabia increasingly get more diseases and Australia has such a healthy camel population that it is actually a viable business. 10 000 camels a year make the trip each year earning the country $2 million in export.
Camels were first brought to Australia in 1840 when a hardy desert transport was needed to explore the continent, when they were no longer needed they were set free, they were just about the only animal to enjoy the scrubby diet of spinifex grass and saltbush ( which was still better than bare sand back home) so they flourished and now they run around wild in numbers estimated at around half a million.

Most Australian products on this page you can buy online but a Google search for online camel sales only came up with cigarettes! If you need a camel you may have to make a trip to the Aussie outback to buy yourself a camel.

Coffee

Years ago instant coffee was the norm in Australia, especially outside the big cities you could travel for days without encountering a decent cup of coffee.
Nowadays cafes have sprung up everywhere, especially in Melbourne which is considered the coffee capital of Australia, and even in outback roadhouses you can now often find coffee machines and with a bit of luck get a good brew.
Coffee is also grown in Australia, mainly in northern New South Wales and the Atherton Tablelands behind Cairns in far north Queensland.
But of course cafes are not the only place to enjoy a good coffee, it is also an important part of your home to enjoy a good coffee.

Creating a Coffee Station in Your Home

A favourite cup of your coffee at any time of the day may be a simple pleasure, but it is a simple pleasure that you can have - especially when you have a coffee station. You do not need to have a large amount of space to create a coffee station, but you do need some key ingredients:

What to Include in Your Setup

For your coffee station to be functional and fit for purpose, there are a few things you will want to have present. You will want to have a good coffee machine; this may be one that you put coffee pods into. Or it may be a cafetiere or espresso machine. Within your setup you will also want to have a selection of syrups, sugars, and spoons to stir your cup of goodness.

A Selection of Coffee

Some days, you want a cup of decaf coffee (especially as you unwind in the evening). There will also be other times when you want to have a cup of your favorite carbon neutral coffee to kickstart your day. All good coffee stations will have a great selection of coffee beans and blends. This may include coffee from all over the world, including coffee from Australia, Colombia, and Costa Rica.

Having Open Shelving

Ideally, you will not have your coffee station closed off. When a station is closed off, accessing the items you need can be difficult and tricky - especially if you are in a hurry. Open shelving allows you to easily see what you have available (ensuring you never run precariously low on your favourite coffee beans). Open shelving is also ideal because it makes cleaning and tidying up a little quicker and easier. A good Selection of Mugs and Cups The cup or mug you drink out of can influence your coffee taste. Ideally, you will want to keep certain mugs and cups separate for use exclusively within your coffee station. Keeping these cups and mugs stored in a cabinet nearby or hanging on a wall rack can ensure easy access at all times. You may want a variety of cups and mugs to suit the coffee that you are making. For example, you may want smaller expresso cups and saucers for your morning cup of espresso. For that mid-morning pick up, you may want a larger mug.

Make Sure the Space is Organized

To thoroughly enjoy each cup of coffee, you must ensure the space remains organized and tidy. If you have trouble finding the coffee beans you want or cannot locate your favourite syrup, it will impact the coffee-making process. You may also find that it can take away a little of the enjoyment. The enjoyment you get from being involved at every stage of making the perfect cup of coffee. To ensure the space is organized, you must embrace storage tubs and units. Make sure that everything has a place, and ensure it always gets put back in the same place

Crocodile leather handbags and mobile phone holders

Click pics to enlarge

Photos from crocodilemick.com

Mick Pitman, around the remote wilderness of the Cape York peninsula better known as Crocodile Mick, makes a living as crocodile hunter, taxidermist and producer of crocodile products, and also specializes in crocodile capture. The unique handmade crocodile leather products above are only some of his works, you can see more on his website crocodilemick.com .

Desert quandong jam

Desert quandong jam is only one of the amazing products that you can find on the Aussie site bushtuckershop.com , they also produce other scrumptious native fruit jams, wicked marmalades, rare native spices and seasonings, gourmet sauces & spicey chutneys, wild hibiscus flowers in syrup, tasty macadamia nut creations, pungent mustards, native herbal teas and native essential oil cosmetics.

Emu oil

At the Emu Farm Marburg, on the Warrego Highway west of Brisbane, Stephen Schmidt has been producing emu oil ever since in 1995 he discovered the relief it brought to his joints for work related pain he suffered throughout his body. He started selling it at local shows, did more research and now has thousands of happy customers taking emu oil capsules daily for all sorts of relief from different ailments simply because of the natural anti-inflammatory properties with the oil (well known by the Australian Aborigine) and the fact that emu oil contains omega 3,6 and 9. More info on his website....

Furniture

With the availability of rainforest timbers and other influences, the furniture in Australia can be a bit different from other parts of the world, an example is above, and we have some more on our Amazing Australian Furniture page.

Kangaroo meat

Australia is the only country in the world to supply this product! While nowadays you can get a roo burger in many tourist places the consumption of their meat was banned for most of the 20th century. It certainly would have been much better for the Australian environment had people always eaten kangaroos rather than beef as the altering of the landscape by grazing cows has done some serious environmental damage.
Kangaroo meat comes in a wide range of cuts and is widely available from supermarkets throughout Australia. It is very high in protein and iron but low in fat, usually less than 2% which is less than most other red meats so it should be cooked carefully to avoid drying out during cooking.

Liqueurs

Established by Mt. Uncle Grazing Co. at the turn of the 21st Century, the distillery has slowly & surely built an impeccable & incomparable reputation for crafting fine, award winning liqueurs.
Mt. Uncle Distillery prides itself on producing 100% natural, pure and preservative free liqueurs that capture the true essence and life of the fruit… just as nature intended. Standing high and above in a synthetically dominated world, the only distillery in FNQ uses a natural, tried & proven method of traditional distilling. Eliminating competitors, Mt. Uncle Distillery continually maintains the brands promise to provide pure products, free from commercial chemicals & additives. See their website mtuncle.com for more info.

Pheromone spray

Melbourne company Acrux has developed a spray that has shown to significantly improve younger women's sexual enjoyment and satisfaction. So far the spray has been tested on 261 premenopausal women aged 35-45 across Australia who had a low libido and testosterone levels who had to record all sexual events along with the level of satisfaction during a 16-week study. On average they reported two more satisfactory sexual experiences a month than before taking the hormone.

Roo poo paper

Creative Paper in Burnie, Tasmania, decided early 2005 to start mass producing paper made from kangaroo dung and called on all Tasmanians to drop off any unwanted kangaroo and wallaby shit at their factory.
Tassie politician Brett Whiteley presented the Danish royal couple ( the Danish Crown Prince and his Tassie wife Mary) with a roo poo paper travel journal gift during their 2005 visit.
Joanna Gair, the founder and driving force behind this unique business, has also produced beer paper (from the husks of the malt left over after the brewing process), elephant poo paper, thistles, cat fur balls and cigarette butts, but her big ambition remains to one day design a roast dinner in A4 format.

Toilet seats

Loo with a View™, is an Australian Family owned company established in 1996 by Ric and Lyn Kinghorn on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in Australia. Ric and Lyn carefully select and produce the designs, to complement and refresh any bathroom, guaranteed to make your bathroom a conversation piece. Loo with a View™ offer a huge variety of styles of toilet seats, with themes ranging from aquarium-like marine scenes, and delightful Jelly-Bean designs through to the Barbed Wire. All their products are individually hand crafted in clear durable polyester resin, no two pieces will be the same, what you get is a unique work of art and a guaranteed conversation piece.

Tropical fruit wine

Australian wines are pretty famous these days but a few enterprising individuals have deviated from the traditional grape wine and moved on to exotic tropical fruits. One of those is the Shannonvale winery near Port Douglas, they make wines out of fig, mango, caarambola (star fruit), lychee, parsley, passionfruit, grapefruit, rambutan, jakfruit, orange, purple star apple, water cherry, jaboticaba, baku, black sapote (chocolate pudding fruit), ginger, mulberry and lime. Most of these come in the various styles of Dry, Medium, Sweet or Fortified.

Moogoo soap

Moogoo makes an amazing soap out of 24% fresh milk, the remainder pure nut oils, cocoa butter and lye, as opposed to most commercial soaps that are actually solidified detergent. The business started out producing udder balm which is the cream they apply in dairies to keep milking cow's udders in good condition for milking twice each day. It has been a traditional country remedy for eczema, psoriasis and prevention of stretch marks for many years. It is also used to keep skin in good condition to prevent premature aging. It is known for its soothing and rejuvenating qualities. For their soaps they now use the same basic ingredients with some added vitamins and oils. The cream works like an original udder balm rejuvenating the skin without the grease. People thought they were crazy bottling udder balm but it has worked so well for country people that they thought it was time everybody started using it. Read more about it or buy online....

Opals

Most opal is more than 60 million years old and generally dates back to the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Opal is one of the few gemstones that is sedimentary in origin. Opal still contains 6 to 10 percent water, a remnant of that ancient sea.
Coober Pedy is the Opal capital of Australia. Here and at other South Australian mines they produce most of the world’s opals. Harsh conditions prevail at most opal mines. Some of the residents have constructed luxurious homes underground, especially at Coober Pedy, to make life more comfortable in these isolated sites.

Tea

In the 1970s Australians started growing tea and nowadays about 3% of the 30 000 tonnes of tea we drink each year is home grown. One such tea is the Daintree Tea, grown in a very scenic place surrounded by rainforest, where high rainfall of around 4 metres per annum and a temperature range of 25 to 35 degrees, along with granite alluvial red soils, all combine to make the perfect growing environment for a unique tasting tea, free from tannic acid and pesticides residues. Daintree Tea is also 100 per cent Australian owned, grown and processed. Make sure to buy some when you're holidaying in the Daintree area, or buy it online at Daintreetea.com

Tea tree oil

The tea tree is an Australian tree who has nothing to do with tea that you drink, the name tea is a complete coincidence, often it s also spelled as ti tree to avoid confusion. The official name for the tree is Melaleuca alternifloria or narrow-leafed paper bark tea tree (Ti-tree Ti-trol Melasol). Due to its unique composition tea tree oil displays a number of remarkable properties making a very effective oil for a wide range of complaints. It is a pale yellowy-green or water-white mobile liquid with a warm fresh, spicy-camphoraceous odour. Tea tree oil is employed in soaps, toothpastes, deodorants, disinfectants, gargles, germicides and increasingly in aftershaves and spicy colognes. As with most Australian products, you can buy it online..

Vegemite

Invented by Fred Walker in 1923, and named through a public contest, this is a dark yeast extract made from the leftovers of beer brewing, similar to Promite and Marmite, which Aussies spread on sandwiches. It is that important to them that Australian embassies around the world frequently get calls from desperate Aussies asking where they can find the Vegemite importer in that country. I have even heard Aussie embassy staff talking about flying Vegemite in inside the diplomatic bags. Some people have even been known to drink it, dissolved in a glass of hot water. Newcomers to Australia are unlikely to enjoy this powerful tasting stuff and usually have only one try, pull some funny faces and then never touch it again, it tastes very salty, even though the salt content has been reduced from 10 to 8 percent. In 1935 U.S. based Kraft Cheese bought Vegemite so this Australian icon is not even Australian owned anymore.
You can even cook with it to produce some real Aussie tucker, click here for some recipes....
In 2009 Kraft came up with the idea to start producing a blend of Vegemite and Kraft cheese, supposedly easier to spread and milder in taste than the original. A competition was held for the public to come up with a name for the new stuff which was won by 27 year old West Australian web designer Dean Robbins who came up with the name iSnack 2.0 , Dean was beside himself with pride and thought he'd go down in Australian history as the one who named the new icon, but only four days later, long before statues of Dean could be built or his face placed on stamps and coins, Kraft announced that nobody liked the name and they're going to choose a new one. Once again the help of the public is requested, this time to choose a name from a shortlist of six; Cheesybite, Creamymate, Smooth, Snackmate, Vegemate and Vegemild.
Latest news flash 07/10/2009; the new name is Cheesybite!

Wool

Sheep farmer Barry Walker sold a 91 kg bale of 11.8 micron wool ( the standard for Merinos is 20) for $227,000 . He feeds his super sheep a secret diet of grains and special hay and plays Italian opera to them.

Do you know of, or produce, any amazing Australian products? Then contact us!

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