Peter Hardwick (born 1958) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal ...

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ...

horticulturist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

and environmentalist, recognized as an early pioneer of the Australian

bushfood Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or m ...

industry. He publicly challenged the established belief that native Australian food plants were not suitable for cropping; conceived the commercial strategy of processing strong flavored native food plants; and, developed the use of wild and seedling genetic diversity to overcome the lack of domesticated varieties previously considered a limitation with Australian native food plants. In 1977 Hardwick started researching native food plants for their

culinary Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs ...

and cropping potential to highlight the economic importance of conserving

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfo ...

. In 1978, he studied at Ryde School Horticulture, and investigated potential crops like

Davidsonia ''Davidsonia'' is a genus containing three rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can b ...

riberry ''Syzygium luehmannii'' is a medium-sized coastal rainforest tree native to Australia. Common names include riberry, small leaved lilly pilly, cherry satinash, cherry alder, or clove lilli pilli. The habitat is Australian riverine, littoral, sub ...

, bunya nut and plum pine (

Illawarra plum ''Podocarpus elatus'', known as the plum pine, the brown pine or the Illawarra plum, is a species of '' Podocarpus'' endemic to the east coast of Australia, in eastern New South Wales and eastern Queensland. It is a medium to large evergreen tre ...

). During the 1980s Hardwick worked for NSW Agriculture. In 1988 he founded Wilderness Foods Ltd, a

company which pioneered the selection and production of aromatic

Australian spices Australian herbs and spices were used by Aboriginal peoples to flavour food in ground ovens. The term "spice" is applied generally to the non-leafy range of strongly flavoured dried Australian bushfoods. They mainly consist of aromatic fruits an ...

; planted mixed species cultivation trials; and worked with local Aboriginal communities on developing native food enterprise. In cooperation with the Essential Oils Unit, Wollongbar Agricultural Institute, Hardwick screened native essential oil plants for potential as

in the developing bushfood market. This included

lemon myrtle ''Backhousia citriodora'' (common names lemon myrtle, lemon scented myrtle, lemon scented ironwood) is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, genus ''Backhousia''. It is endemic to subtropical rainforests of central and south-eastern Queensl ...

aniseed myrtle :''Should not be confused with Clausena anisata, a small tree native to Southeast Asia and Australia.'' ''Syzygium anisatum'', with common names ringwood and aniseed tree, is a rare Australian rainforest tree with an aromatic leaf that has an e ...

Cinnamon Myrtle ''Backhousia myrtifolia'' (commonly referred to as ''carrol, neverbreak, iron wood, grey myrtle'' or ''cinnamon myrtle'') is a small rainforest tree species which grows in subtropical rainforests of Eastern Australia. First discovered and subs ...

, Lemon Ironbark, and

Dorrigo Pepper ''Tasmannia stipitata'', commonly known as the Dorrigo pepper or northern pepperbush is a rainforest shrub of temperate forests of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. Leaves are fragrant, narrow-lanceolate to narrow-elliptic, ...

. Hardwick has authored several papers on native food plants, and works as a wild food researcher and forager.Profile
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References

Notes

Bibliography

* Bruneteau, Jean-Paul,''Tukka, Real Australian Food'', 1996, .

External links

* "Bush Food Pioneering", ''TROPO's Organic Info Library'

* "Learn about bushfoods benefits", ''Northern Rivers Echo''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardwick, Peter Australian agriculturalists Living people 1958 births