It’s more of a milestone for me personally than for Australian food in general but, for the 1000th post on this timeline, I decided to explain a little about the history of the Timeline itself. I am often asked how and why it started, so here’s the story. Are you sitting comfortably?
I’m Jan O’Connell and for more than 40 years I enjoyed some success as a copywriter in Australian advertising agencies. By the time I left full-time work in 2013, I calculated that if you put all the sentences I’d written over that time end to end they’d probably stretch around the world several times, if not to the moon and back. The problem was, most of those words were gone forever, advertising being the most ephemeral and least regarded of created works.
I decided that my only shot at immortality was to have my name in the catalogue of the National Library of Australia. Ergo, I had to write a book. I settled on a memoir as the easiest, being intimately familiar with the subject matter. However, my comfortable middle-class white background was unlikely to make a riveting read and, since I had a lifelong interest in eating well, I decided to weave Australia’s changing food history into my life story. It went from growing up with meat and three veg to embracing food from around the globe.
The result was Me and My Big Mouth – Living through Australia’s food revolution. It was self-published and mostly given away to friends and family, although it still enjoys a trickle of sales as an e-book on Amazon. Of course, to make the book both accurate and comprehensive, I had to do quite a lot of research, spending hours in the National Library poring over other authors’ food books and old copies of The Age Good Food Guide. It was my husband who suggested that all that research provided the basis for a website on the history of Australian food.
The first iteration of this website debuted in 2013 as meandmybigmouth.com.au and looked like – well – a timeline (see above). Initially, like the book, it focused on the decades from my lifetime – the 1940s through to the (at the time) 2010s. But gradually it expanded and, in 2016, formed the basis of a new book proposal to NewSouth Publishing. A Timeline of Australian Food: from mutton to MasterChef was released in 2017 and, at that time, the website content was migrated to its current address.
It has since had a facelift (thanks Fred). And has grown…and grown…and grown. And now I’m up to the 1000th post. Just when I think I’ve run out of material, a new topic emerges. I’ve kept it strictly non-commercial, despite the occasional request from organisations suggesting paid links and guest posts. There have been conversations, such as a long debate about which was Australia’s first Thai restaurant. And I receive regular phone calls from ABC radio stations all over Australia asking to chat about food history topics from the origins of afternoon tea to the development of Passiona or the great Australian pie.
I’ve had emails from people giving me new information or pointing out errors (always welcome) or complaining and mistaking me for the manufacturer of the products I’ve written about (not so welcome). A particular culprit in the latter category is Peck’s Anchovette Paste to the point where I had to add a stern warning to the page saying: PLEASE NOTE: I am not the maker of Peck’s pastes. I just write about food history. If you have complaints about the quality of the product, as many of my readers seem to, please address them to the manufacturer, General Mills, using their feedback form.
I’ve also had many appreciative notes from people who find the website interesting and helpful. My thanks go to all of you for such lovely feedback. The 1000th post will not be the last – I already have ideas for posts Nos. 1001 and 1002. So watch this space.