Beer + Vegemite

A series from the Powerhouse with food journalist Lee Tran Lam exploring Australia’s foodways: from First Nations food knowledge to new interpretations of museum collection objects, scientific innovation, migration, and the diversity of Australian food.

Australian colonial history begins with beer: the Endeavour left England with 250 barrels on board. Beer reflects the changing fortunes of women; from our first female licensee to the 1960s feminist fight to allow women into public bars. Beer kept bubbling into politics, with Edmund Resch being thrown into a local internment camp when WWI broke, and Prime Minister Bob Hawke setting an ale-drinking world record in 1954. Plus, beer has even given us a national icon – Vegemite! Today, brewers like Sydney’s Wildflower are doing fascinating experiments with beer using native grains, wild yeasts and local flowers.

Lee Tran Lam Powerhouse acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the ancestral homelands upon which our museums are situated. We pay respects to Elders, past and present, and recognise their continuous connection to Country. This episode was recorded on Gadigal, Turrbal, Jugera, Kombumerri and Wurundjeri Country. My name is Lee Tran Lam, and you're listening to the Culinary Archive Podcast, a series from Powerhouse Museum.

Powerhouse has over half a million objects in its collection; from vintage beer labels from the 1800s, to Vegemite tubes from the 2000s, to a Mambo poster of the Australia beer tree, the collection charts our evolving connection to food. The museum's culinary archive is the first nationwide project to collect the vital histories of people in the food industry, such as chefs, writers, and restaurant owners who've helped shape Australia's taste and appetites. Today, we're talking about brewer’s yeast, the stuff that powers . You know, this is a product that's been on the earth for many thousands of years.The fact that an unmarried ex-convict, who was a woman, was allowed to run a pub was really quite remarkable.In the late 19th century, a German chemist discovers you can get this brewer’s yeast. But have you ever eaten yeast? It's not especially palatable.My style of Vegemite, definitely not Tom Hanks’ style. That was just too much [laughs].