Australia’s public barbeques

 

In case you missed the signs so far, Australia loves its barbeques. Although the origin of barbequing is credited to other countries, no other country does it better than Australia. These guys love their slow cooked meat, so much that the government provides free outdoor grills for people to use. Well most are free, some are coin operated. They run on electricity, and are easy to use, and very popular with the crowd.

One of those things you don’t see in India. Or in most other countries, for that matter. There are websites to search for public barbeques, and there are lists curating the best places to bbq. Most of them are near beaches on protected forests.

There is something about cooking your own food at a public area. I guess its the earthiness of it all, cooking fresh food with good views to soak in. It is a great way to hangout with family and friends. We went BBQing again this weekend, and though we are seasone experts in the area, the experience continues to surprise me.

The earliest images of public park barbecues (as opposed to those in national parks) in the State Library are from Brush Farm in May 1976, at about the time Warringah council, among others, began investing heavily in its barbecues, creating a competitive asset with relatively little effort, says Caroline Ford, author of Sydney Beaches: A History. Like Randwick's clearing of Coogee beach in 1859, councils have always seen their public spaces as avenues to boost the local economy.

An attachment with a long history, our fondness for a meal cooked outdoors speaks of deep Australian connections between nature and culture. Nineteenth century stock workers, travelling, camping and yarning around a nightly campfire, are oft-touted as the origins of our barbecue culture, but that is a convenient, if romantic, story we like to tell ourselves, says Richard White, historian and author. Still, he says, imagined connections to a bush or even prehistoric past give us all a break from modern living - albeit in safely contained primitive experiences on regulated "fires" in places where our ancestors would never have made camp. Add the outdoor cooking-friendly climate, a fear of bush fires, an awareness of protecting the environment and a deep sense of shared ownership of beaches and their parks - not to mention a palate that has largely been shaped by the abundance of cheap, good meat - and formalised, taxpayer-funded barbecues make reasonable, if privileged, sense. But perhaps the most important factor in their popularity is the very element that makes the idea of the "Australian barbecue" hard to pin down. Post-World War II immigrants, mostly southern European, did more for normalising alfresco cooking and eating than swag men ever did.

So the next time you want to hangout, and have no place to go, head to the nearest public BBQ. Just remember to clean up properly after you are done, for the next guys in line. And thank the country for providing this extra-ordinary service. Its truly a national treasure.