Australia

It is something of a paradox that the world’s geologically oldest continent should be developing one of the world’s newest cuisines.

Australia is a large island of some 7.7 million square km (2.9 million square miles) (including the smaller island of Tasmania, to the south), surrounded by nearly 37,000 km (23,000 miles) of coastline. While nearly two-thirds of the continent is classified as having a temperate climate, there are many different climatic zones, including palm-fringed coasts and tropical rainforests as well as arid deserts. Much of southern Australia experiences a typical Mediterranean climate with hot dry summers and predominantly winter rainfall.