Traditional Indigenous Australians' use of bushfoods has been severely affected by the colonisation of Australia in 1788 and subsequent settlement by non-Indigenous peoples.

The introduction of non-native organisms, together with the loss of and destruction of traditional lands and habitats, has resulted in reduced access to native foods by Aboriginal people.

With much of it unsafe or unpalatable raw, food was processed by cooking on open fires, boiling in bark containers, pounding vegetables and seeds, or hanging bags in running water.

[2] The 19th century English botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, writing of Australian plants, remarked that although bushtucker is "eatable," it is not "fit to eat".

"[6] The first monograph to be published on the flora of Australia reported the lack of edible plants on the first page, where it presented Billardiera scandens as, "... almost the only wild eatable fruit of the country".

[citation needed] In the 21st century, many restaurants are serving emu, crocodile, yabbies and locally sourced eels, and using native plant spices for flavour.

Producers have sprung up across the country to serve the new markets, including Tasmanian pepper, Victorian eel farms and South Australian plantations of quandongs, bush tomatoes, and native citrus.

[11] Toxic seeds, such as Cycas media and Moreton Bay chestnut, are processed to remove the toxins and render them safe to eat.

Examples of Australian native plant foods include the fruits quandong, kutjera, muntries, riberry, Davidson's plum, and finger lime.

Major Les Hiddins, a retired Australian Army soldier popularised the idea of bush tucker as a food resource.

In the series, Hiddins demonstrated his research for NORFORCE in identifying foods which might sustain or augment army forces in the northern Australian Outback.

became notorious for its "Bushtucker Trials", some of which involved eating meat-based bush tucker (such as mealworms, locusts and kangaroo testicles) to win meals for the camp.

In early 2003, the first cooking show featuring authentic Australian foods and called Dining Downunder was produced by Vic Cherikoff and Bailey Park Productions of Toronto, Canada.

[21] After cooking in hot embers of his fire, he removed the head and the hind of the grub and squeezed out thick yellow liquid before eating.