Australian herbs and spices were used by Aboriginal peoples to flavour food in ground ovens.
[1] The term "spice" is applied generally to the non-leafy range of strongly flavoured dried Australian bushfoods.
They mainly consist of aromatic fruits and seed products, although Australian wild peppers also have spicy leaves.
Australian native spices have become more widely recognized and used by non-Indigenous people since the early 1980s as part of the bushfood industry, with increasing gourmet use and export.
Leaves can be used whole, like a bay-leaf in cooking, or spicy fruits are added to various dishes for flavour.