While the global roots of vegetarianism go back many thousands of years, here in Australia the movement dates back only a couple of centuries.
Until then, Australian First Nations people consumed a roughly 30 to 90 per cent plant-based diet, depending on where they lived, says historical researcher – and lifelong vegetarian – Edgar Crook.
He says the vegetarian movement was introduced to Australia via Europeans – first Swedenborgians, a religious group of Bible literalists, who arrived here in the 1830s, then other religious groups such as Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons and Methodists, all of whom touted a meat-free diet.