Peter Hardwick

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Peter Hardwick is an Australian food horticulturist and environmentalist, who undertook early pioneering work in the development of the bushfood industry, now called the Australian native foods industry. Hardwick was the first person to recognize and promote the commercial potential of subtropical native Australian food plants and spices, and value-added native food exports.

Hardwick grew-up in subtropical Northern New South Wales (NSW). In 1977 he started to research native food plants for their culinary and cropping potential to highlight the economic importance of conserving rainforest.

In 1978, he studied at Ryde School Horticulture. In his spare time he began investigating foods like Davidsonia, riberry, and plum pine (Illawarra plum).

While working in the NSW Department of Agriculture in the early 1980s, Hardwick observed problems with the long distance export of fresh produce from Australia, and began targeting and promoting the export of native foods in long shelf-life value-added form.

In the mid 1980s, Hardwick networked with the developing bushfood restaurant and wholesale market in Sydney, ensuring subtropical native food plants were included in the emergence of an authentic Australian cuisine.

In the late 1980s, in cooperation with the Essential Oils Unit, Wollongbar Agricultural Institute, he screened native essential oil plants for potential as condiment products in the developing bushfood market. This included lemon myrtle, aniseed myrtle, Cinnamon Myrtle, Lemon Ironbark, and Dorrigo Pepper.

In 1988, Hardwick founded Wilderness Foods Nursery, which pioneered the use of essential oil analysis with clonal propagation for product quality assurance; planted mixed species cultivation trials; and worked with local Aboriginal communities on developing native food enterprise.

In the 1990s, Hardwick authored several papers on native food plants. He currently lectures with the ERDA Institute on the production of Australian native foods in regenerated ecosystems.