Australia's explorers of the early 1800s usually set off with hundreds of pounds of flour, dozens of pounds of tea and a generous amount of salt and sugar. They brought sheep or cattle for food. The oxen, and sometimes horses, had the dual role of beast of burden and food source when they were needed.

Some explorers, such as Ludwig Leichhardt, were keen to observe and learn from Aboriginal food gathering and eating habits. They interacted with Aboriginals they met and exchanged food.

According to Leichhardt's journals, members of his successful 1844-1845 expedition of 4,800 kilometres from Darling Downs in Queensland to Point Essington in Northern Western Australia owed their lives to the hunting and survival skills of its two Aboriginal guides, Charley Fisher and Harry Brown. They hunted game to supplement the group's provisions, catching animals such as flying foxes and magpie geese to add to the pot on many occasions. They gathered salt where it occurred naturally along riverbanks, washed in from the ocean.

By contrast other explorers, such as Edmund Kennedy and Burke and Wills, preferred to kill and eat their own pack animals rather than hunt game or fish to supplement their supplies. Only when their provisions had dwindled to the point that the party was facing starvation, scurvy and dysentery did they hunt and gather food or accept the generous gifts of food presented by the friendly Aboriginals they met.

Information provided by the Australian Government's Culture Portal.