AUSTRALIAN BREAKFAST

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN BREAKFAST

; Steak ’n Eggs • For 4fl > ' Barely a kangaroo hop from ' the river Avon, 40 guests sat ' down to an Australian break- ; fast of steak and eggs and ■ billy tea yesterday morning. They were from banks, travel agencies and airlines, but there was not a jolly ’ swagman in sight tn wait for the billy to boil. Qantas, Australian National Travel Association, Air New Zealand, 8.0. AC., AnsettA.N.A. and T.A.A. organised the breakfast as a feature of Australia Week. Promotion of Australian tourism was the aiin of the 7.45 a.m. breakfast—but the idea came from Qantas, according to their regional sales manager (Mr N. H. Burgess). Breakfast was served among Australian wild flowers in the Horticultural Hall. Tea was brewed in a twogalion billy hanging from a tripod by a length of dingo chain. An electric immersion heater brought the water to the boil and the Australian Government Trade Commissioner for the South Island (Mr M. G. B. Coultas) threw in the tea and added a sprinkling of gum leaves to give it the authentic bush flavour. Breakfast started with chilled tomato juice, followed by thick, prime fillet steaks with pan fried eggs. There was French bread in long twists, Dutch rusks, (bread rolls and—a real Australian touch—Melba toast. Mr Coultas said the French bread and Dutch rusks were typical of the cosmopolitan nature of Australian breakfasts. Punctuating the Australian folk songs—incidental music for the breakfast—was the laugh of a kookaburra. There were a few speeches, but like most breakfast table conversations they were laconic. The New Zealand sales manager of 8.0. AC. (Mr E. Smith) spoke about a new air service from New Zealand to Perth in Western Australia. Mr T. C. Salisbury, sales manager of Sydney’s Wentworth Hotel, talked about his orgnaisation’s new hotel that will be completed “in the last quarter of this year.” He made the interesting point that 47 per cent of all international bookings into Sydney come from New Zealand. <