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We moved, and there was a golden era in the '40s when we were so conscious of who we were as Australians.

I grew up in austerity in the 1940s and 1950s.

I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when, as a nation, we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills... all apart from cooking.

You have to remember that I was an Australian girl of the Fifties and Sixties. For Australians at that time, it was imperative to get out of the country and discover the world.

In '71 or '72 I returned to New Orleans and stayed there. I started cooking Louisiana food. Of all the things I had cooked, it was the best-and it was my heritage.

I had always been fascinated by the whole idea that Australia was this different ecology and that when rabbits and prickly pears and other things from Europe were introduced into Australia, they ran amok.

When I was about 14, my family emigrated from England to Australia, and we decided to stop in Bali on the way through.

Well, you know... I grew up in postwar Britain, when you were lucky to get anything to eat. People in America have absolutely no conception of how austere England was after the war. While you were all sort of eating butter and eggs, we were eating rabbit. That's what there was in the butcher shop.

I was excited to come to Australia to shoot for Seafolly because I've been wanting to visit since I was young. There wasn't much time to explore because we were so busy, which happens often during shoots. We had to take a boat to the Whitsunday Islands every day to get to the locations, which was a great way to start the day.

In 1975 Australia was producing things like Picnic at Hanging Rock, in other words films that I would consider still some of the finest products to come out of Australia. I think that our quality now is less than it was then.