An Australian journal of fire and steel
Fire, steel and the Australian backyard
Barbecue GrillsIndependent long-form writing for Australian backyards, balconies and campgrounds.
Combustion
LPG, natural gas, charcoal, pellets and Australian hardwoods — and how wind, hoods and bans change the fire.
Fire is the whole craft. A six-burner on town gas behaves nothing like a kettle of heat beads in a south-westerly. This hub covers bottles and bayonets, lighting charcoal without a lake of lighter fluid, pellet cookers in a dry country, and the local woods — ironbark, red gum, apple — that actually flavour food.
Read natural gas versus LPG before you drill a hole in a benchtop, and how to light and control a charcoal grill before your first bag of beads.
A hood is a lid that turns a grate into a small oven. An open grill is a fire you stand over. Wind decides which one still cooks in an Australian backyard.
Mina Rahman · 12 May 2026
How local hardwoods actually flavour food on a kettle, kamado or offset — ironbark, red gum, apple and the woods to leave in the pile.
Tom Bellear · 1 May 2026
A pellet barbecue is an electric wood fire. What electricity, humidity, pellet supply and bushfire bans do to that idea in an Australian backyard.
Callum Hartley · 20 April 2026
Light heat beads or lump without a lake of fluid, then run vents and zones so an Australian kettle or kamado holds the heat you asked for.
Mina Rahman · 10 April 2026
Town gas is a licensed connection. LPG is a bottle you can move. How heat, apartments, changeover and certification actually differ on an Australian barbecue.
Callum Hartley · 2 April 2026