<P> Through colonisation by the British, tea was introduced to Australia . In fact, tea was aboard the First Fleet in 1788 . Tea is a large part of modern Australian culture due to its British origins . Australians drink tea and have afternoon tea and morning tea much the way the British do . Additionally, due to Australia's climate, tea is able to be grown and produced in northern Australia . In 2000, Australia consumed 14,000 tonnes of tea annually . Tea production in Australia remains very small and is primarily in northern New South Wales and Queensland . Most tea produced in Australia is black tea, although there are small quantities of green tea produced in the Alpine Valleys region of Victoria . </P> <P> In 1884, the Cutten brothers established the first commercial tea plantation in Australia in Bingil Bay in northern Queensland . In 1883, Alfred Bushell opened the first tea shop in Australia in present - day Queensland . In 1899, Bushell's sons moved the enterprise to Sydney and began selling tea commercially, founding Australia's first commercial tea seller Bushell's Company . </P> <P> Sri Lanka is renowned for its high quality tea and as the fourth biggest tea producing country globally, after China, India and Kenya, and has a production share of 9% in the international sphere . The total extent of land under tea cultivation has been assessed at approximately 187,309 hectares . </P> <P> The plantations started by the British were initially taken over by the government in the 1960s, but have been privatized and are now run by' plantation companies' which own a few' estates' or tea plantations each . </P>

Tea originated in the area where india china and burma meet in the