The Ancient Story of the Olive Tree — 6,000 Years of Oil, Culture, and Meaning

There are olive trees alive today that were saplings when the Roman Empire was at its height. Trees in Greece, Italy, and the Middle East that have been producing fruit for more than two thousand years — gnarled, ancient, and still bearing. No other cultivated plant carries quite the same weight of human history.

The olive tree and olive oil are woven through the story of Western civilisation in a way that few other agricultural products can match. To understand olive oil is to understand something fundamental about how human beings have lived, eaten, traded, worshipped, and found meaning in the land.

The beginning — 6,000 years ago

The cultivation of the olive tree is believed to have begun around 4,000 BC in the eastern Mediterranean, most likely in the region that is now Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Wild olive trees had existed for far longer — archaeological evidence of olive oil production dates back at least 6,000 years. From there, cultivation spread west through Greece, across to North Africa, into Italy, and eventually throughout the entire Mediterranean basin.

The ancient Greeks considered the olive tree sacred. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena gave the olive tree to Athens as a gift, competing against Poseidon for the patronage of the city. The Athenians chose Athena's gift — the olive — over Poseidon's salt spring, and named their city in her honour. Olive branches became symbols of peace, wisdom, and victory. Olympic champions were crowned not with gold, but with a wreath of wild olive leaves.

Rome and the spread of olive culture

If Greece gave the olive tree its mythology, Rome gave it its infrastructure. The Romans were industrial in their approach to olive oil production, developing sophisticated pressing technology, extensive grove management practices, and vast trading networks that carried olive oil across the empire. Roman legions carried olive oil on campaign. Roman citizens used it for cooking, lighting, bathing, medicine, and religious ritual.

At the height of the Roman Empire, olive oil was one of the most valuable traded commodities in the known world. Amphorae — the ceramic vessels used to transport oil by sea — have been found in archaeological sites from Britain to Egypt, evidence of the reach of Roman olive oil trade.

Table olives — a different tradition

It's worth noting that the olive as a fruit has its own distinct history alongside olive oil. Table olives — olives cured and prepared for eating rather than pressing — have been part of Mediterranean food culture for millennia. The curing process, whether in brine, salt, oil, or lye, removes the natural bitterness of the raw olive and transforms it into the complex, rich flavour that has made table olives a staple of Mediterranean cuisine.

Different varieties are grown specifically for table use. Kalamata olives from Greece, Castelvetrano from Sicily, Manzanilla from Spain — each with distinct character, texture, and flavour. The olive varieties grown for oil production, like Frantoio and Coratina, are typically smaller, with a higher ratio of oil to flesh, and are generally not the varieties you'd find on an antipasto plate.

At Kardella, our focus is entirely on oil. But we have enormous respect for the table olive tradition — it represents a different and equally ancient relationship between humans and this remarkable fruit.

The olive tree comes to Australia

Olive trees arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788, brought as part of the agricultural cargo intended to feed the new colony. They proved well suited to the Australian climate, particularly in South Australia and Victoria, and commercial olive growing expanded steadily through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The modern Australian premium olive oil industry, however, is a more recent development. The 1990s and 2000s saw a significant expansion of boutique grove plantings, driven by growing consumer awareness of the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil and a desire to produce world-class oil domestically. Today, Australian extra virgin olive oil regularly wins medals at international competitions, with producers in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia consistently recognised among the world's best.

Kardella Estate Olives is part of that story. A family property in South Gippsland, trees in the ground since 2017, and a first commercial harvest in 2026. Nine years of patience, care, and learning — and an oil that carries the character of this particular corner of Victoria, and the centuries of knowledge that came before us.

The olive tree is not a crop you plant for quick returns. It is a crop you plant for your children, and your children's children. The ancient growers understood that. We do too.