It’s lunchtime on an uncommonly warm winter’s day in Brisbane and I’m sitting at an al fresco eatery enjoying a platter of sashimi. Nothing unusual about that, you might think. Except there is. For the sashimi is of Australia’s native fish barramundi, and this bright little fast-casual eatery, Finn Poke in inner-city Southbank, is the first place in Australia to sell it raw as a standard menu item.

Any qualms I might have had about eating sashimi from a species not always clean-tasting in its cooked form evaporate on the first bite. The pale-coloured fish has a mild, sweet, almost nutty flavour and a relatively loose texture that makes it a pleasure to eat. It goes without saying it’s also spankingly fresh.