The culinary timeline of white Australia is relatively short. In terms of bread, it is only very recently that the general population started to enjoy the delights of other cultures. I think it was 1990 before I had focaccia for the first time. Those were heady days, when everything was new.
As a country kid of the ’70s, I would be sent to Nino’s deli down the road for fresh bread. There were three choices: tank loaf, square loaf and high-top. Same bread, different shapes. This recipe trades on that memory and, with the addition of buttermilk, perhaps improves it.