diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/java/gradlebuild/VersioningPlugin.java b/buildSrc/src/main/java/gradlebuild/VersioningPlugin.java
index cbfd7cde..243f7883 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/java/gradlebuild/VersioningPlugin.java
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/java/gradlebuild/VersioningPlugin.java
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 package gradlebuild;
 
-import org.gradle.api.JavaVersion;
 import org.gradle.api.Plugin;
 import org.gradle.api.Project;
 import org.gradle.api.provider.ProviderFactory;
@@ -32,9 +31,6 @@ public abstract class VersioningPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
     @Override
     public void apply(Project project) {
         VersionDetails.BuildType buildType = determineBuildType(project);
-        if (buildType != VersionDetails.BuildType.Dev && JavaVersion.current() != JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8) {
-            throw new RuntimeException("Java 8 is required to build a release of native-platform. Later versions are not supported.");
-        }
         String buildTimestamp = determineBuildTimestamp(project);
         writeBuildTimestamp(buildTimestamp, project);
         String version = determineVersion(buildType, buildTimestamp);
diff --git a/native-platform/build.gradle b/native-platform/build.gradle
index 2306bfd3..84122885 100755
--- a/native-platform/build.gradle
+++ b/native-platform/build.gradle
@@ -75,3 +75,7 @@ java {
     }
 }
 
+tasks.withType(JavaCompile).configureEach {
+    // Release to 8, since it's used in gradle/gradle in workers
+    options.release = 8
+}
diff --git a/test-app/build.gradle b/test-app/build.gradle
index 7891e1a2..254d19ed 100644
--- a/test-app/build.gradle
+++ b/test-app/build.gradle
@@ -40,11 +40,12 @@ publishing {
 }
 
 // Download and unpack the application to allow it to be tested
-task download {
+tasks.register('download') {
+    def downloadDir = project.layout.buildDirectory.dir("download")
     doLast {
         copy {
             from(configurations.download.files.collect { zipTree(it) })
-            into("$buildDir/download")
+            into(downloadDir)
         }
     }
 }
@@ -53,3 +54,10 @@ task download {
 tasks.named("run", JavaExec) {
     standardInput = System.in
 }
+
+java {
+    toolchain {
+        // Configure Java 8, so we test that native-platform is compiled to Java 8
+        languageVersion = JavaLanguageVersion.of(8)
+    }
+}