AY Honors/Aboriginal Lore/Answer Key

The word Bushfood refers to any Australian native food, although it sometimes is used with the specific connotation of "food found in the Outback while living on the land". It is also called bushtucker. It includes both animal and plant foods native to Australia.

Examples of Australian native animal foods (meat) include kangaroo, emu and crocodile. These meats are not uncommon in Australian restaurants. Other animals, for example the Goanna and the witchetty grub, were eaten by Aboriginal Australians and thus qualify as bushfood in every sense of the word. Fish and shellfish are also traditionally very popular seafood in coastal areas.

Examples of Australian native plant foods include the fruits: quandong (Santalum acuminatum), Australian desert raisin (Solanum centrale), muntries (Kunzea pomifera), riberry (Syzygium luehmannii), and, Davidson's plum (Davidsonia spp.), finger lime (Citrus australasica). Native spices include lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora), mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata), and, aniseed myrtle (Anetholea anista). A popular leafy vegetable is warrigal greens (Tetragonia tetragonioides).

Nuts include bunya nut (Araucaria bidwillii), and the most identifiable bushfood plant harvested and sold in large scale commercial quantities is the macadamia nut (Macadamia integrifolia).

Traditional Aboriginal use

Australian Aborigines have eaten native animal and plant foods for an estimated 60,000 years of human habitation on the Australian continent.

Various traditional methods of processing and cooking are used. Toxic seeds, such as Cycad (Cycas media) and Moreton Bay Chestnut (Castanospermum australe) are processed to remove the toxins and render them safe to eat. Many foods are also baked in the hot campfire coals, or baked for several hours in ground ovens. ‘Paperbark’, the bark of Melalauca species, is widely used for wrapping food placed in ground ovens.

Aboriginal traditional native food use was severely impacted by the invasion of non-indigenous people, via displacement from traditional lands, destruction of native habitat, and the introduction of non-native foods.

The recent recognition of the nutritional value of native foods by non-indigenous Australian’s is assisting in a renewal of native cuisine. However, there are intellectual property issues associated with the commercialization of bushfood.

Colonial use

Bushfoods provided a source of nutrition to the non-indigenous colonial invaders, often supplementing meager rations. However, bushfoods were often considered to be inferior by colonists unfamiliar with the new land's food ingredients, generally preferring familiar foods from the homeland.

The only Australian native food dveloped and cropped on a large scale is the macadamia nut, with the first small-scale commercial plantation being planted in Australia in the 1880’s. However, the macadamia was mainly developed in Hawaii from stock imported from Australia.

Modern use

In the 1970s non-indigenous Australian’s began to generally recognize the previously over-looked indigenous aspects of Australia, including native foods. Textbooks like Wildfoods In Australia by the botanist couple Cribb & Cribb were popular, and later the author Tim Lowe published Wild Food Plants of Australia.

TV shows also made use of the bushfood theme. Malcolm Douglas was one of the first presenters to show how to 'live off the land' in the Australian Outback. But it was probably Major Les Hiddins who popularized the idea of bush tucker. A retired Australian Army soldier, he presented a hit TV series called Bush Tucker Man on the Australian Broadcasting Commission TV network in the late 1980s. In the series, Hiddins demonstrated his training and research in combat survival by locating native foodstuffs in the northern Australian Outback.

Bushfood enthusiasts in regional Australia began to assess the culinary and cropping qualities of bushfoods in the early 1980s. This regional research laid the foundations for the development of the modern bushfood industry.

By the mid-1980s metropolitan bushfood restaurants were using native Australian ingredients in recipes more familiar to modern tastes. This provided the first opportunity for bushfoods to be tried by non-indigenous Australian’s on a serious gourmet level. This soon lead to the realization that many strong flavored bushfoods have spice-like qualities. Some of these bushfood ingredients now feature in modern Australian cuisine.

Value-added bushfood products were also developed for the domestic and export market. The raw ingredients are sourced from wild and cultivated sources, with an emphasis on the later to provide sustainable quantities.

In the last decade, industry groups such as the Southern Bushfood Association, the Queensland Bushfood Association, the Northern Bushfood Association, and many others have been pushing for the introduction of bushfood as genuine cuisine in Australian and international restaurants.

The term "Bushfood" is recognized as the current term for Australian native cuisine, evolving from the older-style "bushtucker" which was used in the 1970s and 1980s. The word "bushfood" was chosen to reflect the sustainable nature of the industry's products, and to help exporters with product branding. It is the term most often used by Australian Government and CSIRO sources and authors.

Bushfood plants listed by culinary province.

Australian bushfood plants can be divided into several distinct and large regional culinary provinces. Please note, some species listed grow across several climatic boundaries.

Top-end Monsoonal zone of the Northern Territory, Cape York and Western Australia.

Fruit:

Buchanania arborescens Little Gooseberry Tree

Ficus racemosa Cluster Fig

Morinda citrifolia Noni

Terminalia latipes var. psilocarpa Kakadu Plum

Syzygium suborbiculare Lady Apple.

Spice:

Eucalyptus staigeriana Lemon Ironbark

Vegetable:

Dioscorea transversa Pencil Yam

Central Australia Arid and semi-arid zones of the low rainfall interior.

Fruit:

Capparis spp. Native Caper

Eremicitrus glauca Desert Lime

Ficus platypoda Desert Fig

Owenia acidula Emu Apple

Enchylaena tormentosa Ruby Saltbush

Santalum acuminatum Quandong

Santalum lanceolatum Sandalwood

Solanum centrale Akudjura

Marsdenia australis Doubah

Seed:

Acacia aneura Mulga

Acacia coriacea Dogwood

Acacia holosericea Strap Wattle

Acacia kempeana Witchetty Bush

Acacia victoriae Gundabluey

Brachychiton populneus Kurrajong

Vegetable:

Calandrinia balonensis Parakeelya

Lepidium spp. Peppercresses

Portulaca intraterranea Large Pigweed.

Eastern Australia Subtropical rainforests of New South Wales to the wet tropics of Northern Queensland.

Fruit:

Acronychia acidula Lemon Aspen

Citrus australasica Finger Lime

Citrus australis Dooja

Davidsonia spp. Davidson’s Plum

Ficus coronata Sandpaper Fig

Pleiogynium timorense Burdekin Plum

Podocarpus elatus Illawarra Plum

Syzygium luehmannii Riberry

Spice:

Anetholea anisata Aniseed Myrtle

Backhousia citriodora Lemon Myrtle

Backhousia myrtifolia Cinnamon Myrtle

Prostanthera incisa Cut-leaf Mintbush

Nut:

Araucaria bidwillii Bunya Nut

Macadamia integrifolia Macadamia Nut

Macadamia tetraphylla Bush Nut

Vegetable:

Apium prostratum Sea Celery

Tetragonia tetragonioides Warrigal Greens

Trachymene incisa Wild Parsnip.

Temperate Warm and cool temperate zones of Tasmania, South Australia, and the highlands of New South Wales.

Fruit:

Billarderia cymosa Sweet Apple-berry

Billarderia longiflora Purple Apple-berry

Billarderia scandens Common Apple-berry

Carpobrotus rossii Karkalla

Kunzea pomifera Muntries

Rubus parvifolius Pink-flowered Native Raspberry

Seed:

Acacia longifolia Golden Rods

Acacia sophorae Coast Wattle

Spice:

Eucalyptus olida Strawberry Gum

Tasmannia lanceolata Mountain pepper

Tasmannia stipitata Dorrigo Pepper

Vegetable:

Apium insulare Flinders Island Celery

Atriplex cinerea Grey Saltbush

Burchardia umbellata Milkmaids

Microseris scapigera Murnong.

See also

• Bushmeat, something quite different

External links

• Australian Bushfood and Native Medicine Forum
• Bushfoods Magazine
• Eat Australia
• A Bushfood/Bushtucker resource site