1. Soft Tree-fern
Dicksonia antarctica
Habitat: Gullies of tall, moist forests
Season: All year
People used the soft, starchy pith from the top part (0.5m) of the stem. They
split the stem, scooped out the pith and ate it raw or roasted in ashes.
2. Riceflower
Pimelea linifolia
Habitat: Heaths; mountain forests
Season: Flowers in spring and summer
We know the bark of the Riceflower as 'Bushman's Bootlace', but here's how to
make string:
Strip the bark, dry it, place in a stream for about one week, dry in sun, soften
by chewing/beating with sticks and stones, roll on the thigh and spin into fine,
strong thread.
During summer, people came to the high country to feast on thousands of Bogong
moths. They caught them in strong, delicate string nets made from Pimelea bark.
Riceflower
Very fine net of string made from the bark of the Riceflower - used to catch
Bogong Moths.
'They had very fine meshes and were manufactured with great care, and being
attached to a couple of poles they could be readily folded up when they had to
be withdrawn from the crevices.' Helms 1895:594.
3. She-oaks
Casuarina and Allocasuarina
(various species)
Habitat: High rainfall areas, along water courses
Season: Winter - Spring (cones)
Imagine chewing these needle-like leaves to quench your thirst ?
In the Canberra region, people ate the leaves and young cones of Allocasuarina
verticellata (previously known as Casuarina stricta).
The Ngarrindjeri people of the lower Murray River (Coorong) made shields, clubs
and boomerangs from the hard wood.
She-oak
Allocasuarina verticillata
4 Common Reed
Phragmites australis
Habitat: Edges of creeks and rivers, especially near coast
Season: Summer
Tasmanian people ate the shoots of the underground stems or rhizomes.
People from the lower Murray River collected mussels on inland lakes using
large, rectangular rafts made from the long stems layered and bound.
Young men and women wore ornaments made from stem segments, threaded onto fibre
or animal fur string.
Necklace made from stem segments of the Common Reed, (with Quandong seeds),
(1992).
Women made baskets from the leaves and Murray River people made long, light
spears from the tall stems.
Common Reed
Native Raspberry
Rubus parvifolius
The red fruits of this plant are a delicious food.
Native
Raspberry
Bulrush, Cumbungi
Typha species
Technique used for nets made from string of Bulrush fibres.
This aquatic plant grows all over Australia. The underground stems (rhizomes)
are rich in starch and can be cooked by steaming in an earth oven. After
steaming, the rhizomes can be chewed to remove the starch and the remaining
fibre used to make string.
The young shoots were eaten raw as a salad.
Bulrush
This plant was the most important food for people living along the Murray
Darling River systems.
Kangaroo Grass
Themeda triandra
The grass heads are easy to recognise. The seeds ripen in summer and people in
the tableland and high country areas of New South Wales collected them in great
quantities, to grind and bake into cakes.
Kangaroo Grass was gathered in wooden bowls. The seeds were separated and
grinding stones were used to produce flour which was mixed with water and cooked
to make damper.
Seed
heads of Kangaroo Grass
5 Roots, bulbs
Roots were important vegetable foods in the south-east. Here you can see some of
the plants whose roots were eaten such as, Bulbine bulbosa (Bulbine
Lily), Arthropodium milleflorum (Vanilla Lily), Burchardia umbellata
(Milkmaid) and Microseris lanceolata (Murnong or Yam Daisy) formerly
known as Microseris scapigera.
Yam
Daisy or Murnong
Yam Daisy was a most important staple food. Women dug the roots with digging
sticks and then roasted them in baskets in an earth oven.
Digging
stick made from wattle wood and used by women to dig up roots and tubers.
Aboriginal people believed that the roots of 'murnong' should not be collected
before the plants flowered. This was probably because during the drier winter
period before springtime flowering, the roots would not be fully developed.
Yam Daisy roots collected in bowl made of eucalyptus bark.
This drawing by J. H. Wedge (1835) shows women digging roots of the Yam Daisy.
The roots of this plant were an important food source for people of the Port
Phillip area, Victoria.
(Drawing used with permission of the State Library of Victoria).
The roots or underground stems of other plants were also eaten.
Milkmaid.The long tuberous roots were available all year round and were cooked
before eating.
Bulbine Lily.The edible corm is surrounded by swollen roots. This plant grows on
Black Mountain, ACT.
Potato Orchid.It has a swollen underground stem (rhizome), rich in starch.
6 Nardoo
Marsilea drummondii
Habitat: River flood plains
Season: Dry season
Did you know that the explorers Burke and Wills died from starvation while
trying to survive on Nardoo? Nutritious food can be made from the spores of this
plant if it is prepared correctly.
Spores form under seasonal water. Aboriginal people in north west Victoria
collected the spore cases when the water dried up. They roasted them, discarded
the cases then ground the spores to make cakes.
See the spore cases (2) and the spores (3) that are inside. [Smyth 1878 : 217.]
7 Native Cypress-pine
Callitris (various species)
Habitat: Inland and coastal woodlands
Season: All year
Murray River people used the resin from Callitris species as an adhesive
for fastening barbs to reed spears and axe-heads to handles.
Axe-head attached with resin from the Native Cypress-pine. These types of axes
were used in Victoria, north-western parts of NSW and in Queensland.
From the long branches, they made canoe poles which doubled as fish spears.
Fish spear
8 Banksia
Banksia (various species)
Habitat: Heaths, scrub and dry, open forests
Season: Various flowering times
Q: How do you get to taste the sweet nectar?
A: Soak the flowers in water in a bark or wooden bowl.
Q: What could you do with a dry cone?
A: Banksia marginata (Silver Banksia) retains the dry flowers on the
cones which some Victorian Aboriginal groups used to strain their drinking
water.
Dried flower of Silver Banksia.
Tool (needle) made from banksia wood and used in the weaving of baskets and
mats.
Made by Wally Mongta 1991.
9 Spiny-headed Mat-rush
Lomandra longifolia
Habitat: Widespread, particularly sandy soils
Season: All year
Spiny-headed
Mat-rush
Women gathered the smooth strap-shaped leaves from the water's edge to make
baskets. They split each rush, tied them in bundles to be soaked allowing the
fibres to become pliable for weaving.
The illustration below shows how Aboriginal people used a combination of weirs
and basketry traps for fishing.
Eel traps made of woven reeds.
Here they have been used with a weir made of sticks and placed across the
stream. These traps are fixed in position. Traps can also be held by hand. At
Lake Condah, Victoria, Aboriginal people still make these traditional eel traps.
This is a funnelled basket used as an eel trap, made by people from Lake Condah.
Today, people at Lake Tyers, Victoria and Eden, NSW are carrying on their
basketry traditions and experimenting with new materials and designs.
Stages in making a basket.
Coiled basket being woven from Spiny-headed Mat-rush at Lake Tyers on the east
coast of Victoria.
10 Grass Tree
Xanthorrhoea species
Habitat: Coastal heaths, wet and dry forests
Season: All year
From top to bottom, this plant had many uses.
Flowers: People collected nectar from the long flowering spikes. The
stalks from old flowers and fruits were used for tinder in making fire.
Flower stem: You can see that the tall brown stalks could make spear
shafts. The soft wood provided the base for a fire-drill in making fire.
Leaves: The soft bases of the young leaves were eaten. Tough leaves were
used as knives.
Barbed hunting spear with base made from Grass Tree flower stalk.
The base of this fire drill is made from the soft wood of the Grass Tree flower
stalk.
Stump: People collected resin from the base of each leaf and used it as
an adhesive.
Roots: People living in the Port Lincoln area in South Australia enjoyed
eating the roots surrounding the stem base.
A lump of Grass Tree resin can be seen at the left.
11 Gymea Lily
Doryanthes excelsa
Habitat: Coast and adjacent plateaus
Season: Summer - Spring flowering
Honey-eaters
love the nectar of these large, crimson flowers on stems 2-3 m tall. These birds
were ready prey to be cooked and eaten!
Aboriginal people in the Lake Macquarie district of NSW were observed in 1836
roasting the stems, having cut them when a foot and a half high and as thick as
a person's arm. They also roasted the roots which they made into a sort of cake
to be eaten cold.
Gymea Lily
12 Kurrajong
Brachychiton populneus
Habitat: Valley slopes, open forests
Season: Summer flowering
Roots of the young plants were a popular food and the seeds were probably eaten
after processing.
With twine made from Kurrajong bark, Aboriginal people of the Hastings River
region, NSW, made fishing nets. They would drive the fish into the nets.
Tough, leathery seed pods of the Kurrajong.
Fibres of the bark of Kurrajong were used to make this net.
Waterbirds are frightened into the net by boomerangs thrown above them to
simulate birds of prey.
13 Austral Indigo
Indigofera australis
Habitat: Open forests
Season: Spring flowering
Crushed leaves were added to water to kill or stun fish and eels.
Stunned Murray Cod!
Austral Indigo leaves are a grey green colour.
14 Gum trees
Eucalyptus (various species)
Everyone knows the special property of eucalyptus leaves! The leaves of
some species were crushed and soaked in water for medicinal purposes.
Manna is sap which exudes from many eucalypt trees, often from where
insects have made holes. It dries into sugary white drops which fall to the
ground. Delicious!
Bowls and dishes were made from the heavy bark. Those gnarled round growths on
the trunk were used as well. The Kulin people in southern Victoria, made bowls
called 'tarnuks' to carry water. Some had rope handles.
People along the Murray River made canoes from the bark of eucalypts
(e.g. River Red Gum, E. camaldulensis). They cut the bark to shape about
3m long then held it over a fire, so that the sides would curl. Both ends were
tied with inner-bark fibre rope and wooden stretchers were used to prevent the
sides collapsing.
Tarnuks or water vessels made from the gnarls of a gum tree.
Canoe made from the bark of a gum tree contains a fishing net made from the
Kurrajong bark.
Aboriginal people using reed spears and hoop nets. Upper Murray Chowilla Creek
1886.
(Used with permission of the State Library of Victoria.)
Many Aboriginal peoples crafted spear-throwers, boomerangs and shields from the
fine, hard wood of eucalypts.
Spear thrower made from the timber of the Iron Bark by Peter Mongta of Cann
River, Victoria in 1990.
Shields made from the wood of gum trees.
Shield
from the NSW tablelands (Mid 19th century).
Engraved and painted shield from the Murray River region of South Australia. It
is stained with ochre and white pipe clay (below).
Undecorated shield made from Red Box by Peter Mongta of Cann River, Victoria,
1991 (below).
Decorated knocking sticks made from Mallee Gum (below).
Made by members of the 'Yourta Yourta' clan from the Murray River 1993.
15 Geebung
Persoonia linearis
Habitat: Forests
Season: Summer flowering
Scarce but tasty - the fruits of this and other Persoonia spp. were favoured
Aboriginal foods.
String and fishing lines were soaked in Geebung bark infusion, probably to help
prevent fraying.
Ripe fruits of the Geebung.
16 Flax Lily
Dianella (various species)
Habitat: Heath and dry forest
Season: Spring flowering
Proof from the past:
An old burial ground in central Victoria revealed a Dianella leaf, split and
twisted into a cord.
In southern South Australia, people boiled the leaves to drink as a tea.
The roots and blue fruits of some species are edible.
Flax Lily
17 Cherry Ballart, Native Cherry
Exocarpus cupressiformis
Habitat: Forests
Season: Spring - Autumn flowering
It might look like a small cypress tree, but it has small amounts of sweet,
juicy fruits which would have provided a springtime snack. And that's not all;
the sap was applied as a cure for snake-bite.
In Gippsland, it provided wood for spear-throwers.
Native
Cherry with fruit
18 Blackwood
Acacia melanoxylon
Habitat: High rainfall forests
Season: Spring - Summer flowering
The fine hard wood of this wattle made strong spear-throwers, boomerangs, clubs
and shields in parts of Victoria.
People soaked the bark in water to bathe painful joints. The inner bark was used
to make string.
Leaves, flowers and seed pod of Blackwood.
Returning boomerang made by Laddie Tinberry of Huskisson, NSW in 1990. The
timber used is Blackwood.
19. Mistletoe
Amyema (various species)
People enjoyed the sticky fruits and in some areas the leaves were used for
healing.
The Grey Mistletoe (Amyema quandong) is often found on Blackwood trees.
It is a parasite which can take over and eventually kill the host tree.
Mistletoe
20 Mountain Ash
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Photographer - John Broomfield
Source - Museum Victoria
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Photographer - Ross Field
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Photographer - John Broomfield
Source - Museum Victoria
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Eucalyptus regnans
Mountain Ash is the most readily identifiable feature of the tall forests
east of Melbourne. It is a fast-growing single trunk tree with small open canopy
to 100 m. From summer to winter it is profuse with small white flowers. Long
ribbons of bark hang from the trunks of large trees. Mature trees become heavily
buttressed.
It is the world's tallest flowering tree. It produces excellent hardwood
timber and is also used in paper manufacturing. The trees are usually killed by
intense fire and seed germinates in the ash bed.
While fire-adapted and recognisably a eucalypt, the Mountain Ash is unusual
in being adapted to a high rainfall environment where it commonly rubs shoulders
with cool temperate rainforest. It produces 2-3 times the leaf litter of other
eucalypts creating a deep litter layer, shedding more leaves in droughts. Unlike
many other eucalypts, it has no insulating bark, no lignotuber and does not
sprout from epicormic buds, features which make it fire sensitive. It releases
large quanities of seeds after intense crown fires, which are encouraged by the
long strings of hanging bark and the extreme combustibility of the foliage.
Trees are characteristically tall and straight, typically with no branches
until near the crown. Increased maturity is characterised by trees becoming more
widely spaced and heavier in the trunk, with a greater number of tree hollows
forming. Undergrowth thins and its species mix changes as the forest matures. In
the absence of fire, old age and death occurs at around 400 years. Fire
sensitive cool temperate rainforest species commonly coexist with Mountain Ash,
particularly in the gullies which are not reached by fires, and, being adapted
to regeneration in low light conditions, can gradually replace the dying
Mountain Ash forest.
Leadbeaters' Possum requires mature E. regnans for nest sites and a Silver
Wattle, Acacia dealbata, understorey for feeding. The tree provides nectar and
seeds for birds and leaves for caterpillars.
21 Cortinarius rotundisporus.
Fungi
How big can a plant in the forest be? Some trees can be very large, spreading
across eleven meters or more (see Mountain Ash). But there are organisms that
exceed even these dimensions, though you probably wouldn't notice one even if
you were standing on it. In fact, they're not really plants in the strict sense,
but fungi, spreading beneath the ground in a vast underground mat.
So, how large is the underground fungus that produces this toadstool? Well,
by DNA fingerprinting every toadstool in this part of the forest, they've got an
idea of how big an area it occupies.
About thirty metres in diameter is the result, most of these fungi have an area
about the size of a tennis court.
