Ever wondered about the brushes surrounding Barcaldine, and what sort of cuisine you can expect to find? Look no further-- we have a list to answer your curiousities.
Burdekin Plumb
the Plumb is one of many Australian plants with edible fruit
Aboriginal people would soften the fruit by burying them in sand for up to two weeks after picking
They also ate the fruits dried
The are used to make jam
Bush Orange
The Bush Orange is very rich in vitamin C
It grows on a tree and the outer skin is green
When broken its yellowy orange on the inside
When the fruit is in season you can smell the fruit. It gives off a very strong caramel smell!
Bush Banana
Aboriginal people love this plant. They eat the flowers, young leaves, roast the roots and suck the nectar from the flowers
The young, green pods, skin, green seeds and pulp - all are eaten raw while they are still crunchy, moist and sweet
They have a sticky, milky white sap
Older fruits can be baked lightly in hot fire ashes and peeled before eating
Bush Coconut
The bush coconuts are found on the blood wood tree
When split open there is a white coating on the inside which represents the coconut. You eat this, although it tastes very bland
The coconut is formed by the female wasp. She has no wings and is in the form of a jelly like insect
You can eat her as she is full of protein
Emu Apple
Emu apples are fleshy, edible fruit which look, smell and taste like tiny apples, but are best if left buried for a few days first
When ripe, the skin of the fruit is downy and tinged red, pink or purple like a peach
Aboriginal people would pound the dried fruit into cakes
Lily Pilly
There are 52 species of lilly pilly in Australia, all with edible fruit
In spring to early summer, most lilly pillies have fluffy white or greenish flowers followed by long lasting red, purple or whitish berries.
Aboriginal people would eat the berries when they were a bright pink colour
The lilly pilly was one of the first edible plants to be noted during Captain Cook's visit to Australia in 1770. The colonists also made the fruit into jams and summer drinks
This lilly pilly is endangered because of clearing of its habitat for agriculture
Pigweed
Pigweed not only provides tiny, oily, nutritious seeds, but a green vegetable, whose anti-scorbutic qualities were valued by the people of the west well into the 1950's.
Leaves were eaten raw and seeds ground and baked
The tiny black seeds are one of the most important bush foods of inland Australia, containing up to 20% protein and 16% fat
Aboriginal people 'pulled up the plants, throwing them in heaps, which after a few days they turn over and an abundant supply of seed is found to have fallen out'
The seed is processed by grinding it on a float rock with a hand-held stone. The resulting flour is made into a damper
The leaves and stems are also edible
They can be pounded into a mush and eaten raw, cooked as a vegetable or added to salads
Bottle Tree
The white pulpy substance found under the bark was used as food
The starchy tissue of the stems and roots of the tree can be eaten, as well as the seeds
The seeds are surrounded by irritating hairs which were removed by roasting in a fire
The roots yield good quantities of drinking water
The aborigines also cut holes in the soft trunks of the tree, creating artificial reservoirs
Bottle trees have fibrous inner bark which was used for making rope and twine for fishing nets
Kurrajong
The inner bark is removed in lace strips. It was used to make fishing nets, lines and dilly bags
The seeds were ground up and made into flour
The tree is an excellent supplier of water with large quantities of water found from the roots
Paper Bark Tree
paperbarks commonly grow round the edges of fresh water swamps
The flowers secrete copious quantities of nectar, which may be sucked directly, or extracted by soaking the blossoms in water to make a sweet drink
Aborigines used the leaves traditionally for many medicinal purposes, including chewing the young leaves to alleviate headaches and for other ailments
The softness and flexibility of the paperbark itself made it an extremely useful tree to Aboriginal people
It was used to line coolamons when used as cradles, as a bandage, as a sleeping mat, and as material for building gunyas or humpies
It was also used for wrapping food or cooking (in the same way aluminium foil is today) as a disposable raincoat, and for mending holes in canoes
Bull Rush
Native bullrush - flat long leaves 1-2m high, flowering spike resembles a fluffy cat tail, or some of the old timers reckon it looks like a sausage on the end of a skewer
The immature green flower stalk can be steamed or boiled and eaten like corn on the cob
The mature brown flower stalk can be pulled apart and mixed in a damper made from the swollen base stem which is in the mud. Mats can be woven from leaves
Bullrush damper was a main food for many Aboriginal tribes
The underground stems were baked and skinned and thoroughly chewed to extract starch. The remained were rolled on the thigh to make twine
Bottle Brush
Nectar-baring flowers like the bottlebrush were sucked for their sweet nectar and taste
By immersing the flowers in water, a sweet tasting drink is made
Blossoms of some plants were collected and kneaded in a coolamon
The flowers are then removed and water is mixed with the residue to make a sweet drink
Bloodwood Tree
Carrying bowls were made from the bumps (boules) on the bark
The red sap was used as medicine
The oily sap was used as a liniment to treat arthritis
Aboriginal people would collect drinking water from hollows and the roots
The red sap was also used to tan kangaroo-skin waterbags
The dead wood is one of the most favoured firewoods, regarded as burning with a steady, hot flame
Fruit capsules are used in necklaces and as toys
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