The word Bushfood refers to any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by the original inhabitants, the Australian Aborigines, although it is sometimes used with the specific connotation of "food found in the Outback while living on the land". It is also called bush tucker. It includes both animal and plant foods native to Australia. Examples of Australian native animal foods (meats) include kangaroo, emu and crocodile. In particular, kangaroo is quite common and can be found in many normal supermarkets at prices comparable to beef. Other animals, for example goanna and witchetty grubs, were eaten by Aboriginal Australians and thus qualify as bushfood in every sense of the word. Fish and shellfish are culinary features of the Australian coastal communities. Examples of Australian native plant foods include the fruits: quandong (Santalum acuminatum), Australian desert raisin (Solanum centrale), muntries (Kunzea pomifera), riberry (Syzygium luehmannii), Davidson's plum (Davidsonia spp.), and, Finger Lime (Citrus australasica). Native spices include lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora), mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata), and, aniseed myrtle (Syzygium anisatum). A popular leafy vegetable is warrigal greens (Tetragonia tetragonoides). 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). Knowledge of Aboriginal uses of fungi is meagre but Fistulina hepatica and Native bread (Laccocephalum mylittiae) were certainly eaten.
Australian Aborigines have eaten native animal and plant foods for an estimated 60,000 years of human habitation on the Australian continent (see Indigenous Australian food groups, Australian Aboriginal sweet foods). 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 Melaleuca species, is widely used for wrapping food placed in ground ovens. Bush bread was made by women using many types of seeds, nuts and corms to process a flour or dough to make bread. Aboriginal traditional native food use has been severely impacted by non-indigenous immigration since 1788, especially in the more densely colonised areas of south-eastern Australia. There, the availability of more abundant and reliable non-native foods to Aborigines has resulted in an almost complete abandonment of native foods by Aborigines. This impact on traditional foods has been further accentuated by the loss of traditional lands which has resulted in reduced access to native foods by Aborigines and destruction of native habitat for agriculture. The recent recognition of the nutritional and gourmet value of native foods by non-indigenous Australians, is introducing native cuisine to many for the first time. However, there are unresolved intellectual property issues associated with the commercialisation of bushfood.
Colonial use
Bushfoods provided a source of nutrition to the non-indigenous colonial settlers, 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. In the 19th Century eminent English botanist, J.D. Hooker, writing of Australian edible plants in Flora of Tasmania, remarked although "eatable," are not "fit to eat". In 1889, botanist Joseph Maiden reiterated this sentiment with the comment on native food plants "nothing to boast of as eatables." [1] The first monograph to be published on the flora of Australia reported the lack of edible plants on the first page, where it presented Billardiera scandens as, "... almost the only wild eatable fruit of the country".[2] This became the accepted view of Australian native food plants until the late 20th Century. It is thought that these early assessments were a result of encountering strong flavours not generally suitable for out-of-hand eating, but these strong flavours are now highly regarded for culinary use. The only Australian native food developed and cropped on a large scale is the macadamia nut, with the first small-scale commercial plantation being planted in Australia in the 1880s. Subsequently, Hawaii was where the macadamia was commercially developed to its greatest extent from stock imported from Australia.
Modern use
In the 1970s non-indigenous Australians began to recognise 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 Low published Wild Food Plants of Australia. Jenifer Isaacs is the author of Bushfood, and Vic Cherikoff wrote The Bushfood Handbook. In the late 1970s horticulturists started to assess native food-plants for commercial use. In 1980 South Australia legalised the sale of kangaroo meat for human consumption. In the 1980s analysis of bushfoods for Aboriginal health showed that some bushfoods were exceptionally nutritious. In the mid-1980s several Sydney restaurants began using native Australian ingredients in recipes more familiar to non-indigenous tastes. This provided the first opportunity for bushfoods to be tried by non-indigenous Australians on a serious gourmet level, and led to the realisation that many strongly flavoured native food plants have spice-like qualities. Some of these bushfood ingredients now feature in modern Australian cuisine, and Australian spices are being increasingly recognised internationally. Processed food and dried food products made from native ingredients were also developed for the domestic and export markets. The raw ingredients were initially sourced from the wild and more recently cultivated using largely organic methods with an emphasis on maintaining sustainable quantities from both sources. Many Aboriginal communities continue to be involved in the supply chain and in investigating other socially and culturally appropriate opportunities. The term "bushfood" is one of several terms describing native Australian food, 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. The term "authentic Australian food" is another marketing term recently coined to create further separation from the more rustic bush connotations, although "bushfood" is the most established and widespread term that describes native Australian food.
Bushfood in Media
TV shows 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. Major Les Hiddins, a retired Australian Army soldier popularized the idea of bush tucker as an interesting food resource. He presented a hit TV series called Bush Tucker Man on the ABC TV network in the late 1980s. In the series, Hiddins demonstrated his research for Norforce in identifying foods which might sustain or augment army forces in the northern Australian Outback.
Native Australian food-plants listed by culinary province and plant part
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.
^ Maiden, J.H., The Useful Native Plants of Australia, 1889, p.1
^Smith, J E [1793]. Spec. Bot. New Holland. James Sowerby. “AMID all the beauty and variety which the vegetable productions of New Holland display in such profusion, there has not yet been discovered a proportionable degree of usefulness to mankind, at least with respect to food.”
