Table of Australian Aboriginal Bushtucker of what, where, when and how to catch and how to prepare Australian bush food.

Table of Australian Aboriginal Bushtucker of what, where ,when and how to catch and how to prepare it.
This table is kindly provided by the Swan Hill Aboriginal Learning Centre
© 2004 All rights reserved
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Persons involved	Preparation	Cooking method
Game
Kangaroo	Mallee, river plains	All year	Tracked, Hunted Stalked	Spear Woomera- club Boomerang	Males 1-6	Gutted Joey's Skinned, Sinews removed	Singed, Cooked in coal / Under ground, Cut and shared
Emu	Mallee	All year	Tracked Stalked Using Emu's instinctive curiosity	Nets, Spear, Woomera, Club, Boomerang	Males 1-6	Feathers removed gutted	Cooked in coals / Under ground cut /shared
Possums	Scrub, Bush	All year	Caught in hollow trees	Club digging stick	Males	Gutted, skinned	Cooked in coals
Wombat	Burrows in higher ground	Spring to autumn	Trapped, netted	Nets, clubs	Males	Gutted, Singed	Hole covered with ashes
Reptiles
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Persons involved	Preparation	Cooking method
Snakes	Sandhills Scrub Bush Waterways	Summer	Tracked Dug out	Digging stick	Male Female	Not applicable	Coked in ashes
Lizards	Sandhills Scrub Bush	Summer	Tracked dug out	Digging stick	Male Female Children	Not applicable	Cooked in ashes
Frogs	Waterways Swamps	Warm weather	Gathered Caught	Digging stick Bag	Female Children	Not applicable	Cooked in coals
Insects
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Persons involved	Preparation	Cooking method
Witchetty Grubs	Red Gum tree	Spring Summer	Dug out of trees	Barbed stick or grass	Male Female Children	Not Applicable	Cooked in ashes
Birds
Ducks Swans	Waterways Swamps	All year except breeding time	Stalked hunted into nets	Large nets Boomerangs Clubs	Males	Packed in mud/ clay	Cooked in coals
Galahs Pigeons other smal birds	Bush, scrub	All season except breeding time	Caught by nets	nets	Males Youths	Plucked and gutted	Cooked in underground oven
Mallee fowls Turkey	Mallee scrub	All year except breeding time	Stalked	Nets and stick	Males	Plucked and gutted (feathers kept)	Cooked in underground oven
Eggs
Including turtle	Trees, in / on ground reed nest	not applicable	Gathered	Bags	Females Children	not applicable	Eaten raw or boiled
Sugars
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Persons involved	Preparation	Cooking method
(Exudates) Lerp	Gum leaves Trees	Late summer	Picked Gathered	Bark dishes	Females Children	Not applicable	Eaten raw
Manna	Leaves/Grass	Late summer	Picked Gathered	Bark dishes	No further infomation	No further infomation	No further infomation
Nectar	Flowers	All year	Sucked gathered	Bark dishes	Everyone	Squeezed into water	No further information
Honey Ants	Mulga scrub, land and plains	After rain in dry areas	Dug and gathered	Digging sticks and bark dish	Females Children	Honey sac removed	Sucked Sac
Sugar and exudates
Honey	Hollow trees	Spring to summer	Smoked out bees, climbed trees, chopped hole pulled out of hive or grass sponge	Stone axe Bark dish	Males	No further information	Eaten raw (with Bunup) Aboriginal bread
Tree exudates	Trunks Branches	Summer	Picked off, Scraped	Sharp sticks	Everyone	No further information	No further information
Fungi
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Persons involved	Preparation	Cooking method
Black fellows bread (Tubar)	Underground	Autumn	Dug up	Digging stick Bark dish	Females	No further information	Eaten raw
Salt
Salt	Dry water courses	All year	Gathered	Bark dish	Females	No further information	Used with food when available
Water
Water	River / lakes, Tree roots, soakes, Tree hollows Dew on grass	All year	Drunk/carried Roots dug out & squeezed Sucked through hollow. Dug, Stem, Soaked in grass sponge	Bark dishes, sharp stone Digging stick Grass sponge Hollow reed Bark stem	Males Females	Not applicable	Not applicable
Food from water
Fish	Rivers Lakes	Anytime but breeding season during flood (Aug- Sept- Oct)	Hooked Netted Trapped Speared	Lines bone hooks nets stone reed or timber-traps spears	Males	Making of clay balls	Cased in mud Clay ball cooking
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Person involved	Preparation	Cooking
Crayfish	Fresh river Creeks lagoons	Winter	Nets	Nets	Everyone	No further information	Hole covered with ashes
Yabbies Shrimps	Fresh water Rivers Creeks Lagoons	Summer	Nets Dug out of banks	Nets, Dilly bags Digging stick	Everyone	No further information	Hole covered with ashes
Turtles	Rivers Lakes	October March	Netted	Nets	Males	No further information	Hole covered with ashes or cooked in coals toast
Mussels	In river bed (sand)	Summer	Dug Dived for	Hands and feet Bag	Females	No further information	Holes covered with ashes
Water rats	Banks of water holes Rivers	Winter	Netted in hollow logs	Nets By hand	Males	Gutted and skinned	Hole covered with ashes
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Person involved	Preparation	Cooking
Water plant
Bulb and stalk	Billabongs	Spring to Autumn	Dived Picked	Hands Dilly bags	Females Children	Sometimes skinned	Sometimes eaten raw Sometimes steamed
Underground food
Yams Common Reed (Shoot & rhizome)	Marshes	Spring	Picked Dug	Digging sticks Bags Bark dishes	Females	No further information	Covered with ashes or eaten raw
Cumbungi (shoots)	Marshes	Spring	Picked dug	Digging sticks Bags Bark dishes	Females	Cut off lower part	Boiled eaten raw
Bracken (roots)	Anywhere	Autumn	Dug	Diging sticks	No further information	Ground beaten into paste	Cooked in ashes
Wild onions	Dry areas	Autumn	Dug	Digging stick	Females	No further information	Cooked in ashes Eaten raw
Fruit
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Person involved	Preparation	Cooking
Quandongs	Mallee	Spring summer	Picked	Bark disk	Females Children	Kernel crush made into paste oil extracted	Flesh eaten raw or dried
Wild tomatoes
2 Varieties	Mallee	Summer	Picked	Bark dish	Females Children	A) toxic juice, squeezed out B)Non-toxic	Cooked in ashes hole for juice to escape Eaten raw
Berries
Toxic non-toxic	Mallee low and tall bushes	Autumn	Picked	Bark dish	Females Children	A) toxic juice squeezed out B)Non-toxic	Eaten raw if non-toxic
Seeds
Nardoo	Swamps	Late summer Autumn	Gathered	Bark dish grinding stone	Females	Grinding making into paste	Cooked in ashes pancake
Food	Place	Seasons	Collection	Implements	Person involved	Preparation	Cooking
Grass seeds	Mallee Scrubland	Summer	Gathered	Bark dish Grinding stone	Females	Winnowing Grinding Making into paste	Cooked in ashes
Pittosporum	Scrub	Summer Autumn	Gathered	Bark dish Grinding stone	Females	Grinding paste	Cooked in ashes
Wattle
Acacia toxic non-toxic	Scrub	Autumn	Gathered	Bark dish	Females	No further information	seeds eaten raw
Salt bush	Scrub	Spring Autumn	Gathered	Bark dish grinding stone	Females	Grinding make dough	Cooked in coals Can be eaten as vegetables

Table of Australian Aboriginal Bushtucker of what, where ,when and how to catch and how to prepare it.This table is kindly provided by the Swan Hill Aboriginal Learning Centre © 2004 All rights reserved

Food

Place

Seasons

Collection

Implements

Persons involved

Preparation

Cooking method

Game

Kangaroo

Mallee, river plains

All year

Tracked, Hunted Stalked

Spear Woomera- club Boomerang

Males 1-6

GuttedJoey's Skinned, Sinews removed

Singed, Cooked in coal / Under ground, Cut and shared

Emu

Mallee

All year

Tracked Stalked Using Emu's instinctive curiosity

Nets, Spear, Woomera, Club, Boomerang

Males 1-6

Feathers removed gutted

Cooked in coals / Under ground cut /shared

Possums

Scrub, Bush

All year

Caught in hollow trees

Club digging stick

Males

Gutted, skinned

Cooked in coals

Wombat

Burrows in higher ground

Spring to autumn

Trapped, netted

Nets, clubs

Males

Gutted, Singed

Hole covered with ashes

Reptiles

Food

Place

Seasons

Collection

Implements

Persons involved

Preparation

Cooking method

Snakes

Sandhills Scrub Bush Waterways

Summer

Tracked Dug out

Digging stick

Male Female

Not applicable

Coked in ashes

Lizards

Sandhills Scrub Bush

Summer

Tracked dug out

Digging stick

Male Female Children

Not applicable

Cooked in ashes

Frogs

Waterways Swamps

Warm weather

Gathered Caught

Digging stick Bag

Female Children

Not applicable

Cooked in coals

Insects

Food

Place

Seasons

Collection

Table of Australian Aboriginal Bushtucker of what, where ,when and how to catch and how to prepare it.
This table is kindly provided by the Swan Hill Aboriginal Learning Centre
© 2004 All rights reserved

Mallee,
river plains

Tracked,
Hunted
Stalked

Spear
Woomera- club
Boomerang

Gutted
Joey's Skinned,
Sinews removed

Tracked
Stalked
Using Emu's instinctive curiosity

Nets,
Spear,
Woomera,
Club,
Boomerang

Feathers removed
gutted

Cooked in coals / Under ground
cut /shared

Club
digging stick

Gutted,
skinned

Sandhills
Scrub
Bush
Waterways

Tracked
Dug out

Male
Female

Sandhills
Scrub
Bush

Tracked
dug out

Male
Female
Children

Waterways
Swamps

Gathered
Caught

Digging stick
Bag

Female
Children

Spring
Summer

Male
Female
Children

Ducks
Swans

Waterways
Swamps

Stalked
hunted into nets

Large nets
Boomerangs
Clubs

Galahs
Pigeons
other smal birds

Males
Youths

Mallee fowls
Turkey

Plucked and gutted
(feathers kept)

Trees, in / on ground
reed nest

Females
Children

Gum leaves
Trees

Picked
Gathered

Females
Children

Picked
Gathered