BUSH TUCKER AND THE FIRST SETTLERS

The first settlers landed in Australia in 1788 and were met with an awe-inspiring and rather frightening cacophony of birdsong, cloying heat and giant hopping rats the size of a small man. They also arrived with 7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 pigs, 5 rabbits, 18 turkeys, 29 geese, 35 ducks and 209 fowls hoping to turn New Holland, as this strange new land was known, into another Britain, unaware of what edible bounties the land offered.

The dark-skinned men and women who eyed them warily from the beach seemed to have been caught mid-activity fishing with spears in hand, baskets of shellfish, and a giant lizard or two slung over their shoulders.

The raggedy pale smelly lot, covered in coloured cloth from head to toe who piled off the enormous floating trees, were like nothing these natives had ever seen before and if the Brits and Irish were surprised at kangaroos, it must have been a mere bagatelle compared to seeing horses and cows for the first time.

The first settlers were keen to start planting their grains as soon as possible, They had more than 1,300 mouths to feed and they needed the livestock to breed before they could start butchering them all. The grains had suffered the long trip over and now they were expected to sprout in Australian mid-summer heat, so predictably the crop failed. The natives had managed to survive on this alien island for 60,000 years, and now the settlers themselves would have to learn to adapt to their food.

Bush tucker, (or, native food) has become a common addition to Australian cuisine over the last 200-odd years. These days you will find kangaroo and emu steaks in some of the finest restaurants, native fruits and spices colouring the dishes and local seafood outpricing the imported delicacies.

But the first settlers were slow to learn the bounties the new country had to offer and many starved surrounded by the nuts, berries, roots and leafy greens which would have saved their lives. There were others who were happy to learn from the aboriginal hunter/gatherer techniques and even more important, how to find water.

When the crops finally did yield results, flour became a staple item and damper a quick easy and filling meal to cook in the hot coals of an open fire or, if you had one, a heavy black cast iron pot. Damper probably evolved from the indigenous technique of grinding seeds, nuts and roots, creating a thick paste and cooking it on hot rocks. Later, flour and water, sometimes milk or beer was added and turned into a simple bread.

This was the primary food source for travelling bushmen, stockmen and explorers, washed down with tea — sweet if there was sugar — and whatever meat they could snare in their traps.

Witchetty grubs are a great example of bush tucker. They are the large creamy white wood-eating larvae of the cossid moth, highly nutritious, packed full of protein and relatively easy to find once you know where to look. They hide in the hollow roots of the Witchetty bush and despite their rather icky appearance, are said to taste a lot like almonds, and when roasted on the hot coals…somewhat like chicken. Or according to Ray Mears, “a bit chewy with a soft centre…tastes a bit, sort of eggy”.

Other common foods were goannas (large lizards that range from 20cm to 2.5 metres), also prized for their oily white meat that tasted like….yes, you guessed it — chicken. Snakes, turtles, crocodiles, eels, birds, shellfish and possums and wombats also fell victim to the bonfire.

But animals were not the only source of food, obviously, or everyone would have died of scurvy before too long. Fruits, berries, bunya nuts, root vegetables, bush tomatoes, leafy greens and fungi abounded, but without the wise counsel of the indigenous people, the colonies would learn the hard way what was edible and what would kill them.

So much of bush tucker was also used as medicine, pain killers or antiseptics but the colonists’ arrogance blinded them to the Eden under their Anglo noses.

Over time, many of these hairy pale immigrants, especially the ex-convicts and bushmen, adapted very well to the land. They were hardy resourceful men and women who survived off this hostile and unfamiliar land and forged a life from it, albeit somewhat harsh. Some of them were even happy to learn bush survival skills from the aborigines and no doubt would have perished if not for their help.

But despite the availability of such diverse and nutritious fare, the Brits still relied heavily on their limited rations, with a few tweaks and concessions. For example, where pork or hare was traditionally required in a dish, they were often substituted for wallaby or possum.

In 1864, Edward Abbott, who called himself an Australian Aristologist (aristology, for those, like me, had never heard the term, is the art and science of dining) published a book called “The English and Australian Cookery Book”. It was one of the earliest known examples of how the settlers adapted their recipes to local ingredients. “Slippery Bob” was a dish in which you coat kangaroo brains in a batter of flour and water and fry them in emu fat. And other such delights.

Even in the most barren parts of Australia there is food to be had. Australian aborigines were experts in foraging and found sustenance in the most unlikely places. Green ants and their larvae were ground up and mixed with water to produce a lemon-flavoured drink. This could be used to treat headaches, colds and sore throats. Honey ants were prized for the honey-like liquid in their abdomen.

Bloodwood apples are insect galls that grow on a variety of eucalyptus tree and is a little larger than a golf ball. Inside there is an edible grub that tastes like coconut when eaten raw. The above photo is a quandong, or native peach, and is one of the most popular bush foods as it can be stewed and turned into pies, drunk as a juice and is also highly valued for its antibacterial properties. The seed can be crushed into a paste and used to ease painful gums.

It’s taken a long time, but we are now coming to appreciate the value of so much of this bush tucker that native communities have known for thousands of years. We are slowly re-learning what our environment can provide, and the increasing interest in survival skills has helped this enormously.

We know now there are over 6,000 identified edible native plants in Australia, many of which grow in harsh environments so are important as a way to feed communities where there is little water and few crops can grow. They also have potential medicinal properties that we are just now starting to discover.

So let’s take a look at some cooking techniques the first Australians used.

* Roasting on hot coals was the most common method for cooking meat. For larger animals, they would have covered it in the coals and ashes to slowly roast and thoroughly cook. Kangaroo fur was first singed in the flames, scraped off and then the animal was gutted and cooked on the coals or in a ground oven.

* Shellfish was steamed on the coals around the edge of the fire, careful not to overcook. It was also important to use the correct type of wood as some created a nasty taste or some irritation.

* A hole would be dug out about 60–90cm deep and a fire lit inside. The clay excavated from the pit would be dried out and once the clay lumps had become very hot, they would be removed, the pit cleaned and lined with green leaves and the meat placed inside. Then they would place more leaves on the meat and lay the hot clay pieces on top weighing everything down. Then the entire pit was covered in earth and the meat was left to cook slowly in its own steam.

With the arrival of billy cans and aluminium pots, ground ovens became less common, but the process is still used in some parts of Australia.

This video shows the process of creating earth ovens using stones. The pits are loaded with food to feed attendees at Sydney’s Naidoc festival, celebrating Indigenous Australian culture. I must also include this wonderful video (below) called The Journey with Jock Zonfrillo, a “restauranteur, adventurer and nomad chef” who embraces and celebrates traditional foods by creating new and inspired dishes.

For anyone interested in learning more, there are so many wonderful books on the subject of bush tucker and quite a few online stores are popping up that offer bush products.