Native Bush Tucker

We visited The Patch with an Aboriginal heritage officer.  We found the following native plants:

• Sagg (Lamandra longifolia) – used for a food source, eat the tubar roots or pit.
• Sword Sedge – these seed in January and February
• Kangaroo grass (Themedra triandra) – evergreen, humans can eat seeds or grind them to flour, they have a lot of seeds, also a food source for native animal.
• Native currants – food source, has a green berry with a fleck of white, spit hard seed out, grows more thickly in shade under trees, they are moist and so help to water trees
• Pigface – eat flower head, do not eat plants or leaves but squeeze out fluid and this can be applied to bites, cuts and burns, it moisurises and heals
• Juncas pallidus – wetland plant, honeycomb shape inside when dry, acts as a filter, encourages frogs, seeds in January and Frebrary, source of fluid – presence of plant indicates presence of water (dig)
• Silver and black wattle – aerate soil, fire germinates seeds, yellow flower, grind seeds to make flour for bread, split branch of tree to retrieve wattle grubs, grubs edible and are a good protein source, grubs make great fishing bait, building material, bark can be used for fishing – add to a pond which is not running.  The bark removes oxygen from the water and the fish will float to the top where they are easily caught.

By Jake and his mum.