General summary Australian Native Garden
This garden area contains many native species with various uses. Australian Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for at least 40,000 years, and in all those long generations the land provided them with everything they needed for a healthy life. They also learned to manage their country in such ways that its resources renewed themselves and were not used up.
At least half of the food eaten by Aboriginal people came from plants, and it was the task of the women to collect them. Just as we eat root vegetables, greens, fruits and seeds, so did the Aboriginal people. Fruits, seeds and greens were only available during their appropriate seasons, but roots could usually be dug up all the year round, because the earth acted as a natural storage cupboard. Important foods were replanted. The regular digging-over of the soil, and the thinning out of clumps by collection of plants, together with burning to provide fertiliser, is not very different from what we do in our own gardens, and the whole country was in a way an Aboriginal garden.
Plants were used for many other things besides food. The long leaves of sedges, rushes and lilies were collected to make baskets and mats and soaked and beaten to free the fibres to make string. The bark of trees made buckets, dishes and shields; River Red-gum bark was particularly good for making canoes, and old scarred 'canoe trees' can still be seen.
Some rice flower shrubs (Pimelea spp.) have such strong fibres on the outside of the stem that they have been called 'bushman's bootlace' and were used by the Aboriginal people to make fine nets in which to collect Bogong Moths to eat.
Medicines also came from plants native mints (Mentha spp.) were remedies for coughs and colds, and the gum from gumtrees, which is rich in tannin,was used for burns.
Dianella sp. (flax lily)
The fiber in the leaf is very strong. A leaf, split and twisted into a cord, has been found in an Aboriginal burial in central Victoria. This and other Flax-lilies were used for baskets in Tasmania. The berries are blue-purple and may be poisonous. There is no evidence that they were eaten by Aboriginal people.
.jpg)
Lomandra longifolia (spiny headed mat rush)
The long smooth leaves were used to make baskets and mats. By beating and soaking the leaves, fiber was separated to make string for net-bags. The flowers provided nectar. This plant is still used at Lake Tyers, Victoria, to make traditional baskets, and at Lake Condah to make eel-traps.
Indigofera australis
One of the many different plants that were crushed and put into pools to kill or stun fish so that they could be easily caught.
Microseris lanceolata ( Murnong )
This small perennial plant was the favourite food of the Aboriginal people of central and western Victoria and was also eaten in South Australia and New South Wales. It has a radish-shaped tuber, which is renewed each year. In the spring the plant forms a yellow flower-head like a dandelion, and in the summer the leaves die off and the tuber becomes dormant. The tubers were cooked in baskets in an earth oven, producing a dark sweet juice which was much liked. Once a common plant, Murnong became scarce due to grazing by sheep
.
Backhousia citriodora (Lemon myrtle)
Aboriginal people used Backhousia citriodora for medicine and flavouring. Great used in cooking that is milk or cream based. Will not cause dairy products to curdle. Good for biscuits, ice cream, sorbets, pasta, stir-fries, fish, grilled meats and roast vegies.
Tetragonia tetragonioides (warrigal greens)
Warrigal Greens – also known as Warrigal Spinach, New Zealand Spinach or even Botany Bay greens – were one of the first native Australian vegetables to become popular with European settlers. Looking for ways to fight scurvy, Captain Cook encouraged his men to eat them, and many convicts owed their lives to the spinach-like plant.
Myoporum parvifolium ( creeping boobialla )
Extremely hardy weed-suppressing ground cover for embankments, verges, streetscapes and high traffic areas. Acts as a living mulch and weed suppressor. Bird and butterfly attracting. Requires well-drained soils. Note: Fire retardant plant
Lilly pilly sp
In traditional medicine, Lilly Pilly pulp is popular for its ability to treat sore ears. Aboriginal Australians relied on the plant to fight illnesses and strengthen their immune system as well. Other traditional uses were for its great healing and anti-bacterial properties and the berries were eaten when in season for the vitamin C content. The Lilly Pilly has good astringent properties that improve firmness of the skin, while its high vitamin C and fruit acid content create great anti-ageing effects to keep skin looking radiant and youthful.
Today, the fruit is most commonly used to make a distinctively flavoured jam, and is also used in sauces, syrups and confectionery.
Dendrobium speciosum (Rock orchid)
Dendrobium speciosum, are found all down the east coast of Australia, and Indigenous people used them for food. The starchy stems are beaten to break up the fibre and then roasted on hot coals.
Callistemon varieties (Bottlebrush)
Widely known as bottle brush due to its distinctive, brushlike flower spikes, callistemons provide a sought-after food source for native pollinators such as birds and butterflies, as well as small native mammals. This makes it a valuable plant for creating wildlife habitat, with sensational displays of spring-summer colour as a bonus.
In the wild, callistemons are often found in damp or wet places such as creek beds or flood prone areas, and many species will thrive in damp conditions while also tolerating drought.
Brachyscome multifida (cut leaf daisy)
A low growing, mound forming native shrub that is very hardy. Covered in blue daisy like flowers in spring and summer, with spot flowering year-round, it is a great bird and butterfly attractor.
Macadamia
Macadamia is a genus of trees indigenous to Australia, and are native to northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland specifically. Three species of the genus are commercially important for their fruit, the macadamia nut.] In Australian Aboriginal languages, the fruit is known by names such as bauple, gyndl, jindilli] and boombera. It was an important source of bush food for the Aboriginal peoples.
