Bush Tucker

The definition of 'Bush Tucker' is a food native to Australia which was present before European colonisation.

Bush tucker was once a familiar term only in Australia, but recently it has gained popularity overseas. The term refers to a vast array of herbs, spices, mushrooms, fruits, nuts, flowers, vegetables, animals, aquatic life, reptiles, birds and insects that are native to Australia and are edible. Bush tucker is gaining in popularity to such an extent that it is now grown in the backyards of urban homes.

The increasing interest in bush tucker is partly due to promotion by indigenous groups to build sustainable enterprises and partly due to recent food columns in the Australian media which have focused on the traditional and bush foods. As Australians strive for their own identity amidst the miasma of Western culture, they have come to see bush tucker as an important part of Australia's ever-evolving national cuisine. Such is the extent of the popularity of bush tucker that some bush tucker foods are now available commercially through the supermarket chains.

Approximately 20 percent of the 20,000 plant species native to Australia are edible. But it can be dangerous to experiment and try to find out for ourselves which plants are edible. Some are highly toxic.

CSIRO Land and Water:

A new research program on 'bush produce' has just been approved by the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre. The project commenced in October 2004 and the activities span research on wild harvest of native foods, horticultural production, plant improvement, storage of produce after harvest and marketing and consumer issues. An important aspect will be partnership with Indigenous communities and a research approach that is more inclusive of non-scientists. The main focus will be studies on bush tomatoes, wattle seeds and native citrus, but other potential crops will also be investigated. The project participants include a number of research and government agencies as well as community and commercial partners.

Restaurants have been quick to cash in on bush tucker popularity and it is not uncommon to see menus with such things as: riberries, bunya nuts, wild rosellas, Kakadu plums, lilipili, or bush tomatoes, with herbs including: pepperleaf, aniseed myrtle and wattle seed. Many of the wattle species have seeds that are edible either green (like a bean), or dried and ground in bread or sauces. For non-vegetarians, restaurants offer kangaroo, crocodile, possum, emu, baby eels, freshwater yabbies, and witchetty grubs. Some States of Australia prohibit the sale of kangaroo meat.

Few native animals are farmed for consumption but there is a growing move for this to happen for a range of species. Kangaroo and emu are already commercially farmed and processed.

Bush tucker can be divided into seeds and nuts; tubers; greens; and animal, insects, and waterlife, and fruits and berries.. Seeds include grass seeds, pigweed, wattle seeds, and mangrove pods. Other seeds that are more like peas and beans include Moreton Bay chestnuts and matchbox bean. Australia has a good variety of edible nuts – macadamia nut is the only indigenous plant cropped commercially. Bunya nut is sold in some supermarkets but is not grown commercially.

All cultures have a staple food, and for the Australian Aborigines it is tubers and roots. They come from a variety of sources and are similar in food value to potatoes and carrots. Green leaves of plants are not a large part of Aborigines diet, but when eaten include cress, buds and flowers, and the bruised leaves of fishweed and different saltbushes that are boiled like spinach. Commonly eaten meats include kangaroos, possums, lizards, fish and shellfish, with dragon lizards, grasshoppers and caterpillars eaten less often.

Among the hundreds of fruits and berries popular in bush tucker are quandong (a wild peach), and native cherry. Bush tucker fruits make excellent jams, sauces, chutneys and desserts. The lilly pilly plants and berries are probably the most widely known and grown bush tucker fruit. These plants are readily available in nurseries and shops in all States of Australia.

Intellectual Property Rights

For the commercialisation of many species of bush tucker the issue of intellectual property rights are relevant. Where the traditional knowledge has been used to develop a commercial enterprise there may be some ethical, moral or legal issues to be considered.