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Acknowledgement - We are here today to: • To acknowledge and celebrate the First Nations people of this continent and their connection with the land, flora and fauna of what is now known as • To recognize that we can learn how to live more sustainably from those who have lived sustainably with the country for over 40,000 years • To share traditional knowledge of Australian flora and their use for food, fibre, medicine, tools, shelter etc. • To inspire people to become more connected with the land, the flora and fauna of Australia • To encourage people to grow indigenous plants creating healthier homes for wildlife and people • In doing this we show respect to the First Nations people and their elders, past, present and future of this vast continent

Special Thanks - Thank you to Wurundjeri elder Uncle Ian Hunter, for his assistance with this presentation. His wealth of knowledge surrounding food, fibre and medicine plants was invaluable to this project.

A Food, Fibre, Medicine Garden • Consider the garden structure and existing plants • Structure includes Canopy, Mid-storey (Small Trees / Large Shrubs), Under-storey (Small Shrubs, Grasses and Climbers), Groundcover (Lilies / Tubers / Herbs and Prostrates) • Caution - Consider who will interact with the garden - Some indigenous plants are toxic and should not be consumed - Some indigenous plants should only be consumed after special processing treatments - Consider signs to inform people of uses and cautions

Scope • This workshop focusses on Mid-Storey to Groundcover plants as these are the most suitable sized plants for a standard back yard

Legend

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Table of Plants / Uses and Horticultural Information

Plant Use Growing Mid Storey - Small Trees and Tall Shrubs Black She-oak • Known as ‘singing trees’ A fast growing pyramid shaped bushy tree. Good Allocasuarina Littoralis • Wood - used for making tools for screening, windbreak or specimen tree. and weapons. Separate male and female plants with female WAYETUCK (Wurundjeri) • 10,000 year old Boomerang flowers producing small woody cones made from Drooping She-oak found in a swamp in SE South Australia • Cones. Young cones eaten. Mature cones ground as medicine for sores and rheumatism • Bark. Bark and wood extracts used as medicine

Drooping She-oak • Known as ‘singing trees’ A fast growing rounded shaped dense tree with Allocasuarina • Wood - used for making tools dark furrowed bark. Slender hanging green gray Verticillata and weapons. 10,000 year old branchlets. Seems leafless. Separate male and Boomerang made from female plants with female flowers producing small BRAKBRUK (Lake Hindmars) Drooping She-oak found in a woody cones. Excellent for exposed coastal GNEERIN (Gunditjmara) swamp in SE South Australia locations BARN (Gunaikurnai) • Cones. Young cones were eaten. Use Mature cones were ground as Wildlife medicine for sores and Light rheumatism Form Medium Tree Bark. Bark and wood extracts used as medicine Size 4-8m tall x 2-5m wide Water Soil Well Drained. Prefers dry, gravelly soil Flowers Autumn to spring

Woolly Tea Tree • Leaves / Oil - Rubbed directly Dense shrub. Small grey green leaves. Masses of Leptospermum over skin to release oils and act 5 petal white flowers. Great as a screening plant lanigerum as an insect repellent; Leaves or on edge of ponds / bog gardens. Responds well used for breathing difficulties. to pruning WOOLERP (Wurundjeri) Smoke from green leaves used (Gunai) as insect repellent (sprigs left BALUNG Use smouldering around camp). Oil was extracted and used as an Wildlife antiseptic Light • Bark - Bark removed in sheets Form Medium to tall shrub and used to wrap food for Size 2-4m tall x 1-3m wide cooking e.g. fish - ‘bush Al-foil’. Paperbark is also a rot-resistant Water fibre which can be woven into Soil Moist. Deep sandy. Can tolerate clay string/rope Flowers Sep to Jan • Wood -Tall straight trunks used to make spears; Small branches used as digging sticks

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Plant Use Growing Coast Tea-tree • Branches / leaves – used to Tall bushy shrub or small tree with twisted Leptospermum make shelters branches. Grey green leaves and white flowers. laevigatum Excellent wind break / screening plants. Can become a weed when introduced (WA) NOWART (Ganai)

Wattles • Seeds – Edible; Seeds/pods - Varieties Acacia antioxidant (used for still water • Over 1,000 species of Acacia in Australia fishing) • Vic sample • Gum - Used for upset stomach • Blackwood (antidiarrheal) • Silver • Wood- tools - especially roots • Black (Garrong)W for boomerangs • Coastal • Grubs - good source of protein • Golden • Preparations from at least 30 • Prickly Moses species used as medicine Blackwood • Seeds - Seeds are edible; Fast growing tree with dark green leaves. Can be Acacia melanoxylon ground, added to seed cakes short lived. Can get attached by wood borer. • Leaves - Used as soap; Crushed Great windbreak or screening plant BURN-NA-LOOK and rubbed between hands (Wurundjeri) with water to create a lather MOOTCH-ONG • Bark - Inner bark used to make (Jardwadjali) coarse string or fishing line; Bark was heated or infused in water to apply as a medicine for rheumatism • Wood - The wood is hard and used for tools/weapons – in particular spear throwers & shields Silver Wattle • Flowers - Flowering indicates a Hardy fast growing open tree with grey green Acacia dealbata change in season feathery foliage. Useful as a windbreak and to • Bark -Was used to make control soil erosion. Suckers often form a dense - MOY-YAN (Wurundjeri) coarse string; Was used for copse. Short lived (to 15 years) medicine; Was used to make bark buckets • Gum - Was eaten; Was dissolved in water as a sweet drink; Was mixed with burnt shell or ashes to make cement; Applied to wounds and sores • Wood - Was used for tools, particularly axe handles

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Plant Use Growing Crimson Bottle Brush • Nectar - sucked or used to A fast growing and tough plant able to tolerate Callistemon citrinus make sweet drinks salt, wind, drought, frost and pollution. A good • Leaves - Leaves used to make a screening plant. Responds well to pruning. Can tea infusion. Used to treat have two flowerings per season if watered well bacterial, fungal, viral and parasite infections

Coast Banksia • Flowers - cones of all species Slow growing shrub to large tree with tough dark Banksia integrifolia soaked in water to extract the green leaves with silver underside. Large lemon nectar to make a sweet drink; flowers. Good for soil erosion in sandy soil. Often mixed with wattle gum

Silver Banksia • Flowers - cones of all species Varies in growth habit from straggly shrub to Banksia marginata soaked in water to extract the small tree. Finely toothed dark green leaves with nectar to make a sweet drink - silver underside. A useful screening plant. Often mixed with wattle gum; used as fine paint brushes; • Dry cones: Used as a strainer; To carry smouldering fire

Native Mulberry • Wood - A hard straight timber A mountain gully shrub to small tree. Fruits angustifolia stick (approx. 60cm) used as a resemble a yellow mulberry, are NOT EDIBLE but fire stick / fire drill. Was highly were used as a medicine for cuts and stings. Male DJIEL-WARG (Wurundjeri) prized and traded as far as the and female flowers on separate plants. Grow in a northern tribes on the Murray protected, moist position as an upper storey to River. Different materials are ferns. used as fire sticks in other parts of Australia . Also used for spears / spear tips

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Plant Use Growing • Fruits - used as a medicine for cuts and stings

Under-storey - Small Shrubs, Grasses and Climbers Round Leafed Bush • Leaves - Used as herb. Brewed A hardy quick growing shrub with small rounded Mint to make a mint tea. Contain dull green aromatic / mint flavored leaves and Prostanthera - aromatic oils and probably masses of purple (sometimes pink) flowers in rotundifolia medicinal spring. Excellent screening plant. A pruning after flowering is beneficial. Good in pots.

Purple Apple-berry • Fruit - eaten A showy bushy vigorous climber. Glossy narrow Billardiera dark green leaves with masses of tubular longiflora yellowish green followed by shiny purple berries. A good understory plant GARAWANG (Wurundjeri)

Common Apple Berry • Fruit - eaten A hardy and adaptable plant that is non-invasive Billardiera scandens while able to grow as a groundcover, climber or small shrub. Glossy green leaves with clusters of GARAWANG (Wurundjeri) bell shaped pink and white flowers in spring.

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Plant Use Growing

Austral Indigo • Seeds - Seeds and pods A graceful fast growing open shrub with blue / Indigofera Australis crushed and added to still green feathery leaves and abundant pink / purple water as a fish poison (to pea flowers in long sprays. Prune after flowering. deoxygenate the water) Useful under trees. • Roots - The crushed roots used as a fish poison • Leaves - The leaves used as a medicine for skin complaints. • Note : The leaves can contain cyanide

Flax-lily– Tasman • Fruit Attractive long lived hardy plant with tufts of long Dianella tasmanica -The berries and roots of some strappy leaves and blue to purple / yellow varieties eaten flowers. Bright blue / purple shiny fruit that ripen MURMBAL (Wergaia / -Berries used as a die in Autumn. Spreads via rhizomes Gunditjmara) • Leaf -The leaf can be split down the middle into two and rolled into string. -Used in tying and basket weaving

Kangaroo Apple • Fruit - Edible when very ripe. Fast growing hardy shrub with vivid purple Solanum laciniatum Kind of bush tomato. Can be flowers and lobed leaves. green (unripe) to eaten fresh or dried. orange (ripe) egg shaped berries. Short lived (2-5 MEAKITCH (Lake Condah) Poisonous until they are soft years). Spreads easily by birds. Useful screening MOOKITCH (Gunditjmara) • Not to be eaten by pregnant plant. Prune for dense habit. women

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Plant Use Growing

Spiny-headed Mat- • Leaves - One of the main A robust hardy strappy plant that is useful in rush grasses used for weaving. Dried difficult spots. Good for mass plantings and under Lomandra Longifolia / soaked repetitively to make it trees. Yellow flowers with spiky brackets. both strong & pliable before being stripped. Used for Use KURAWAN (Wurundjeri) baskets, mats, fishing nets, fish Wildlife & eel traps, rope, string, string, headbands Light • Lomandra fibres are especially Form Tussock good for use in the water (e.g. Size - 1m h X -1m h Fishing lines, nets, traps) due to rot-resistant quality Water • Stems - Fleshy base of stem is a Soil Various well drained source of moisture to chew on Flowers May - Sep while travelling across country • Seeds – Grains are high in protein and ground for damper/seed cakes • Cultivated around waterways as filtration for water system Common Tussock • Leaves - Twisted to make: Ornamental tussock grass. Very hardy. Hard Grass String, Baskets, Mats, Net-bags pruning after summer encourages new green Poa labillardier • Extremely tough fibres and growth in winter / spring formed so as to feel smooth in Use BOWAT (Wurundjeri) one direction & extremely rough in the opposite Wildlife Light Form Tussock Size 70cm h X 70cm w Water Soil Moist to Dry Flowers Spring to Summer

Austral Rush • Seeds - Used for damper Loosely tufted perennial rush spreading from Juncus Australis • Fibres - Used as string and for underground stems. Erect dull green to blue- basket weaving green stems. Doesn't split easily. Pith open with • Leaf pulled to break back, large air spaces. remove pith, separate strands

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Plant Use Growing • Strands woven together to produce a strong cord

Kangaroo Grass • Seeds An attractive tussock grass with blue-green to Themeda triandra -Cultivated, harvested and reddish foliage and coppery to rusty gold flower stored heads. Great in mass plantings and adaptable to a WUULOT (Gunditjmara) -Ground and used in damper. range of condition WUULOITCH Added to seed cakes (Djab wurrung) • Leaf and stem -String made from the leaves and stems. -Especially in Gippsland, but other plants were stronger

Native Raspberry Fruit - small delicious berries are Displaced by the introduced blackberry. Forms Rubus parvifolius eaten low and dense prickly brambles. Green to red stems covered with sharp thorns. Small pink EEPAEEP (Wurundjeri) flower. Does not fruit regularly.

Southern Grass Tree • The products of this plant were Very slow growing perennial plant with thick Xanthorrhoea australis widely sought traded extensively woody branches. Crowned with a spray of stiff • Roots - of young plants eaten bluish green grass like leaves. Produces BAGGUP (Wurundjeri) • Flowers soaked in water to spectacular flowers after a fire extract nectar for a sweet drink TARNDANG (Gunaikurnai) • Flower stem - used for fire starting • Gum - Used as a very strong glue for tool making and for waterproofing canoes • Leaves - Leaf used to cut meat

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Plant Use Growing • A useful leather tanning agent • Seeds can easily be propagated with no special pre-treatments

Seeds can easily be propagated with no special pre-treatments Wonga Wonga Vine • Used for binding and shelter A strong showy high climbing vine which Pandorea pandorana building. becomes dense and bushy in an expose position. Large shiny green leaves and bunches o tubular white flowers with purple / maroon throat

Ground Covers - Lilies / Tubers / Herbs and Prostrates Yam Daisy • At time of white settlement, it A small perennial herb with bright yellow daisy Microseris lanceolate was a very plentiful and an flowers similar to the dandelion. Differs from the important food stable. dandelion as has narrower leaves and drooping • The edible tuber is white, milky flower bud. Regenerates annually rom tuberous MURRNONG (Wurundjeri) and radish-like. A new one forms rootstock. Suitable for container growing. MUNJA(Mallee area) each year. Similar to sweet PUN'YIN (Tjapwurong) potato. Can also be eaten raw • • The flower is yellow, and resembles a dandelion, with a nodding bud • Tubers harvested with a digging stick and roasted in coals or steamed in woven baskets

Chocolate Lilly • Edible root tubers form at the A dainty lily with purple flowers that smell like Arthropodium strictum ends of the roots chocolate. In a hot summer the plants die back to • Tubers were harvested with a tubers which regrow the following season. Can digging stick get eaten by slugs / snail. Can be grown in • Tubers roasted in the fire containers.

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Plant Use Growing

Vanilla Lilly • Each plant has many edible A delicate tufting strappy grass like herb with Arthropodium tubers nodding fragrant mauve flowers on tall slender milleflorum • Vanilla-scented purple to white stems. Dies back to tubers in summer before flowers in Spring and Summer regenerating in Autumn. Great for containers

Inland Pig Face • Leaves - Eaten as has a high A prostrate spreading succulent with triangular Carpobrotus Modestus moisture content. Eaten raw or cross sectioned fleshy leaves and purple daisy like cooked flowers. Makes a great ground cover / living KATWORT (Gippsland) • Sap - Applied directly to treat mulch Produces red-purple fruit. Is related to the KEENG-A insect bites and stings. Used as coastal pig face. (Bunganditj) an eye-wash • Berries - The fruit is red when ripe, are sweet and eaten raw

Ruby Saltbush • Berries - Small edible red fruits Small prostrate shrub with small succulent leaves. Enchylaena tomentose which were shaken off onto a Red berries all year but most in summer sheet of bark (Monash) KURRKUTY (Wemba Wemba)

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Plant Use Growing Running Postman • Flowers - Nectar sucked from An attractive groundcover with soft leaves and Kennedia prostrata the flowers masses of scarlet red pea flowers in spring. Good • Stems - Used as string to tie in rockeries, under trees, in containers or hanging KABIN (Wurundjeri) things baskets NALL (Lake Condah)

River Mint • Leaves - crushed and inhaled A low, sprawling ground cover perennial herb Mentha Australis as a medicine for coughs and with mint flavored leaves with small pale mauve colds. Used to flavouring food flowers. May become invasive. PANARYLE (Wurundjeri)

Native Spinach - • Leaves - eaten raw or cooked. Low growing, perennial groundcover with a Warrigal Greens Cooking is recommended to trailing habit. It grows in poor, dry conditions, Tetragonia remove oxalic acid but performs best in moist friable soil tetragonoides • Leaves crushed and applied to sores

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Popular Plants from Further Afield Lemon Myrtle • Leaves - Used to flavor food Slow growing tree with lemon centers leaves. Can Backhousia citriodora • Medicinal - Has strong be maintained as a shrub with pruning. A good antibacterial and anti-fungal screening plant. properties

Native Finger Lime • Fruit is edible Slow growing in southern Australia Citrus australasica • A prickly rainforest citrus plant that produces small finger shaped fruit • Known as the caviar of citrus •

Lilly Pilly • Fruit is edible and can be made Excellent as screens, windbreaks, hedges, bird Syzygium Var. into jams attractants or garden ornamentals Fruit varies by variety. An East Gippsland species WANDUIN (Ganai) (Magenta Lilly Pilly - Syzygium paniculatum) is tasty and grows well in Melbourne

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References and Resources

• Koorie Plant Koorie People – Traditional Aboriginal Food, Fibre and Healing Plants of ; Nelly Zola and Beth Gott; The Koorie Heritage Trust 1996 • Bush Food - Aboriginal Food and Herbal Medicine; Jennifer Isaacs; Weldon Publishers 1988 • Bush Medicine – A pharamacopia of Natural Remedies; Tim Low; Angus & Robertson 1990 • ABORIGINAL PLANTS in the ground of Monash University – A Guide; Monash University School of Biological Science; 2010 https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/542119/Guide-to-the-Aboriginal- Garden-Clayton-Campus.pdf • Aboriginal Use Plants of the Greater Melbourne Area; Latrobe University Environment Collective; David De Angelis; 2005 https://www.latrobe.edu.au/wildlife/downloads/Aboriginal-plant-use-list.pdf • Atlas of Living Australia; www.ala.org.au • Bunjilaka Melbourne Museum; www.museumsvictoria.com.au/bunjilaka/ • South Australian Museum • Wattle Day - http://www.wattleday.asn.au • World Wide Wattle - http://worldwidewattle.com/schools/wurrundjeri.php • Dark Emu – Black Seeds: agriculture or accident – Bruce Pascoe • The Biggest Estate on Earth – How Aborigines made Australia – Bill Gammage • The Eight Wurundjeri Seasons in Melbourne - Jim Pouter • Indigenous Weather Knowledge : http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/ • Sprinter and Sprummer – Australia’s Changing Seasons - Tim Entwisle • Aboriginal Victoria - https://www.aboriginalvictoria.vic.gov.au/ • Cultural Fire - Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations https://www.fvtoc.com.au/blog/2019/culturalfire • Murnong Festival - Friends of Edgars Creek, Friends of Merri Creek • Frances Bodkin - The Importance of Associations Between Australian Native Plant Species https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c67mOOqFRjU&feature=youtu.be • Waraburra Nura is an Indigenous medicinal plant garden located on level 6 of the UTS tower in NSW - https://waraburranura.com/ • Indigenous plant use: A booklet on the medical, nutritional and technical use of indigenous plants: https://nespurban.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Indigenous-plant-use.pdf • The Plants of Coranderrk: https://nespurban.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Coranderrk-Plant- Brochure-pdf-002.pdf • Plants of the Merri Merri Creek

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