Legal Disclaimer
“IF IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT OUT!”
*Always seek the advice of a local First Nations food forager or experienced wild food forager before consuming any wild food in Australia, be it fruit, berries, roots, corms, tubers, leaves, stems, flowers, nuts, seeds, legumes, seaweed or fungus.*
**Some Australian plants and animals are rare, threatened or endangered. I take no responsibility for fines incurred by the intentional or accidental harvest of such plants or animals, or fines incurred by harvesting in prohibited areas such as National Parks.**
Wild food foraging can be an occasionally risky hobby. Due care has been taken by me to ensure that important or common poisonous or toxic look-alikes are mentioned in the text of each article, and that relevant plant parts are supplied with ample, clear photography. I may not have included every possible poisonous or toxic look-alike for all the items listed on this site. By reading the material supplied on this site, you agree to utilise it with due diligence and care. I agree to keep this material as up-to-date as reasonably practicable, and to notify you of important changes, omissions or corrections to the text of any of the bush food articles listed on this substack.
By reading and utilising the material covered on the Bush Food Forager substack, including the Aussie Bush Tucker newsletter, Herbs & Weeds newsletter, the Wattleseed Project newsletter, and any further newsletters I choose to add in the future (e.g. Aussie Mushrooms), you, the reader, agree to hold me, Joshua P. Michael, the author, indemnified for all harm, real or perceived, as well as all damages, injuries or death that may occur by the misidentification of any of the listed food plants on this site with a poisonous or toxic look-alike.
By reading and utilising any of the materials on this site you further indemnify me of harms resulting from other dangers of the wild food foraging experience, such as, but by no means limited to, mosquito or tick bites and their diseases, snake bite, spider bite, soil- or air-borne chemicals or poisons (e.g. dioxins, heavy metals like lead, thallium and mercury), ionising or non-ionising radiation, crocodiles, sharks, jellyfish, dingoes or any other natural or artificial hazard present on the Australian continent, its states and territories, or its territorial waters.
International readers whose primary residence is outside of Australia agree to indemnify me for their use of this material to identify and harvest Australian plants which have naturalised themselves outside of Australia, or whilst on holiday, business or pleasure in Australia and its states, territories and territorial waters.
Unfortunately, neer-do-wells make such legal disclaimers necessary nowadays.
Happy bush food foraging!
JP.
Additional Resources and Further Reading
New South Wales
(NSW) Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 [LINK], especially Schedule 6 for threatened and protected plant species in NSW is important material; s.2.8(l), the hobby harvest defense, may also be pertinent.
Cut-flower [LINK], whole plant [LINK], as well as harvest, seed and grower licenses are available for some protected plants listed under Schedule 6. Plants not listed under Schedule 6 can be harvested without a license.
Western Australia
(WA) Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 [LINK].
Western Australia has the strictest wild plant laws in the country. Harvesting of all native WA plants (including plant parts like leaves, flowers and fruit) and fungi from WA Crown land is prohibited without a permit (s. 171); harvesting of native plants from private land also requires a permit and the landholder’s permission in writing (s. 171). Licenses are available, notably under Reg. 61 Flora taking (Other Purposes) [LINK], ranging in price from $30 to $90. Note that non-native plants growing in WA can be harvested without a license.
Victoria
(VIC) Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 [LINK - pdf download]
Protected flora collection permits are available [LINK].
South Australia
(SA) National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 [LINK - pdf download], esp. ss. 46-49A.
(SA) Native Vegetation Act 1991 [LINK - pdf download]
SA grants permits for bush food collection, costing $106 annually, available from here [LINK]. They also have helpful Plant Collection guidelines [LINK].
Queensland
(QLD) Nature Conservation Act 1992 [LINK]
(QLD) Nature Conservation (Plants) Regulation 2020 [LINK]
QLD has some of the easiest requirements to meet. They have only one harvest license class [LINK - docx download] and a very helpful Code of Conduct [LINK - pdf download] for protected wild plant harvest. If you plan to grow protected plants harvested from the wild, you will also need a growers license [LINK - docx download]. Note that unprotected plants do not require a license to harvest.
Tasmania
(TAS) Nature Conservation Act 2002 (TAS) [LINK]
(TAS) Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 [LINK]
Permits to collect protected species for commercial purposes are available [LINK]. There is little mention of non-commercial purposes.
Australian Capital Territory
(ACT) Nature Conservation Act 2014 [LINK]
Permits apply for collection of protected plants for commercial [LINK] and non-commercial [LINK] purposes; no fees payable for non-commercial permits.
Northern Territory
(NT) Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1976 [LINK]
All of the NT’s threatened plants are helpfully listed on a separate database [LINK]. Permits are required for scientific harvest of protected or threatened species [LINK]. Harvesting of all protected cycads in the NT requires a permit [LINK].
Other legislation, permits, licences and restrictions may apply to other Australian territories such as Lord Howe Island, Macquarie Island, Christmas Island and the Australian Antarctic Territory.