When compared to the other continents, Australia is relatively flat. Even our much smaller island neighbour across the ditch, New Zealand, has more significant alpine regions (especially their south island) than the sunburnt continent. Australia’s most significant mountain range runs the length of its eastern coast, the Great Dividing Range, so called as it divides the highly populated and well-watered eastern coastal region from the mostly dry, flat foehn plains of the interior. The tallest of the mountains of the Great Dividing Range occur in southern New South Wales, near the border with Victoria. Our continental zenith is the 2,228 metre (7,310 ft) Mt. Kosciuszko (or Kunama Namadji in the local Ngarigo language, although this name is disputed by the various tribes who frequented the region), so named by explorer Pawel Strzelecki in 1840 supposedly because its pinnacle slopes reminded him of the Kosciuszko Mound in Kraków.
The Australian Alps have a long and rich bush food history. Prior to European settlement, the mountains were a beacon for aboriginal alpine ceremony, especially targangil, feasting on the summer-hibernating bogong moths (Agrotis infusa). As the bogongs are now an endangered species in decline, they were of no interest in this foraging journey. The alpine region is, fortunately, home to an interesting variety of plant-based bush tucker. Native tribes believed that alpine plants had special spiritual qualities, thus were eagerly sought out during spring and summer after the melt, harvested and returned to camps at lower elevations primarily for use as medicines. A variety of common edible European weeds now populate the mountains in the spring, adding to the existing bounty, as did the introduction of brown and rainbow trout to the regional tributaries and lakes.
In addition to the edible forage mentioned above are many plants with appreciable medicinal qualities. Here are some of the more important ones discovered on this trek:
Last but not least, the reams of alpine flower pron. I gave up trying to identify them! I really need some specialist books on Australia’s wildflowers! Some of the plants are common introduced weeds but their flowers are pretty nonetheless.
Not photographed on this trip were various edible alpine heaths (for example, Leucopogon suaveolens and Astroloma humifusum) or alpine celery (Aciphylla glacialis), all items of top alpine tucker still eagerly sought out by the First Nations people attending ceremonial duties in their traditional alpine lands today. I searched for but still did not find the elusive alpine yam daisy (Microseris lanceolata), once a major staple tuber but now mostly annihilated by rabbits, cattle and sheep, as are many of the other tuberous lilies and ground orchids that were once a key component of the native diet. Mountain plum pine (Podocarpus lawrencei) also occurs across the Australian Alps, but there is some caution as to the edibility of its swollen arils and I did not find any on this particular journey in any case.
I also did not partake of any fly fishing for introduced European brown and rainbow trout which can be caught in the pristine tributaries of the Snowy River. The primary traditional sources of protein are kangaroo, wallaby, possum and various lizards, mostly hunted in the montane areas rather than the sub-alpine or alpine parts of the Snowy Mountains. Nowadays feral rabbits are a dime a dozen; their burrows litter the hills and valleys right up to the alpine zone, especially in summer. Who cares about the snow and skiing, anyway! All the food appears in summer and that’s what Bush Food Forager is all about!
I shall close with a few choice snaps of Jillabenan Cave, one of the show caves at Yarrangobilly. It is worth the visit if you ever plan a trip up to Australia’s Snowy Mountains, even though there isn’t much to eat in a limestone cave. But there is a thermal springwater pool which is a very fun swim, even in winter!
I will be undertaking far fewer expeditions this year (all my annual leave is slated for October-November only), so hopefully I will have some time over the coming months to churn out more detailed content on individual bush tucker items not yet part of my slowly growing archive. And I’ve found some doozies so far in 2024!
As always, thanks for reading the Bush Food Forager and accompanying me in this hobby of mine.
Amazing botanical tour in the Australian Alps. Lots of familiar and some very different plant species. That grevillea looks like it's from outer space !
As always, you have inspired me to look more closely at the plants I see every day, and too often dismiss as 'weeds'.
Amazing botanical tour in the Australian Alps. Lots of familiar and some very different plant species. That grevillea looks like it's from outer space !