Our+Research


 * What is the relationship between Quondongs and Broken Hill? **

Quandongs were found growing in large numbers in Broken Hill, and were picked as native bush tucker by Aboriginals. After white people settled in Broken Hill, they followed the Aboriginals in using this plant's fruits as a source for medicine and food as well. A few people in Broken Hill nowadays sells pies and other quandong products to tourists and a few locals grown from trees in their backyard. It is not a dependent trade, however, and these people would only be selling in the times that the fruits are available, having a full time job elsewhere. In Broken Hill and even Australia as a whole, bush tucker is not really a main part of buying and selling. There is a particular group in Australia which is partially Government and Aboriginally owned, that farms and sells a few species of bush tucker.

Some people sells pies and other quandong products to tourists and sometimes locals from trees in their backyard. Is not really a main part of trade in Broken Hill or Australia as a whole. There is a mob part aboriginal/government owned that farms a bush things. Nobody farms all of the Australian bush tuckers. There is a reasonable demand in Broken Hill; mostly from tourists, and there is rarely much leftovers from the Quandong farm. Pretty easily, whatever is made and harvested is sold. A few locals buy quandongs as well. Sells to Orange, Dubbo, Adelaide markets. wild quandong plants are healthier and grow faster than planted quandongs. There is not a lot of people into bush tucker in Broken Hill anymore. People would struggle to live on growing and selling Bush Tucker in Australia as more people came into town, people didn't know what the quandongs were, and started to chop them down. old pioneers knew about the quandongs, and continue to use them, probably got them off the aboriginals, did not allow the quandongs to be cut down near where they lived. Theres a quandong tree near the plaza parking: lets go scouting!

Earlier in history, Quandongs were commonly eaten by the Aboriginals, were used as medicine for skin sores, and made into games for the children. The fruit was picked and eaten fresh or dried, by itself, or with other foods. Also, the seeds of quandongs were made into a medicine; a lotion or poultice for skin sores. Aboriginals have also used the hard seeds to play a game "bully on a string" as entertainment for the children. The seeds are attached to around a 20cm string. One player holds their piece on the dirt, and the other tries to hit it with their own piece, which they swing from the air.
 * How were Quondongs used earlier in history? **

Some locals and early settlers followed this practice and made use of the quandongs around the area as well. This tradition has been carried into the present century and skin products (and even shampoos) are made from the nut inside the seed of the quandong, which is 70% oil. Today, use of the quandongs are similar, although more advanced and hygienic than before, although people preserve the quandongs nowadays in addition to the traditional uses. The Aboriginal didn't make preserves or jams; they only dried the quandongs to eat later, or to reconstitute. as more people came into town, people didn't know what the quandongs were, and started to chop them down. old pioneers knew about the quandongs, and continue to use them, probably got them off the aboriginals, did not allow the quandongs to be cut down near where they lived. He just wanted to get some more space, and so started a quandong farm. The land had been on the market for some time, and the farmer though "why not?" so started a quandong farm in Broken Hill. Have been going for 4 years.
 * Who uses Quondongs as a cooking ingredient this present day? **

Only one farm in broken hill, nobody really farms bush tucker. Only a couple growing in the yard, only one quandong farm in Broken Hill.

Some people sells pies and other quandong products to tourists and sometimes locals from trees in their backyard. Is not really a main part of trade in Broken Hill or Australia as a whole. There is a mob part aboriginal/government owned that farms a bush things. Nobody farms all of the Australian bush tuckers. There is a reasonable demand in Broken Hill; mostly from tourists, and there is rarely much leftovers from the Quandong farm. Pretty easily, whatever is made and harvested is sold. A few locals buy quandongs as well. Sells to Orange, Dubbo, Adelaide markets. There is not a lot of people into bush tucker in Broken Hill anymore. People would struggle to live on growing and selling Bush Tucker in Australia. Nowadays, everybody is cooking with it, and it is more of a 'yuppie' food. Most people and tourists just want to try it as an eccentric food or ingredient in their dishes. People are starting to want to know and try bush tucker. People have started to get into bush foods, then began to forget about it. Can also be made into quandong wine.

From a quandong, you get 50 - 50 for fruit and seed. A 10L bucket = 4kg of quandongs = 2 near 1/2kg of fruit 1kg quandong = 9 jars of jams
 * Measurements **

wild quandong plants are healthier and grow faster than planted quandongs. bush tomatoes are also a bush tucker that is eaten in Broken Hill. They make tomato relish,
 * Did you know? **

Quandongs can be made into savoury or sweet dishes. These include sauces, relishes, chutneys, dried, caramelised, jam, fillings, pies, and ice-cream.

40 Jars of Quandong jam: 5kgs of quandongs minced, 5 litres of water, 3kg of sugar. Add pectin which is a little like gelatine. Can be found in lemon juice.
 * Quandong Jam **


 * What are we cooking? **

Damper with quandong jam Kangaroo sandwich with quandong chutney Water crackers with caramelised quandong. Quandong pie.

sturt pea, rosella, wild banana, river mint, bush tomato, bitter quandong, broken hill pea
 * Sub-focuses on other bush foods in Broken Hill: **

- Bush tomatoes are also a bush tucker that is eaten in Broken Hill. They make tomato relish.


 * THE QUANDONG MAN **

He just wanted to get some more space, and so started a quandong farm. The land had been on the market for some time, and the farmer though "why not?" so started a quandong farm in Broken Hill. Have been going for 4 years.

Only one farm in broken hill, nobody really farms bush tucker. Only a couple growing in the yard, only one quandong farm in Broken Hill.

Some people sells pies and other quandong products to tourists and sometimes locals from trees in their backyard. Is not really a main part of trade in Broken Hill or Australia as a whole. There is a mob part aboriginal/government owned that farms a bush things. Nobody farms all of the Australian bush tuckers. There is a reasonable demand in Broken Hill; mostly from tourists, and there is rarely much leftovers from the Quandong farm. Pretty easily, whatever is made and harvested is sold. A few locals buy quandongs as well. Sells to Orange, Dubbo, Adelaide markets.

There is not a lot of people in to bush tucker in Broken Hill anymore. People would struggle to live on growing and selling Bush Tucker in Australia.

Nowadays, everybody is cooking with it, and it is more of a 'yuppie' food. Most people and tourists just want to try it as an eccentric food or ingredient in their dishes. People are starting to want to know and try bush tucker. People have started to get into bush foods, then began to forget about it.


 * //We are planning on making a magazine based on the history of Quondongs in BrokenHill. This will include a recipe we have tested that centres around Quondongs as an ingredient. Some articles we are going to focus on is the//** __**//relationship between this berry and BrokenHill//**__**//, it's//** __**//history of usage//**__**//, and//** __**//modern use//**__**//. Also included will be a CD featuring a little clip of our exploration of BrokenHill and Australian native bush foods.//**

- __species__ - quandong farm - foods growing in and around Broken Hill - pepper trees in Broken Hill, why? - the __resources__ of bush tucker in Broken Hill - any __endemic__ - cultural background and __history__ of bush tucker - any special or specific __aspects__ of the bush tucker in Broken Hill - find out __further__ about the bush tucker
 * Explore**


 * Express** -


 * Exhibit** -

Rocky Ridge Nursing Home - who have a desperate hunger for bush tucker Broken HillSantalum Quandong Farm08 8087 7861

NOTES ON THE **QUANDONG** Plants of Western New South Wales, G.M. Cunningham, W.E. Mulham, P.L. Milthope, J.H. Leigh

Santalum acuminatum

Sweet quandong, native peach

Spindly shrub or shapely tree to about 5m tall, with somewhat drooping branchlets, the bark ligh-brown and slightly furrowed. Leaves opposite, short stalked, olive-green, lanceolate, 5-7 cm long, 4-10mm wide, tapering a curved point. Flowers whitish or cream, about 2mm long, in short panicles at the ends of the branchlets, each flower with 4 segments which remain attached to the ripe fruit. fruit fleshy, bright-red, globular, 2-3cm diameter, with a large deeply pitted stone. flowering spring-summer.

habitat: sands, sandy loams, gravelly ridges and occasionally on rocky hillsides, in numerous woodland communities.

distribution: widespread throughout the region, beaming infrequent in the north-west.

a relatively common species, occurring as scattered individuals or in small groups containing numerous plants. when in dense woodlands with other trees and shrubs, quandong is often found with a small spreading crown and a spindly erect trunk; in more open situations the tree is shapely, with a wide, densely-leaved canopy. although quite edible when ripe, the flesh of the rut is rather tart; it is often stewed with added sugar and makes very acceptable pies, jellies and jams. The fruits were a useful source of food for aborigines and early settlers and the stones were used as marbles in games such as chinese checkers; they are also made up into necklaces and ornaments. the kernel is also edible when dry, with a high content of vitamin C, 25 percent crude protein and 70percent oil. Apart from the usefulness of its fruits, quandong makes an attractive ornamental and shade tree; its foliage also has some value as a fodder. it is parasitic on the roots of other plants, at least during its early life.

ray in the library, recommended quandong trees silverton; marlene - quandong seeds, preservatives, pies, ice cream

as more people came into town, people didn't know what the quandongs were, and started to chop them down. old pioneers knew about the quandongs, and continue to use them, probably got them off the aboriginals, did not allow the quandongs to be cut down near where they lived.

Theres a quandong tree near the plaza parking: lets go scouting!

http://fennerschool-associated.anu.edu.au/fpt/nwfp/quandong/Quandong.html Info in quandongs

__**"facts on other plants" section?**__ http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/education/Resources/bush_foods/talking_about_plants

Aboriginal people have many uses for eucalypts. The fragrant oil-bearing leaves of eucalypts are used to relieve colds, headaches, backaches and fevers. Seeds, bark from young roots, nectar, galls, wild honey, water and manna from certain species of eucalypts can be eaten. Gum from eucalypts can be applied directly to sores and abrasions or boiled in water and used as a wash. The wood is used to make tools and other implements such as dishes and bowls. Eucalypt bark is used to make shelters and canoes; it can also be fashioned into fishing liens, fish nets and baskets. All along the riverbanks, of course, you’ll come across numerous river gums where the footprints of our people are left behind in the removal of the bark for various weapons such as the shield. As well, they’d take off the bark for their huts to make them weatherproof and they’d also use the sheets of bark to bury the dead in. They’d wrap them in the bark and take them to the closes sand dune for burial. So the bark was very important to the Aboriginal people.
 * **Eucalypts**

Beryl Carmichael Widespread in inland Australia, the Coolibah (Eucalyptus coolibah) is one of a number of eucalypts containing quantities of water in their roots. Shallow roots are located and dug up, cut into pieces and up-ended into a bol to drain. The Coolibah is known as gulabaa to Gamilaroi people and as kumparla to Paakantyi people. ||

Around some of the dry mulga you’ll find the wild banana creeper. The root of the wild banana, of course, was eater and we call it the karkooloo, and the wild banana is called the thupa. The fruit is dark green to a grey-green colour and you peel the skin off it and you’ll find a cluster of seeds down the bottom, covered with fine silky hair, similar to cotton. You can eat the whole banana, cook it in ashes and eat it whole, or you can just peel it and eat the seeds off it. It’s really rich in vitamins, so it will be a bit bitter until you acquire the taste for it. So whenever you find some mulga you’ll also find not far away the wild bananas growing on the dead mulga trees. When we were kids you’d just eat them off the tree or we’d gather enough and take them home and cook them in the ashes - they were much better then, they were similar to avocado inside, as well as the tip of the asparagus spears. None grew on the mission, but they grew within 30 km of Menindee, the town and the mission. And the most I’ve ever found is around Broken Hill here, in the hills, It’s the ideal place here for them. ||
 * **Wild Banana**

http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2010/09/10/3008129.htm spring 2010 - **sturt desert pea** They are the bright red jewels in the crown of the far west - and they have not been seen in such number in Broken Hill for decades. The sheer number and scope of Sturt Desert Pea's currently inundating the Silver City has many long-time locals struggling to recall a time when they have been more prevalent.

Bushywhite Museum An Aboriginal tribe where camped in the desert.
 * The Legend of the Sturt Desert Pea

A young Aboriginal woman watched as her man went out hunting.

She waited for his return but he was gone a long time.

The rest of the tribe decided they would move camp, the young woman refused to go stating she would wait for her man to return. They would then follow and rejoin the tribe.

As the tribe left they turned and could see in the distance, the young woman dressed in a red cloak, still sitting patiently waiting for her man.

Neither the young woman, nor her man were ever seen again.

However the next year as the tribe wandered, they came again on the campsite where they had left the young woman, and found exactly where they had left her a beautiful red flower with a black boss in her place.

The Sturt's Desert Pea ||

__**Bush tomato**__
 * River mint**
 * Yabbies and fish**

age game, balloon without hands, balloon no hands race, tins and tennis
 * GAMES FOR FRIDAY?**

When we visited Silverton, Ms Cordaro found out that the little pink 'berries' growing on many of the trees around Broken Hill and Mulberry Vale were actually peppercorns. We've spotted a few of these droopy trees around the cabins and were just wondering what they were. We learnt that they were the peppercorn trees that we have heard grew all around Broken Hill and were part of the Aboriginal diet.
 * Day in Silverton**

=**PADDY MELON**= A teacher found this green melon about To commence our research we decided to cut open the green melon to see it's components inside. As seen in the size of two fists in our camping area. the picture above brown seeds about the size of average watermelon seeds are in the fruit and the melon itself has We did some further research to discover a slight green complexion. The smell offered a bitter scent not too pleasing for our noses. With the melon as our what it exactly was and what are some of primary source we started to search up information. We discovered that this melon was called a "Paddy Melon". it purposes. The paddy melon was not a friendly fruit to humans and livestock as it causes diarrhoea, vomiting and poisons humans.

**QUANDONG FARM**
After we finalised our question we headed off to the Quandong farm (the teacher squeezed it in their tight schedule) which was the only Quandong farm in Broken Hill. The farmer kindly gave us a tour of the farm showing the trees where the Quandong's grew and the state of when they were unripened. Later he brought us in the shop where he sold jam, relishes, dried fruit, sauces and pies. He offered us some taste tests and we were extremely pleased with the taste. We also found out that the seed inside the Quandong was used as a game called "Bully on a string" where the seed was attached to a string whilst the player threw it on the floor until it cracked. He also told us that the seed was 70% oil that was beneficial for skin products and medicine. The farmer told us that the germination process depends on the weather. For a quick growth of the fruit, it would need to be hot and dry. The Quandong tree could only grow approximately 15cm in a year. When the fruit itself fully ripened it would be the size of a golf ball.

=Research from the Library: Friday March 23rd= The paddy melon (Cucumis Myriocarpus) is a herb native to tropical and southern Africa. The paddy melon grows in cleared or bare areas and thrives on summer humidity and moisture. The fruit is toxic as there is the presence of cucurbitacin. In the past the paddy melon has been associated with stock deaths as the fruit is toxic to horses, sheep, cattle and pigs. Humans have used the paddy melon as an emetic (a medicine that causes vomiting) and shows records of poison in humans from the melon.

The melon is a weed in Australia and California where it may be referred as prickly paddy melon, bitter apple, gooseberry gourd and gooseberry cucumber. The paddy melon has an unpleasant odor when broken. This off putting scent makes it less appetising to live stock so when poisoning does occur it only happens when little food is avaliable.

RESOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_melon

The quandong (Santalum acuminatum) is edible when ripe but gives a sour, tart flavour. In the past it was used as a useful source of food for Aboriginals and early settlers. It was used a medicine, ointment and food. Seeds were also used as chinese checkers. The quandong was also made into necklaces and ornaments.

RESOURCE: //Plants of Western New South Wales- G.M. Cunningham, W.E. Mulham, P.L. Milthrope, J.H. Leigh.//

REFLECTION: Today Jo and I went to the library, we looked at different sources the librarian supplied us with, and discovered some interesting facts. After viewing the sources given to us, we went down to another level to look for cookbooks