Utensils: Native Australian

Find out which special utensils you’ll need on hand during cooking.

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Paperbark

The bark of the melaleuca species can be wrapped around meat or fish before cooking to create a smoky flavour. Traditionally these parcels were buried underground with coals to cook.


Bark troughs

Used to boil water on the open fire (large seas shells were also used for this job). The bark troughs were also employed to help separate seeds from other rubbish that may have been gathered with them (dirt and bark etc). Seeds were tossed into the air and then caught again in the trough. The lighter rubbish would blow away in the wind as the heavier seeds fell back into the trough. Heavier rubbish was later separated from the seeds by swaying the trough in a rocking motion.


Dilly bag

Made from bark and often decorated with feathers, dilly bags were used to help collect and transport bush foods. They were also sometimes strung in a steam under running water (with the foods inside) to help rid the foods of poisons and bitter tastes.


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