Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...

by crushing seeds into a

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavenin ...

that is then baked. The bread is high in

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

and

carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or m ...

, and forms part of a balanced traditional

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

. It is also sometimes referred to as damper, although

damper A damper is a device that deadens, restrains, or depresses. It may refer to: Music * Damper pedal, a device that mutes musical tones, particularly in stringed instruments * A mute for various brass instruments Structure * Damper (flow), a mechan ...

is more commonly used to describe the bread made by non-

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

people. With the arrival of Europeans and pre-

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

ed white flour, this bread-making process has almost disappeared (although women were still recorded to be making seedcakes in Central Australia in the 1970s). The tradition of cooking bread in hot coals continues today. Bread-making was a woman's task. It was generally carried out by several women at once, due to its labour-intensive nature. It involved collecting seasonal grains, legumes,

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...

s or nuts, and preparing these into flour and then

, or directly into a dough. One of the traditional ingredients was the seeds of

kangaroo grass } ''Themeda triandra'' is a species of perennial tussock-forming grass widespread in Africa, Australia, Asia and the Pacific. In Australia it is commonly known as kangaroo grass and in East Africa and South Africa it is known as red grass and re ...

Bread-making from seeds

Collecting the seed

Seeds varied depending on the time of year and the area in Australia that the people lived. In Central Australia, native millet (''Panicum decompositum''; ''Panicum australianse'') and spinifex (''Triodia'') were commonly used.

Wattleseed Wattleseeds are the edible seeds from any of 120 species of Australian '' Acacia'' that were traditionally used as food by Aboriginal Australians, and eaten either green (and cooked) or dried (and milled to a flour) to make a type of bush bread ...

could also be used in the flour mix. Women harvested the fully ripe, dry seeds of the plant by beating the grass (or pod-laden trees in the case of wattleseed) with sticks to dislodge the seeds. Some species were eaten at the green stage and, when ground, would produce a juice at the side of the millstone, which was drunk directly. Some seeds (such as the seed of acacia) need to be heated, hulled and then ground dry, while others (such as those of grasses) can be ground with water. In the

Kimberley region of Western Australia The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, an ...

, women observed that, after the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

, many seeds would be gathered around the opening of

harvester ant Harvester ant, also known as harvesting ant, is a common name for any of the species or genera of ants that collect seeds (called seed predation), or mushrooms as in the case of '' Euprenolepis procera'', which are stored in the nest in commu ...

s' nests. The ants had effectively collected and husked the seed for them, and they were able to collect this seed, making the women's job much easier. After allowing the grain to dry, the women could begin to prepare the flour.

Other seeds used

Pigwig (''

Portulaca oleracea ''Portulaca oleracea'' (common purslane, also known as little hogweed, or pursley) is an annual (actually tropical perennial in USDA growing zones 10–11) succulent in the family Portulacaceae. Description The plant may reach in height. It ...

''), prickly wattle (''

Acacia victoriae ''Acacia victoriae'', commonly known as gundabluie or bardi bush, is a shrub-like tree native to Australia. Subspecies: ''A. victoriae'' subsp. ''arida'' Pedley Distribution and ecology Found in arid and semi-arid areas, the ''Acacia victoria ...

''), mulga ('' Acacia aneura''), dead finish seed ('' Acacia tetragonophylla''), and bush bean (''

Rhyncharrhena linearis ''Rhyncharrhena'' is a genus of plants in the Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller. It contains only one known species, ''Rhyncharrhena linearis'', native to Australia Australia, officially the Commonw ...

'') are also occasionally used in the making of bush bread.

Making the flour

After the grain was collected, it needed to be winnowed, which was done using the coolamon, the multi-purpose carrying vessel. Sometimes it needed to be winnowed several times. Once the grain was winnowed, it was ground using a millstone, to create flour. Millstones have been discovered which have proven to be as old as 50,000 years. The flour was then mixed with water to make a dough and placed in hot ashes for baking. The results could be small buns, today referred to as johnny cakes, or a large loaf, known today as

. Damper appears to be a mix of this traditional style of bread-making and European-style bread-making. The dough could also be eaten raw. Cooking was a good way to prepare the bread if the group was about to travel for some time.

Bread-making from other plant products

Bread could also be made from roots and

corm A corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (perennation). The word ' ...

s of plants. In the

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...

of Australia, people such as the Yolngu used the

lotus root ''Nelumbo nucifera'', also known as sacred lotus, Laxmi lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often re ...

and wild

taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Afri ...

. These were ground, then mixed to a paste to make bread. Water lily seed bread was also common in the Top End. The two species of water lily used were ''Nelumbo nucifera'' and ''Nymphaea macrosperma''. During the early part of the dry season, water lilies were an important part of the diet, with seed pods eaten raw or ground into paste. Women had expert knowledge of how to detoxify certain plant foods. The

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s of the

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male o ...

palm, ''Cycas media'', are highly

carcinogenic A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive subs ...

when raw, and require elaborate treatment including shelling, crushing, leaching in running water for up to five days, then cooking. After this they are made into small loaves, which can keep for a number of weeks. In

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, the people of the Mount Tamborine area used the

bunya pine ''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine and sometimes referred to as the false monkey puzzle tree, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the plant family Araucariaceae. It is found naturally in south-east Queensland Aust ...

cone (

bunya nut ''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine and sometimes referred to as the false monkey puzzle tree, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the plant family Araucariaceae. It is found naturally in south-east Queensland Austral ...

), endemic to the area, to make bread in this way.

Burke and Wills

Ill-fated explorers

Burke Burke is an Anglo-Norman Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (–1206) had the surname ''de Burgh'' which was gaelicised ...

and

Wills Wills may refer to: * Will (law) A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the pr ...

survived on bush bread for some time after they ran out of rations due to the death of their camels. The Yandruwandha people at

Cooper Creek The Cooper Creek (formerly Cooper's Creek) is a river in the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia. It was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its t ...

gave them fish, beans called ''padlu'', and bread made from the ground sporocarps of the ''ngardu'' ( nardoo) plant ('' Marsilea drummondii''). There is some evidence that the nardoo contributed to their deaths. Wills' last journal entry includes the following: :''..starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move oneself, for as far as appetite is concerned, it gives me the greatest satisfaction. Certainly, fat and sugar would be more to one's taste, in fact, those seem to me to be the great stand by for one in this extraordinary continent; not that I mean to depreciate the farinacious food, but the want of sugar and fat in all substances obtainable here is so great that they become almost valueless to us as articles of food, without the addition of something else..'' It is possible that the explorers, in preparing the bread themselves, were not preparing it in the traditional way of the Aboriginal people, which may have involved soaking seeds prior to grinding in order to remove the

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

thiaminase Thiaminase is an enzyme that metabolizes or breaks down thiamine into two molecular parts. It is an antinutrient when consumed. The old name was "aneurinase". There are two types: * Thiamine pyridinylase, Thiaminase I (, ) * Aminopyrimidine am ...

, which depletes the body of vitamin B₁. It is therefore believed that the deaths of Burke and Wills resulted in part from the

vitamin deficiency Vitamin deficiency is the condition of a long-term lack of a vitamin. When caused by not enough vitamin intake it is classified as a ''primary deficiency'', whereas when due to an underlying disorder such as malabsorption it is called a ''seconda ...

disease

beri-beri Thiamine deficiency is a medical condition of low levels of thiamine (Vitamin B1). A severe and chronic form is known as beriberi. The two main types in adults are wet beriberi and dry beriberi. Wet beriberi affects the cardiovascular system, r ...

. However, other research suggests that

scurvy Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Early symptoms of deficiency include weakness, feeling tired and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and bleeding ...

(

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) ...

deficiency) and environmental factors also contributed to their deaths.

References

* Peterson, Nicholas, '' Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land'', Melbourne University Press , pp168–9.

External links

Bush Bread artworkGrass seed artworkAustralian History
{{Indigenous Australians Australian Aboriginal bushcraft Bushfood Australian breads Australian cuisine