Indigenous History of Wadawurrung and Victorian Country, Lore and Cultural Sciences
Indigenous History and Natural Science

Botany

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Plants as Food, Medicine, and Law

For tens of thousands of years, Indigenous peoples of Victoria and across Australia have sustained one of the world’s most sophisticated botanical knowledge systems. Plants were more than food or medicine; they were embedded in law, ceremony, kinship, and identity, with every leaf, root, and seed tied to Country and Ancestors (Rose 1996; Broome 2005). Long before colonisation, communities managed ecosystems with cultural (cool) burning, seed harvesting, and aquaculture, cultivating landscapes Europeans later misread as “wilderness” (Gammage 2011; Bowman 2020).

Botany in Victorian Indigenous Communities

Murnong / Yam Daisy (Microseris walteri)

  • Staple carbohydrate across south-eastern Australia.

  • Harvested with digging sticks; crowns left in situ to regenerate, ensuring ongoing yields (Gott 1983; Zola & Gott 1992).

  • Post-contact sheep grazing devastated yam fields, causing famine (Presland 1994; Broome 2005).

Eucalyptus (gum trees)

  • Leaves and bark used in smoking ceremonies and healing; barks shaped into canoes, shields, shelters; kino/sap and leaf infusions applied to coughs, fevers, and wounds (Isaacs 1987; RBGV 2023).

  • Specific species linked with totems and story-law (Clarke 2007).

Native Grasses (e.g., Kangaroo Grass Themeda triandra)

  • Seeds collected, ground, and baked into breads; fields actively maintained with cool burning to favour seed production and open country for game (Gammage 2011; Pascoe 2014; Clarke 2007).

Acacia (wattles)

  • Protein-rich seeds roasted and milled; gums eaten or used as binders; bark/leaf decoctions for gastrointestinal and skin conditions; seasonal flowering used as ecological indicators (Isaacs 1987; Clarke 2007; RBGV 2023).

Native Fruits and Nuts

  • Quandong (Santalum acuminatum), Cherry Ballart (Exocarpos cupressiformis), and others eaten fresh/dried and used medicinally; plant products moved on exchange routes across south-eastern Australia (Isaacs 1987; Clarke 2007; Presland 1994).

Wadawurrung Plant Knowledge and Practices

Wadawurrung Country spans Geelong, Ballarat, the Bellarine Peninsula, and the Moorabool–Barwon systems.

Staple foods

  • Murnong: vast managed yam grounds on volcanic plains; women’s cooperative harvesting left crowns for regrowth (Presland 1994; Zola & Gott 1992).

  • Bulbine lily (Bulbine bulbosa): tubers roasted/baked (Clarke 2007).

  • Cumbungi (Typha spp.): rhizomes roasted; pith eaten; leaves for weaving (Isaacs 1987; RBGV 2023).

Medicine plants

  • Cherry Ballart smoke for cleansing/healing; Eucalypts and Leptospermum/Melaleuca infusions for respiratory and skin complaints; Acacia bark washes as antiseptic (Isaacs 1987; Clarke 2007; RBGV 2023).

Fire and plant management

  • Cultural burning maintained grasslands for kangaroo forage, stimulated yam growth, and refreshed shoots for wallaby/emu browse; wetland edge burns improved access to cumbungi and reed resources (Gammage 2011; Bowman 2020; Wadawurrung TOAC 2022).

Plants in ceremony and law

  • Smoking ceremonies using eucalypt/cherry ballart at welcomes, initiations, and funerals; flowering cues (e.g., wattles) signalled eel runs in the Barwon; yam-daisy flowering timed harvests (Clarke 2007; RBGV 2023; Wadawurrung TOAC 2022).

Ecological Management of Plants

  • Cultural burning: low-intensity, patch-mosaic regimes promoted grasses, yams, and forbs and reduced extreme bushfire risk (Gammage 2011; Bowman 2020).

  • Seasonal calendars: phenological signs (flowering, animal behaviour, star positions) guided harvest and ceremony (Clarke 2007; Hamacher 2012).

  • Totemic responsibility: families held custodianship for particular plant places/species, embedding sustainability in law (Rose 1996; Clarke 2007).

Impacts of Colonisation

  • Rapid loss of access to yam grounds, grasslands, and wetlands; mission regimes discouraged traditional harvesting and substituted rations (Presland 1994; Broome 2005).

  • Introduced stock and plough agriculture collapsed murnong systems and grass-seed economies (Gammage 2011; Bowman 2020).

  • Colonial science frequently extracted plant knowledge without crediting Indigenous expertise (Clarke 2011).

Contemporary Revitalisation

  • Cultural burning programs led by Traditional Owners restore native grasses and yam ecologies (Wadawurrung TOAC 2022; CFA/RBGV partnerships 2023).

  • Language revival re-normalises plant names and uses (VACL 2014).

  • Education & on-Country practice: yam-daisy replanting, weaving, and bush-medicine workshops; science agencies increasingly partner with Elders for biodiversity and climate adaptation (RBGV 2023; Clarke 2007).

Global Analogies

  • North America: camas and prairie-turnip tending parallels yam-daisy stewardship (Turner 2014).

  • Africa: totemic protection of sacred groves aligns with species/place custodianship (Mbiti 1969).

  • Polynesia: yam/taro cultivation embedded in ceremony echoes Victorian yam traditions (Kirch 2017).

Conclusion

Indigenous botany in Victoria is a science of sustainability embedded in law and ceremony. For the Wadawurrung, plants such as murnong, cherry ballart, and reeds are inseparable from food, medicine, and story. Although colonisation devastated these systems, revival through cultural burning, language and practice is restoring ecological health and cultural strength (Wadawurrung TOAC 2022; RBGV 2023).

References

  • Bowman, D.M.J.S. (2020) Australian Fire Regimes: A Historical and Contemporary Overview. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing.

  • Broome, R. (2005) Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

  • Clarke, P.A. (2007) Aboriginal People and Their Plants. Sydney: Rosenberg Publishing.

  • Clarke, P.A. (2011) Australian Indigenous Plant Use and the Work of 19th-Century Botanists. Kenthurst: Rosenberg.

  • Gammage, B. (2011) The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

  • Gott, B. (1983) ‘Murnong—Microseris spp.: A staple food of Victorian Indigenous people’, Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2, 2–18.

  • Hamacher, D.W. (2012) ‘On Aboriginal Astronomy in Victoria’, Journal of Astronomical History & Heritage, 15, 121–134.

  • Isaacs, J. (1987) Bush Food: Aboriginal Food and Herbal Medicine. Sydney: Weldons.

  • Kirch, P.V. (2017) On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands. 2nd edn. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • Mbiti, J.S. (1969) African Religions and Philosophy. London: Heinemann.

  • Presland, G. (1994) Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People. Melbourne: Harriland Press.

  • Rose, D.B. (1996) Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission.

  • Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV) (2023) Plant Use by First Peoples of South-Eastern Australia. Melbourne: RBGV.

  • Turner, N.J. (2014) Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

  • VACL (Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages) & Creative Victoria (2014) Nyernila: Listen Continuously—Creation Stories of Victoria. Melbourne.

  • Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (2022) Caring for Wadawurrung Country: Culture, Fire and Plants. Geelong: WTOAC.

  • Zola, N. & Gott, B. (1992) Koorie Plants, Koorie People: Traditional Aboriginal Food, Fibre and Healing Plants of Victoria. Melbourne: Koorie Heritage Trust.