Murnong - Yan Daisy

Murnong, Yam Daisy Country: History, Ecology, and Culture of Microseris in Victoria

The yam daisy, known in many south-eastern languages as murnong, was once the most important staple food for Indigenous peoples of Victoria. Its sweet, tuberous roots were harvested by women using digging sticks, forming the foundation of a highly developed food system. Through selective replanting, cultural burning, and soil aeration, Indigenous communities engineered productive grasslands long before European agriculture.
By the 1830s, sheep grazing devastated these yam fields within just a few years, leading to ecological collapse and food insecurity. Yet today, murnong is returning to Country through cultural revival projects, community-led research, and ecological restoration, symbolising both renewal and the strength of Indigenous agricultural knowledge.

The Plant: Understanding Microseris

The term “yam daisy” refers to several closely related species in the genus Microseris. The most important food plant in Victoria is Microseris walteri, a perennial species producing large, sweet tubers. It thrived across the volcanic plains of Wadawurrung, Wurundjeri, Dja Dja Wurrung, and Taungurung Country, where its cultivation sustained communities for countless generations.
Other related species include M. lanceolata, which grows in subalpine regions with smaller, fibrous roots, and M. scapigera, found mainly in Tasmania and New South Wales. Recent botanical studies confirm that M. walteri is the true lowland food plant historically cultivated in Kulin Nations Country (Smith & Walsh 2018).

Ecology and Distribution

Before colonisation, yam daisies flourished across Victoria’s grassy woodlands, open plains, and volcanic soils. They preferred fertile basaltic and alluvial soils, particularly around the Moorabool and Barwon river systems, the Werribee Plains, and the Bellarine Peninsula. Their life cycle was attuned to seasonal rhythms — sprouting after winter rains, flowering through spring, and retreating underground in summer.
As a keystone species, yam daisies contributed to soil stability, water retention, and biodiversity. Their roots encouraged aeration and microbial activity, enriching the ecosystem. The presence of thriving yam fields indicated healthy, balanced Country — a landscape maintained through fire, harvest, and ceremony.

Cultivation and Harvest

Across Victoria, Indigenous women cultivated yam fields through careful and sustainable practice. Using wooden digging sticks, they loosened the soil and harvested mature tubers, replanting the crowns to regenerate future crops. This method of replanting while harvesting ensured continual renewal.
Cultural burning further maintained open grasslands, promoting seed germination and controlling weeds. These practices were observed by early settlers, who described “vast fields of murnong” stretching to the horizon (Presland 1994; Gott 2015). The result was a form of Indigenous agriculture — an ecologically sophisticated system based on reciprocity, where people cared for the plants that in turn cared for them.

Murnong Across Country: Wadawurrung, Victorian, and Australian Examples

Wadawurrung Country

On Wadawurrung Country, murnong was abundant across the volcanic plains between Geelong, Ballarat, and the You Yangs. Oral histories and early colonial accounts describe women gathering yam daisies in the fertile lands around the Moorabool and Leigh rivers, baking them in earth ovens near seasonal waterholes. These gatherings were both sustenance and ceremony — reinforcing kinship networks and connection to Country.
Contemporary Wadawurrung projects — supported by the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and Geelong Botanic Gardens — are now replanting M. walteri across reserves and educational sites. These gardens teach that the volcanic plains were once living farms, not wilderness.

Other Victorian Communities

Beyond Wadawurrung Country, yam daisies were central to many communities across Victoria:

• Wurundjeri people cultivated murnong across the Yarra and Plenty river valleys, where women’s yam grounds were interwoven with seasonal eel harvesting (Presland 1994).

• Dja Dja Wurrung Country around Castlemaine and Daylesford was renowned for its rich yam pastures, often maintained through patch-burning and replanting.

• Gunditjmara peoples incorporated yam daisy harvests alongside their eel aquaculture systems at Budj Bim — an integrated agricultural landscape now recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

• Gunaikurnai Country in Gippsland supported yam fields in open forest glades and swampy meadows, where murnong grew alongside other edible root plants such as Burchardia umbellata (milkmaids).

Other Regions of Australia

The practice of harvesting and managing root crops extended far beyond Victoria.
In New South Wales, Wiradjuri and Ngunawal peoples gathered yam daisies and other edible roots like Dichopogon fimbriatus (nodding chocolate lily). In Tasmania, Palawa women harvested M. scapigera and bracken rhizomes, baking them in earth ovens near coastal camps. In South Australia, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri peoples used native lilies and bulrush tubers as starchy staples, often combined with shellfish and fish harvests.
These examples reveal a continental network of Indigenous food systems, where regional knowledge adapted to local soils, climates, and species — all rooted in shared principles of care, observation, and renewal.

Uses and Cultural Significance

The tubers of Microseris walteri were eaten raw, roasted, or baked in coals. When cooked, they became soft, sweet, and aromatic — similar to parsnip or yam. The murnong was not only food but also a symbol of abundance, reciprocity, and femininity, as women were its primary cultivators and custodians.
Harvest seasons aligned with ceremonies, trade gatherings, and transitions between Kulin seasonal periods. Murnong harvests also represented social exchange — communities traded roasted tubers, fibre bags, and stone tools across great distances, embedding the plant in both economic and ceremonial networks.

Impact of Colonisation

The arrival of British settlers in the 1830s rapidly destroyed murnong landscapes. Sheep and cattle uprooted and consumed tubers faster than they could regrow, while their hooves compacted the soil, preventing regeneration. Within a decade, entire yam plains were eradicated.
This ecological loss led to hunger, displacement, and breakdown of traditional life. Early colonists recorded Indigenous women weeping as they found their yam grounds trampled by sheep. The disappearance of murnong stands as one of the earliest documented examples of ecological collapse caused by colonisation in Victoria.

Revival and Restoration

Today, murnong is being re-established through Indigenous-led ecological and cultural revival. Across Wadawurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wurundjeri, and Gunditjmara Country, communities cultivate yam daisies in educational gardens, native nurseries, and cultural landscapes.
Scientists from Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Museums Victoria, and local universities are working with Traditional Owners to clarify species differences and restore Microseris walteri to its ecological niche (Smith & Walsh 2018). These projects demonstrate a new model of partnership between Indigenous knowledge and Western science — one that prioritises cultural authority and environmental regeneration.
Murnong’s revival is not just about food: it is a living act of healing, reconnecting land, knowledge, and identity.

Conclusion

The story of the yam daisy — from abundance to destruction to renewal — captures the essence of Victoria’s deep cultural ecology. It proves that Indigenous agriculture was both ancient and advanced, grounded in sustainable management of soil, fire, and water. On Wadawurrung and Kulin Nations Country, the return of murnong represents a rebalancing of knowledge systems — where ecology, history, and culture grow together once more.
In its golden flowers and buried sweetness, murnong continues to teach the principles of care, reciprocity, and belonging to Country.

Reference List

Gott, B 2015, ‘Aboriginal use of plants in south-eastern Australia’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 127, no. 2, pp. 64–73.
Smith, M & Walsh, N 2018, ‘Reassessment of Microseris in south-eastern Australia: three species not one’, Muelleria, vol. 37, pp. 31–50.
Pascoe, B 2014, Dark Emu: Black Seeds – Agriculture or Accident?, Magabala Books, Broome.
Presland, G 1994, Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People, McPhee Gribble, Melbourne.
Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council 2020, Traditional Foods and Murnong Projects, State of Victoria.

Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 October 2025)

MLA

Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land, and community.
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples’ communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of their respective communities.