Seaweed

Seaweed and the First Peoples of Victoria, Australia

Seaweed has long been an important resource for Indigenous peoples along Victoria’s southern coastline. Far more than food, it served as a source of medicine, technology, ceremony, and environmental care. Along the rugged coasts of Wadawurrung, Gunditjmara, and Bunurong Country, seaweed use demonstrates deep ecological knowledge, material science, and sustainable marine harvesting.
Colonisation disrupted these coastal traditions, but seaweed remains vital to both cultural renewal and ecological understanding today.

Country Context: Wadawurrung and Coastal Nations

The coastlines of Wadawurrung Country (stretching from the Bellarine Peninsula to Aireys Inlet) and the Gunditjmara coast (Port Fairy to Portland) contain some of the richest kelp forests in southeastern Australia.
These regions form part of the Kulin Nations’ broader coastal connection, where tidal zones, reefs, and seaweed beds were known, named, and managed through oral law and seasonal calendars. Indigenous knowledge systems tracked tidal cycles, ocean currents, and lunar phases, connecting them to fishing, shell gathering, and seaweed collection.
This knowledge extended from the physical science of observation — knowing when tides would turn or kelp would loosen — to the spiritual understanding that these living marine systems were part of Country’s breath.

Nutritional and Dietary Use

Seaweed was a supplementary but important part of coastal diets. Bull kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), Neptune’s necklace (Hormosira banksii), and other local species provided essential minerals, salts, iodine, and vitamins (Gott 1983). Some seaweeds were eaten fresh from the tide; others were dried for later use, functioning as a natural salt source in lean seasons.
Along Bass Strait and western Victoria, seaweed complemented rich marine diets of shellfish, fish, seals, and seabirds — illustrating an advanced understanding of nutritional diversity and mineral balance. The biophysics of seaweed drying — the sun’s infrared heat evaporating seawater while preserving nutrients — reflects an intuitive grasp of energy transfer and preservation long before refrigeration.

Seaweed in Toolmaking and Engineering

Bull kelp was a remarkable natural engineering material. When fresh, it is pliable and elastic; when dried, it becomes tough and waterproof. Indigenous communities exploited this transformation by crafting kelp water carriers, food vessels, and storage bags (Jones 1992).
Sections of kelp were cut, shaped, and tied with rushes or fibre string to create portable containers that could expand when wet and contract when dry, sealing their contents.
Some were used to transport freshwater, fish oil, and live shellfish inland — a feat of organic material science utilising the cell structure and tensile strength of kelp fronds.
These technologies highlight both cultural creativity and a physics-based understanding of hydration, elasticity, and containment.

Medicinal and Practical Uses

Seaweed had medicinal, hygienic, and domestic applications:

• Medicinal: Certain species were boiled to create poultices for wounds or skin irritations. Others were used in steam pits or infusions for stomach ailments (Clarke 2011).

• Cooking: Seaweed was layered in earth ovens to retain heat and moisture, steaming fish and shellfish evenly — an example of thermal insulation and heat diffusion in traditional cooking science.

• Insulation: Dried seaweed lined shelters as bedding and thermal padding, harnessing its natural air-pocket structure to trap warmth — comparable to modern thermal insulation (Isaacs 1987).

• Material Innovation: Seaweed ash, rich in potassium salts, was occasionally mixed with clay or pigment for paint binding and ceremonial markings.

Ecological Knowledge and Sustainable Harvesting

Indigenous harvesting practices reflected marine ecological precision:

• Seaweed was collected according to tides and seasons, ensuring regeneration.

• Only living, fresh fronds were gathered — never decaying beach-cast weed — to maintain ecosystem balance (Clarke 2011).

• Seaweed beds were recognised as habitats for fish, shellfish, and crabs, crucial to marine food webs.
  This reflected a sophisticated understanding of ecological interdependence and photosynthetic cycles — how seaweeds convert sunlight into oxygen, filter nutrients, and stabilise coastal systems.
  Knowledge was transmitted through story, observation, and ceremony, embedding oceanic science in cultural life.

Impact of Colonisation

Colonisation disrupted these seaweed-based systems and technologies in multiple ways:

• Displacement: Indigenous peoples were removed from coastal Country, losing access to kelp forests, tidal zones, and fisheries.

• Industrial Harvesting: Commercial kelp collection and fishing industries damaged natural habitats.

• Material Replacement: European tools, medicines, and bedding displaced traditional marine materials.

• Knowledge Suppression: The suppression of ceremony and women’s ecological roles limited the transmission of intertidal knowledge (AIATSIS 2000).

By the late nineteenth century, seaweed use in traditional contexts had declined, yet oral histories and museum artefacts — particularly kelp water carriers — preserved fragments of this knowledge.

Revival and Continuity

Today, Indigenous communities and environmental scientists are collaborating to revive traditional seaweed practices:

• Cultural Renewal: Reconstructed bull kelp containers are displayed and demonstrated in cultural centres, connecting younger generations with ancestral innovation (Jones 1992; Museums Victoria 2023).

• Marine Conservation: Indigenous knowledge is informing kelp restoration programs along the Great Southern Reef, aligning with modern marine biology in recognising kelp’s role in carbon absorption, biodiversity, and coastal protection.

• Cultural Education: Schools and universities now include kelp ecology and Indigenous marine technology in curriculum modules, merging cultural heritage with marine physics and sustainability.

Seaweed’s resilience mirrors that of the people who continue to care for it — living symbols of adaptation and balance.

Scientific and Cultural Insights

Seaweed exemplifies the intersection of Indigenous science and natural physics:

• The buoyancy of kelp reflects gas-filled bladders that reduce density, an observation used by coastal peoples to judge tides and currents.

• The strength and flexibility of kelp tissue arises from alginates — compounds now used industrially but long utilised naturally by Indigenous engineers.

• The photosynthetic process of seaweed contributes to oxygen exchange and nutrient cycling, echoing traditional understandings of the ocean as a living lung.

Such traditional ecological knowledge, encoded through observation and story, anticipates many principles of marine biology, material science, and thermodynamics recognised by modern research.

Conclusion

For Indigenous peoples of Victoria, seaweed was — and remains — a vital expression of ingenuity, ecological care, and cultural continuity.
It provided food, medicine, technology, and connection to the living sea. Bull kelp vessels, medicinal baths, and kelp-lined ovens testify to a deep understanding of material properties, physics, and sustainability long before industrial science.
Though colonisation disrupted these practices, their revival demonstrates resilience and the enduring bond between people, ocean, and Country — where knowledge of the tides remains as timeless as the sea itself.

Reference List

AIATSIS (2000) Settlement: A History of Australian Indigenous Housing and Culture, AIATSIS, Canberra.
Clarke, PA 2011, Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century, Rosenberg Publishing, Kenthurst.
Gott, B 1983, ‘Murnong — Microseris scapigera: A Study of a Staple Food of Victorian Aborigines’, Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1983(2), pp. 2–18.
Isaacs, J 1987, Bush Food: Aboriginal Food and Herbal Medicine, Weldons, Sydney.
Jones, P 1992, Australia’s First Peoples, HarperCollins, Sydney.
Museums Victoria 2023, Indigenous Marine Knowledge and Seaweed Use, Museums Victoria, Melbourne.

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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Copyright MLA – 2025

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.