Witchetty Grub

The reason why we kicked this Australian bush tucker guide with mention of Witchetty grub is that it is the poster child of sorts of bush tucker cuisine. It is either roasted over coals or eaten raw. The nutty taste probably stems from the fact that the grub eats a mainly plant-based diet. However, as it turns out, Witchetty grub is rich in folate, calcium, niacin, and protein.

Green Ants

High in protein, fats Green Ants, are a popular choice amongst Australian bushmen. The slightly lemony tinge is an acquired taste. Most Australian bushmen will also eat the ant’s white larvae. Interestingly, the green ants and their larvae are also turned into a drink, which is said to relieve headaches.

Other Insects Eaten by Bushmen

Apart from the above Australian bushmen eat other insects like river red gum grub, tar vine caterpillars, cicadas, etc. The benefit of edible insects is that they are rich in protein. For instance, a caterpillar has around 280g of protein for every kilogram of weight. Now that’s around 20g more than salmon, and they (caterpillars) don’t taste that bad either.

Vegetables and Fruits

While many Australian bush tucker guides will focus a lot on insects, since they are what represent this cuisine, what many people don’t know is that bushmen also consume a lot of vegetables and fruits.

No bush tucker diet is complete without servings of quandong either dried or fresh, also turned into jams. Kakadu plums are another staple and contain over 100 times the amounts of Vitamin C as compared to oranges.

Other fruits that are part of the bush tucker diet are native gooseberries, kutjera, lady apple, wild passionfruit, snowberry, Davidson’s plum, and desert lime.

Vegetables like bush potatoes, warrigal greens, yams, and sea celery comprise a major portion of the bush tucker diet. These vegetables are rich in dietary fiber, iron, Vitamin C, and A along with proteins.

Seeds and Nuts

Australian bush tucker food has generous helpings of seeds like wattle seeds, ad mulga seeds. These require some soaking, before being pounded down and baked. It is a ritual that’s been used for thousands of years to remove all the toxins from the seeds, making them safe for consumption.

Pigweed plant seeds and cycad palm seeds are often turned into cakes and bread. The bunya nut, on the other hand, is eaten either raw, or it is cooked on hot coals. It is also turned into a paste and generally fed to kids.

Australian bush tucker food has stood the test of time for over 60,000 years. It signifies the symbiotic relationship between man and nature. It is, after all, about living off the land.

The competition is available to all Australian residents who are 18 years old or over.

To enter the Down-Under competition you need to visit the competition website and complete the entry form. You can read all of the information requirements at whatsupdownunder.com.au

The competition begins on the 11th of April 2020 and will conclude on the 31 December, 2020. The prizes will be drawn at random based on the entrants into the competition.

Whats up Downunder Competition Prizes

This years competition has a major prize and 10 minor prizes. The Downunder major prize is a MY20 Xtreme Utility Bunk Combo Toy Hauler and a Yamaha Generator EF2200iS 2.2 kVA generator.

The minor prizes are are a prize pack which includes a RAM Pack Marine sports bag, aurora camping lantern, pack of playing cards, beach towel, and cap.

Down Under Competition period

The What’s Up Downunder Generate Your Adventure Competition 2020 runs from 11 April, 2020 until 31 December, 2020 at 11:59 PM AEDST.

Winners and competition results

The draw will be made on 4 January, 2021. Winners will be notified by email or phone by Whats Up Downunder.

Who is Whats Up Downunder?

Whats Up Downunder is an Australian outdoor travel tv show on free to air television. The Down Under team show viewers everything you need to know about camping and caravanning in the Australian outdoors so you can get out and experience our beautiful scenery and Australian wildlife.

You can check out Whats Up Downunder on their website or by watching the show on Channel 10.

Eucalyptus Nicholii – Narrow-leafed Peppermint

A popular and most attractive ornamental eucalypt from the New England area of NSW that is grown extensively throughout Australia and overseas. The small thin grey-green foliage and the pendulous branches can make for a most handsome tree growing to around 20m high in good conditions. Nicholii is suited to most soil types including poor soils, adapts to most climates and is frost tolerant down to around -7°C. White flowers are seen in Autumn and the bark is a fibrous grey-brown. It’s one of the most popular and best known of Australia’s Eucalypts and has been grown as a garden specimen for decades. It’s also a good shade tree.

Melaleuca lateritia – Robin Redbreast Bush

This Melaleuca has orange-red bottlebrush like flowers seen in summer and at other times of the year. The flowers grow to around 8cm long. It’s a shrub to about 1.5 metres high and 1 metre wide that responds well to a light trim promoting bushiness. Melaleuca lateritia is a hardy plant in most soils and climates appreciating full sun and accepting of mild frosts. It originates in Western Australia but adapts well in Eastern Australia. It’s an attractive plant that will attract birds to the garden. We have found that it likes wet soil too.

Hakea Salicifolia – Willow Leaf Hakea

This is a fast growing shrub with white flowers along the stems in spring. Its a bushy shrub, ideal for screening reaching about 5 metres high. Leaves grow to about 12cm long and new growth has a pleasant rose colouring. Hakea salicifolia is a very hardy plant in most soils preferring full sun and accepting of part shade. Its native to NSW and Queensland but is easily grown all around Australia.   

Philotheca myoporoides – Long-Leaf Wax Flower ( Syn Eriostemon myoporoides)

A wonderful small shrub with pink buds and white star flowers in winter or spring. Usually forms a rounded shrub of variable height and width from 1 to 2 metres suitable for informal hedges or low screens. This is a very hardy plant in reasonably well-drained soil thriving in full-sun but also accepting of some shade. Its tolerant of frost down to around zero degrees Celsius and suitable for coastal areas as well. The flowers and foliage are suitable for use in vases and floral arrangements.

Grevillea Flora Mason

This wonderful Grevillea produces masses of flowers coloured lemon, apricot and soft pink from late Autumn to Mid-Spring. It has fine pleasant foliage and grows to around 2 metres high and wide. It accepts a range of climates and soils including frost to -7oC, alkaline conditions, full sun and part shade, coastal sites, clay and sand. Flora Mason is a bushy shrub that can be trimmed to shape. The name comes from the late Flora Mason who was a very keen native plant grower and collector from South Australia.  

Melaeuca nesophila – Showy Honey Nyrtle

This would have to be one of the nicest Melaleucas. The contrast and combination of the pinkish/purple flower heads, the deep green shiny foliage and the light coloured almost smooth paper-bark makes this an excellent plant for the garden. The beautiful flowers are borne terminally and are about 3cm in diameter. We’ve found that it grows very well near the coast and also well inland where we are. Nesophila performs well in both wet and well drained soils reaching around 3 to 4 metres high and 3m wide. It’s a suitably attractive shrub to use as a feature in the garden and is also a useful screening plant that grows quickly. It’s salt tolerant and frost resistant down to around -7oC. It originates in Western Australia adapting well in most areas including the tropics.

Kunzea baxteri – Scarlet Kunzea

This great Australian shrub has brilliant red, oval bottlebrush type flowers with gold tips that occur in spring and summer that are extremely attractive. The flowers and fruits are very popular with birds and especially parrots. The leaves are small, soft, fine and an attractive bright green which enhance the beauty of the plant. It’s an open spreading plant which will grow to around 3 metres tall and wide in good conditions and is one of the most floriferous of the Kunzea genus. It has proved very popular with gardeners over the years and is quite easy to grow. Originating in Western Australia, this is a hardy shrub that grows well in most areas preferring well-drained soil and full sun or some shade. It may take several years to flower but in that time will grow into a generous sized plant. Regular pruning will promote flowering and help to retain a desirable shape. It’s frost tolerant down to around -7oC. We have grown them here at Branxton with little effort and great results.

Here’s out suggestions on some native plants which will fit well into your garden:

Leptospermum flavescens ‘Cardwell’

This is a small Tea Tree to around 1.5 metres high and wide that produces masses of white blooms in Spring. Its a very showy floral display so can be used as a feature plant or an informal hedge. It tends to have a rounded shape and appreciates free-draining soil and full sun or part shade. Its tolerant of light frosts and is suitable for coastal or inland areas. Mass plantings can look quite impressive.

Leptospermum polygalifolium – Tantoon – Yellow Tea-tree

A wide spread and popular garden shrub occurring naturally along a large area of Eastern Australia from southern NSW to far North Queensland. Tantoon is a variable shrub from 1 to 3 metres wide and 3 to 4 metres high. It’s a fast growing shrub ideal for screening. The light green leaves are small to around 8mm long and slightly aromatic. The white flowers grow to 2cm in diameter and often borne profusely in spring and summer. It’s suitable for most soils requiring water during dry periods and suited to a wide range of climates including tropical and cool zones. Polygalifolium often forms a rounded shrub with coppery coloured new growth and the flowers are suitable for floral displays.

Alpinia coerulea – Native Ginger

The Native Ginger produces wonderful white flowers in terminal influences throughout the year followed by attractive blue rounded fruits. Both the fruit and the young tips have a distinct ginger flavour and were eaten by indigenous people. This is a good plant for shaded areas and indoor use forming a clump and has large glossy leaves rising on fleshy stems to around 1.5 metres high. This plant prefers warm regions and ample water in dry times. This is a very useful plant in landscaping, for around pools and for use in pots and containers. It’s a very hardy plant when given some water, shade and protection from wind and extreme conditions.

Eucalyptus Cinerea- Argyle Apple

This is a popular small tree with distinctive silvery-blue foliage providing a striking contrast in gardens. It often only grows to about 7 or 8 metres high, but can reach 15 metres or more in ideal conditions. It’s ideal for small yards or for use as a street tree. Florists often use the juvenile foliage for arrangements as the stem clasping leaves are quite stunning in colour and form. Cinerea is found naturally in cold areas of NSW and Victoria around Bathurst and Beechworth and is therefore suited to cold climates and dislikes saline soils. It often has a low branching habit and rough, brown, fibrous bark. This is a hardy tree in most areas requiring some moisture and is suitable for clay soils.

Correa Alba – White Correa

This is a small shrub to about 1 metre high and slightly wider. It has very attractive white star flowers ith a hint of pink in the centre to around 3cm wide, produced predominately through winter and spring but are sometimes seen at other times of the year. The leaves are blue green with a furry texture and are round in shape. The white Correa flowers best in full sun but will also tolerate shade. It prefers well drained soil, is salt tolerant and therefore ideal for coastal areas and is resistant to light frosts. This is a hardy plant with attractive flowers suitable for the vase. 

Backhousia Citriodora – Lemon Ironwood – Lemon Myrtle

This is one of those plants that’s a pleasure to have in the garden with its wonderful pungent lemon fragrance. The fluffy white flowers occur through summer and autumn and emit a delightful lemon perfume in the evenings. The leaves are also highly fragrant when crushed and are used commercially to extract the lemon flavour. The leaves contain high amounts of citral and can be used to flavour a wide variety of foods such as soups, desserts, breads, fish recipes and teas. It’s a small tree or shrub growing to between 3 and 8 metres high and useful for screening or as a street tree. Originating in Queensland, the Lemon Myrtle prefers a rich soil with ample water and will perform well in most areas with minimal frosts. The shiny foliage and fine white flowers make this a wonderful tree to use as a feature with the added benefit of lemon fragrance through your garden.  

Crinum Pedunculatum – Swamp Lily

The Swamp Lily is a striking plant that produces large fragrant white spider flowers to 10cm across in summer and autumn. It’s a hardy perennial accepting of wet soils, part-shade or full sun with large strap-like fleshy green leaves to up to 2 metres long. It enjoys a moist position and coastal areas accruing naturally from Newcastle NSW in the south into Queensland and is also found in New Guinea and on Pacific Islands. This is a large plant that can be 2 metres wide and high or rarely more and has a striking appearance making it ideal for use as a feature plant. It’s tolerant of salt winds and looks well around pools and dams. It can be used in containers and grows well under trees.

Correa reflexa – Native Fuchsia

This is a small shrub to 1 metre or so high and wide but often smaller. It produces beautiful red bell flowers with green tips in winter and has attractive small rounded leaves. It likes well-drained soil and part shade of full sun and occurs naturally in all eastern states as well as South Australia and Tasmania. It will tolerate light frost as well as coastal sites and the pleasant flowers can be used in floral arrangements. Correa reflexa is a fast growing and reliable garden plant that will also grow very nicely in containers.

The Willie Wagtails plumage is a contrasting design with black upperparts and white underbelly, with both the male and female varieties having a similar design.

Willy Wag Tail vs Willie Wagtail?

The Willie Wagtail is often spelled incorrectly as “Willy Wag Tail”. The correct spelling is Willie Wagtail or its binomial name of “Rhipidura Leucophrys”. Due to the common interchangeability of the names however you will see this misspelling used often in informal or news publications.

Where can Willie Wagtails be found?

The Willie Wagtail is found across mainland Australia, except for a small section of Western Australia’s north-west. They are also not present at all currently on Tasmania.

The Willie Wagtail prefers open space environments, from woodlands, plains, wetlands and metropolitan areas. They have very little if any presence in dense forests such as plantation forests or rainforests due to the reduced ability to sight their food (insects) and increased chances of predation.

Generally solitary or in mating pairs, you will sometimes see the Willy Wagtail in flocks during winter months.

Willie Wagtails Diet

Willie Wagtails are insectivorous living off a diet of insects found from foraging on the ground. Their name comes from this foraging activity where they can be seen walking with their tail wagging side to side.

It’s common for the Willie Wagtail to form symbiotic relationships with farm animals, especially cattle where they can be seen perched on their backs. Cattle and their dung will often attract insects which the Wagtails will then be able to eat, which in turn reduces the amount of insects and pests which can cause distress to cattle.

How do Willie Wagtails live?

Willie Wagtails are nesting birds, weaving tightly woven grass nests which they rest on horizontal branches in treetops. These nests are intricate and designed to survive multiple seasons, with internal soft layers of hair, fur and even covered in spiders webs if available to help strengthen the nest. Willie Wagtails will repair their nests and if they degrade beyond repair, will rebuild their nests recycling the old materials to build the new nest.

Willie Wagtails lay speckled eggs, with a primary cream colour with grey/brown speckles. The birds are raised until the next season of eggs hatching at which point they will be forced out of the nest by the parents. A season for raising chicks can be as little as three months, or as long as nine months depending on the weather and food availability.

Willie Wagtails mate for life and both parents will assist in the raising of their young.

Protective of their territory, Wagtails will defend their territory from other birds and swoop potential predators. Willie Wagtails are well adapted to living around humans and will rarely see them as a threat. It isn’t uncommon to have scenarios where a Willie Wagtails will follow you while you walk around!

Willie Wagtail night call                     

The Willie Wagtail has a distinct night call which can be a nuisance if they take up residence near your bedroom in a nearby tree. The night call will often be heard during moonlit nights and during the August to February breeding season. The purpose of the Wagtails night call is to sound out its territory warding off competing Wagtails. Willie Wagtails will normally do their night call away from their nest but in the general area, this is thought to be done to avoid alerting predators to where their young are located.

If you’re suffering from the nuisance of a persistent Willie Wagtail night call there is limited solutions as it’s a common recurring pattern that all Wagtails do. Even if their nest were moved (and we highly recommend against this), as soon as the space is available a new Wagtail will take up residence in the now vacated space. The best thing to do is either look into sound mitigating options like double glazing windows or moving where you sleep.

As tail wagging is known to result in the emergence of insects and the effect is not related to air currents, it is suggested that this flushing occurs as a result of the changes in the light intensity experienced by the insects i.e. the insect responds to a shadow.

This study found that the birds wag their tails more often under conditions of low light. It is suggested that insects may be less easily startled by the shadow of a bird under low light intensities i.e. there is less contrast, so that wagging the tail more frequently will result in a constant intake rate. And this seems to be the result as Wagtails peck at a relatively constant rate throughout the day.

As well as the flightless arthropods which may or may not respond to these foraging tactics, Wagtails also eat flying insects but insect activity, particularly flight, varies with both time of day (temperature) and light intensity. During the middle of the day, insects are at their most active and the rate of aerial prey captures is also highest. It is during this period also that wing flashing occurs more frequently than tail wagging which is used more at the start and end of the day.

Hence, patterns of foraging behaviour correspond with patterns of insect activity.

Characteristics

General

• largest of the surviving carnivorous marsupials

Distribution

• Tasmania; also existed on the Australian mainland before the arrival of the dingo – bones have been found in Victoria and in Arnhem Land

Habitat

• dry eucalypt forests and woodlands of Tasmania; also seen around the suburbs

Appearance

• thickset, heavy, and powerful; massive head relative to the body size, powerful jaws and strong teeth for crunching bones
• males 9kg (20lbs), 65cm (25in) head and body length; tail about 25cm (10in)
• females are smaller but similar in appearance

Voice

• uses vocal repertoire to signal level of displeasure ranging from champing of the jaws to indicate mild aggression through a range of growls culminating in yells that end in a blood-curdling scream with widely-gaping jaws close to the rival

Disposition

• somewhat belligerent, wary
• fight and squabble among themselves; often older animals are scarred from these encounters

Lifestyle

• nocturnal, spend the day in a hollow log, cave, burrow
• a home range of 10-20 ha but not territorial; home ranges usually overlap
• can climb trees
• mortality rates: little loss of pouch young; high juvenile mortality
  live for about 6 years

Senses

• acute sense of smell

Locomotion

• run on all 4 legs with elevated tail; awkward slow lope not exceeding 13km/hr

Feeding

• generally hunt alone; can travel 8km (5mile) a night
• mainly scavenge carcasses – beached fishes, cows etc; large carcasses may attract up to 6 devils
• carnivorous taking possums, wallabies, wombats; young sometimes take sleeping birds; will eat any material of animal origin

Reproduction

• mate in March (autumn)
• gestation period of 3-4 weeks
• marsupials => female has a backward-opening pouch; usually produce litters of up to 4
• female carries the young in the pouch for about 15 weeks when they are left in a grass-lined den; they are fully furred by this time; lactation continues for another 15 weeks
• young start leaving the den in November and by February they are weaned and independent
• males disperse from their natal home range
• females can breed at around 2 years

References – books

• Australia’s Amazing Wildlife, 1985. Bay Books, Kensington NSW.
• Encyclopedia of Australian Wildlife, Readers Digest Australia Pty Ltd, 1997. Readers Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd, Surrey Hills.
• Complete Book Of Australian Mammals, R Strahan (ed), 1983. Angus & Robertson Publishers, London.
• Wildlife Conservation. HJ Frith. 1979. Angus & Robertson Publishers, London.

Distribution

• a few small areas in South Australia mainly on the Nullabor Plain
• used to be occur from the Murray River in South Australia across to south-east Western Australia

Burrows

• a network of extensive tunnels with up to 20 entrances shared by a number (10) wombats developed over generations of wombats
• any wombat may use a number of different burrows
• one of the largest animals to construct burrows; can excavate up to 2m of tunnel a night

Competition

• suffers in competition for food and burrowing areas with rabbits and with farmers and graziers

Appearance

• sturdy body, flattened head and rump, short powerful legs with broad paws
• pouch faces backwards so young don’t get a face full of dirt when mother is digging
• teeth have no roots; they keep growing and are continually worn down by eating
• very strong; if pursued into a burrow by a dog or fox, a wombat will lift its rump and crush the attacker’s skull against the roof of the burrow

Lifestyle

• territorial but home ranges may overlap
• solitary – don’t form social groups
• share burrows, rubbing posts, feeding areas
• spend the day in the burrow except on overcast days or during cold winters – this helps to conserve water and energy
• spend two-thirds of their lives asleep in the burrow
• can run 40km/hr over short distances
• live up to 25 years

Senses

• alert to slightest sound or unusual scent

Status

• common but restricted distribution
• often considered a pest by farmers due to their destruction of fences designed to keep out kangaroos, rabbits, and dingoes/wild dogs

Feeding

• grazing animals eating grasses
• cover 1-4 km per night over a 5-20 ha plot

Reproduction

• births occur September to December after a gestation period of 30 days
• young leave the pouch at 10 months of age but stay with the mother for several months after leaving the pouch at least until weaned at 12 months
• sexually mature by 2-3 years

References – books

• Australia’s Amazing Wildlife, 1985. Bay Books, Kensington NSW.
• Australian Geographic Wildlife Special Edition, Australian Geographic, Terrey Hills.
• Complete Book Of Australian Mammals, R Strahan (ed), 1983. Angus & Robertson Publishers, London.
• Encyclopedia of Australian Wildlife, Reader’s Digest Australia Pty Ltd, 1997. Reader’s Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd, Surrey Hills.
• Wildlife Conservation, HJ Frith, 1979. Angus & Robertson, London.

Bobtail Lizards

Shingleback lizards are also often known informally as bobtail lizards because of their bobtail. The bobtail serves the lizard as a fat storage which can be used during times of low food availability. Bobtails can also be known by other names such as stumpy tails, boggi and pinecone lizards.

Characteristics

Appearance

• tongue is dark blue
  broad blunt tail similar in shape to head covered with raised scales length 34 cms (13 in)

Distribution

• arid regions of southern Australia but not on coast
  wide range of habitats

Habits

• diurnal shelters under fallen timber, leaf litter, and grasses when not active

Diet

• mainly herbivorous – favour flowers, berries, succulent leaves also eats spiders, insects, snails, carrion

Reproduction

• breed in spring; same pairs form each year
  produce 1-4 but usually 2 live young

References – books

• Australia’s Amazing Wildlife, 1985. Bay Books, Kensington NSW.
• Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, HG Cogger, 1996. Reed Books, Melbourne
• Encyclopedia of Australian Wildlife, Readers Digest Australia Pty Ltd, 1997. Readers Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd, Surrey Hills.
• Wildlife Conservation, HJ Frith, 1979. Angus & Robertson, London.

Perentie’s will generally grow up to 2 metres in length making them one of the largest predators in the areas they inhabit. Recent research has found that Perentie’s are venomous, which in combination with their extreme sprinting speed make them a highly effective carnivore in their local ecosystem.

Perenties feed primarily on other small reptiles, mammals and birds which nest on the ground. If found Perenties are also known to eat entire nests of sea turtle and bird eggs.

Taxonomy

TAXONOMY

Characteristics

Appearance

• up to 2.5m (8 ft) in length; fourth largest lizard in the world

Distribution

• occurs in desert regions from western Queensland to coastal WA;
  rocky outcrops, shelter in large burrows

Habits

• ground dweller but will climb a tree if disturbed;forages widely

Prey

• insects, birds, other reptiles, mammals, carrion; track by sight or by sensing prey with their tongue; forage actively and also ‘sit and wait’ for larger prey like rabbits

Reproduction

• lay eggs

References – Books

• Australia’s Amazing Wildlife, 1985. Bay Books, Kensington NSW.
• Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, HG Cogger, 1996. Reed Books, Melbourne
• Encyclopedia of Australian Wildlife, Reader’s Digest Australia Pty Ltd, 1997. Reader’s Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd, Surrey Hills.
• Wildlife Conservation, HJ Frith, 1979. Angus & Robertson, London.