CYCAD - Macrozamia macdonnellii    From The Macdonnell Range, Central Australia      October, 2002 Field Trip

Cycad

Cycad/Finke Gorge
Australia

Cycad/Finke Gorge
Australia

Another beautiful Cycad, an ancient
left-over from a more tropical time is this desert canyon. Central Australia.

Cycad/Finke Gorge

Cycad/Finke Gorge

Cycad with view of Finke Gorge

Cycads are found throughout the Australian landscape.  Various species of these ancient looking plants have been used by the Aboriginal people and early settlers as an important food source.  The nuts of the various species of Cycads are the source of food. The Cycads, like many Australian plants have an interesting relationship with fire in which more nuts are produced with periodic burning.  Fire was often the Aboriginal way of encouraging better plant growth in the following years. In fact, it is probably correct to say that the Aboriginal people of Australia were the first people in the world to use fire to enhance plant growth. It was (and is) the finest tool of the "hunter and gatherer cultures"     

The nuts of most of the Cycad species are highly toxic in their unprocessed state. Almost every group of early explorers in Australia suffered the effects of poisoning from eating the delicious looking nuts of the Cycads.   This highly important food source needs to be processed to render the nuts less poisonous. The Aboriginal people have developed the processing and cooking technology necessary to render the seeds of Cycads edible. The method of removing the poison varies throughout the country, but generally involves pounding the nut kernels, soaking them for a long period in still or running water, then mashing the fermented nuts into a paste that is made into a bread (damper) and cooked in the ashes.

Australian bush fire. A constant force of change and life giving renewal.

Australian bush fire near Uluru (Ayers Rock)

For 40,000 years the Aboriginal people have used fire as a form of permaculture.

After this landscape recovers from this fire it will become richer in both plant and animal life. The Australia we know today is a direct result of thousands of years of controlled burning by the Aboriginal people.