Aboriginal Dining Experiences that Elevate Native Produce

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities around Australia, the bush is a veritable supermarket – if you know where to look. There’s wattleseed that can be used to make damper, Kakadu plum to deliver a hit of vitamin C, finger lime for a citrusy zing, and saltbush to season and enhance flavours. But all too often, we walk right past this native bounty, unaware how it grows, in which part of the country it exists, and how it can be used to elevate a dining experience.  

Tali Wiru dining experience, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, Ayers Rock Resort, Northern Territory © Tourism Australia

That’s where Indigenous fine dining comes in, offering the chance to experience bush flavours in nuanced dishes and dreamy settings. Take Ayers Rock Resort’s Tali Wiru experience, where your open-air dining room comes backdropped by the natural drama of Uluru. Each dish in your four-course meal presents native produce in an innovative way. Think: pretty plates of pressed wallaby with fermented quandong; or roasted toothfish nestling beside coastal greens, desert oak and fermented muntries.   

Flames of the Forest dining experience, Port Douglas, Queensland © Tourism Australia

Meals are just as memorable at Flames of the Forest’s Aboriginal Cultural Experience, where chefs serve seasonal specialties that might include smoked crocodile rillettes with salsa verde, and lemon-myrtle-infused kangaroo loin on a bed of wild rocket and toasted macadamias. Your setting, however, shifts from the outback to the rainforest – you’ll think you’ve been transported to the pages of a fairytale while dining amid thousands of twinkling lights and candles amid the Wet Tropics of Queensland outside Port Douglas.

Mandingalbay Authentic Indigenous Tours, Cairns, Queensland © Tourism Australia

Nearby in Cairns/Gimuy, the Mandingalbay Authentic Indigenous Tours team host their Deadly After Dark – Sunset, Canapés and Culture experience under a canopy of ancient melaleuca trees. There’s a traditional welcome and inspired bites: green ant salmon gravlax with desert lime salsa, mud crab drizzled with lemon aspen mayo and perfectly seared Queensland scallops.  

Walkabout Cultural Adventures, Port Douglas, Queensland © Tourism Australia

Also in the region, Juan Walker from Walkabout Cultural Adventures is a master chef when it comes to preparing mud crab. On one of his tours, you’ll not only forage the mangroves of Cooya Beach hunting for crabs, but then get to devour them super-fresh and doused in chilli, beside the sand. It doesn’t get any tastier than that.  

Bushtucker Cruise, Saltwater Eco Tours, Mooloolaba, Queensland © Saltwater Eco Tours

Further south, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Indigenous owned and operated Saltwater Eco Tours offers several immersive – and tasty – sailing experiences hosted on the peaceful waterways of Mooloolaba. Sign up for the Bushtucker Cruise and over lunch, or as the sun sets, you’ll be served ocean-fresh prawns and oysters, the latter perhaps served with a macadamia and mango mornay. Then there are the kangaroo koftas with bush-tomato relish, and prawn skewers with lemon myrtle aioli.   

Smoked Kooyang Arancini Balls, Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Tourism, Victoria © Budj Bim Cultural Lanscape Tourism

Even further south in Victoria, Budj Bim Cultural Landscape’s Tae Rak Café offers a deep dive into the speciality of the ancient aquaculture site – kooyang (eel). You can try it smoked in arancini balls, or as part of a tasting plate with eel pate and other sides. Other dishes on the menu include kangaroo souvlaki, squid seasoned with bush salt and lemon myrtle cheesecake.  

In Western Australia, Wardandi Bibbulmun woman Dale Tilbrook is from the Margaret River region, but today hosts eye-opening bush tucker experiences at Mandoon Estate in the Swan Valley, outside Perth/Boorloo. Browse the Maalinup Gallery for Australian native herbs and spices and authentic Aboriginal Art, then discover all manner of native fruits, herbs and vegetables before Dale sits you down with a mug of tea infused with rosella flower or strawberry gum, perhaps. 

RECIPES 

Dale Tilbrook's lemon myrtle cake © Tourism Australia

Dale’s Lemon Myrtle Cake 

Courtesy of Dale Tilbrook Experiences  

Lemon Myrtle’s fresh tangy leaves may be used in teas, syrups, glazes, cakes, biscuits, dressings, sauces, ice creams, dips and meat dishes. Essential oil distilled from the leaves has a refreshing lemony scent, and has been found to have antifungal and antibacterial properties. Harvesting is simple. Just pluck fresh leaves as needed, removing no more than one-third of the plant at a time. 

Ingredients 

•  125g butter, chopped 

•  ¾ cup caster sugar 

•  1 tsp vanilla essence 

•  2 eggs 

•  2 cups self-rising flour, sifted 

•  2/3 cup milk 

• 1 tbsp lemon myrtle 

• powdered spice 

 Method 

• Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease a deep, 20cm round cake pan. Line base with baking paper. 

• Beat butter, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl using an electric mixer, until pale and creamy. 

• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping down sides of bowl.  

• Lightly fold flour into creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour. 

• Add lemon myrtle into cake mixture. Spoon mixture into prepared pan. 

• Bake for 40-45 mins, or until cooked. 

• To make the vanilla icing: Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add butter, water and vanilla. Add a little lemon myrtle. Beat well with a wooden spoon until a smooth spreadable consistency. Spread over cooled cake. 

Juan Walker's Mud Crab © Walkabout Cultural Adventures

Juan Walker’s Mud Crab  

Courtesy of Walkabout Cultural Adventures 

Ingredients 

• 1 mud crab (800g – 1kg)*

• 3 cloves garlic 

• 3 chillies 

• 30ml brown vinegar 

• 2 pinches salt

• 1 tbsp coconut oil 

• 1 tbsp butter  

• 1 lime 

Method 

• Finely dice garlic and chillies. Break crab into pieces (remove claws with hands, cut body up with a knife). 

• Heat coconut oil and butter in a wok. Add garlic and chillies, stir-fry until the garlic browns.  

• Pour in vinegar and add crab pieces. Keep turning the crab until it’s cooked through. 

• Add salt, toss, squeeze on lime and serve.  

 *Substitute with local crab if you can’t go out on Country with Juan to find Australian mud crab. 

Smoked Kooyang Arancini Balls, Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Tourism, Victoria © Budj Bim Cultural Lanscape Tourism

Smoked Eel (Kooyang) Arancini Balls 

Courtesy Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Tourism 

 Ingredients 

• Smoked eel

• 6 large white onions 

• 1 tsp garlic 

• 2 kg arborio rice 

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• Plain flour 

• Eggwash 

• Breadcrumbs   

• Olive oil   

Method 

• To make eel stock, skin and debone smoked eel 

• Roughly chop 3 large white onions 

• Fry for 2 minutes then add eel skin and bone 

• Cook for 3 or 4 minutes 

• Add water and bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 hour 

• Strain and cool. When cooled remove the top layer 

• To make arancini balls, dice 3 large onions. Cook for 2 minutes then add 1 teaspoon of garlic 

• Add 2 kilograms of arborio rice; season with salt and pepper 

• Stir for 3 or 4 minutes 

• Add 4 litres of boiling eel stock. Cook until rice is done 

• Pour out onto large gastronome tray and cool 

• When cold add in deboned smoked eel at a 60/40 ratio of rice to eel 

• Roll into 55gram balls 

• Roll in flour, eggwash and breadcrumbs 

• Fry until golden brown and serve