34-723: Dajarra is a rural town and a locality in the Shire of Cloncurry , Queensland , Australia. In the 2021 census , the locality of Dajarra had a population of 186 people. Dajarra is in North West Queensland near the border with the Northern Territory . It is about 150 kilometres (93 mi) south of Mount Isa on the Diamantina Developmental Road (also known as the Boulia Mount Isa Highway). The town
68-511: A railhead for the cattle industry, the railway giving connection to the ports and markets of the east coast of Australia. Dajarra Post Office opened on 7 November 1919 (a receiving office had been open from 1917). The older people of the area who remember Dajarra's heyday say that the area trucked more cattle than Texas in the United States . Cattle drovers on horseback would bring cattle from as far away as Western Australia to put them on
102-529: A TV series called The Bush Tucker Man on the ABC TV network in the late 1980s. In the series, Hiddins demonstrated his research for NORFORCE in identifying foods which might sustain or augment army forces in the northern Australian Outback . Starting in 2002, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! became notorious for its "Bushtucker Trials", some of which involved eating meat-based bush tucker (such as mealworms, locusts and kangaroo testicles) to win meals for
136-580: A larger city. The Australian usage is closer to the American or British use of "district" or "neighbourhood", and can be used to refer to any portion of a city. Unlike the use in British or American English, this term can include inner-city, outer-metropolitan and industrial areas. Localities existed in the past as informal units, but in 1996 the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping and
170-500: A population of 429 people. In the 2016 census , the locality of Dajarra had a population of 191 people; 60.3% of the population are Indigenous. In the 2021 census , the locality of Dajarra had a population of 186 people. Dajarra State School is a government primary (Early Childhood-6) school for boys and girls at Matheson Street ( 21°41′41″S 139°30′44″E / 21.6946°S 139.5122°E / -21.6946; 139.5122 ( Dajarra State School ) ). In 2017,
204-417: Is "eatable," it is not "fit to eat". In 1889, botanist Joseph Maiden reiterated this sentiment with the comment on native food plants being "nothing to boast of as eatables." The first monograph to be published on the flora of Australia reported the lack of edible plants on the first page, where it presented Billardiera scandens as, "... almost the only wild eatable fruit of the country". Apart from
238-729: Is close to the intersection of the Diamantina Developmental Road with the Duchess Dajarra Road, which is part of the Cloncurry-Dajarra Road . The town takes its name from the Dajarra railway station assigned by the Queensland Railways Department on 21 June 1916, and is reportedly an Aboriginal word referring to an isolated mountain nearby. It was formerly known as Carbine Creek. The railway station
272-521: Is one of several terms describing native Australian food, evolving from the older-style "bush tucker" which was used in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 21st century, many restaurants are serving emu, crocodile, yabbies and locally sourced eels , and using native plant spices for flavour. Producers have sprung up across the country to serve the new markets, including Tasmanian pepper, Victorian eel farms and South Australian plantations of quandongs, bush tomatoes, and native citrus. In 2020, researchers at
306-447: Is split between the City of Newcastle and City of Lake Macquarie LGAs; and Woodville , which is split between the City of Maitland and Port Stephens Council LGAs. In unincorporated areas , localities are declared by the relevant state authority. Bush food Bush tucker , also called bush food , is any food native to Australia and historically eaten by Indigenous Australians ,
340-573: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora, fauna, or fungi used for culinary or medicinal purposes, regardless of the continent or culture. Animal native foods include kangaroo , emu , witchetty grubs and crocodile , and plant foods include fruits such as quandong , kutjera , spices such as lemon myrtle and vegetables such as warrigal greens and various native yams. Traditional Indigenous Australians' use of bushfoods has been severely affected by
374-927: The Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia (CGNA) decided to name and establish official boundaries for all localities and suburbs. There has subsequently been a process to formally define their boundaries and to gazette them, which is almost complete. In March 2006, only South Australia and the Northern Territory had not completed this process. The CGNA's Gazetteer of Australia recognises two types of locality: bounded and unbounded. Bounded localities include towns, villages, populated places, local government towns and unpopulated town sites, while unbounded localities include place names, road corners and bends, corners, meteorological stations, ocean place names and surfing spots. Sometimes, both localities and suburbs are referred to collectively as "address localities". In
SECTION 10
#1732848827254408-569: The University of Queensland were researching a fruit native to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory , Buchanania obovata , known as the green plum. Eaten for more than 53,000 years but previously little-known among non-Indigenous people, the scientists learnt about the plum from people at the remote community of Yirrkala . It is harvested some time after the Kakadu plum harvests. Nutritional analysis showed high levels of protein , dietary fibre and
442-645: The bushfood industry has grown enormously. Kangaroo meat has been available in supermarkets since the 1980s, and many other foods are sold in restaurants or packaged as gourmet foods, which has led to expansion of commercial cultivation of native food crops. Aboriginal Australians have eaten native animal and plant foods for the estimated 60,000 years of human habitation on the Australian continent, using various traditional methods of processing and cooking. An estimated 5,000 species of native food were used by Aboriginal peoples. With much of it unsafe or unpalatable raw, food
476-415: The colonisation of Australia in 1788 and subsequent settlement by non-Indigenous peoples. The introduction of non-native organisms, together with the loss of and destruction of traditional lands and habitats, has resulted in reduced access to native foods by Aboriginal people. Since the 1970s, there has been recognition of the nutritional and gourmet value of native foods by non-Indigenous Australians, and
510-636: The macadamia nut , with the first small-scale commercial plantation being planted in Australia in the 1880s, no native food plants were produced commercially until the 1990s. The macadamia was the only Australian native plant food developed and cropped on a large scale. Hawaii , however, was where the macadamia was commercially developed to its greatest extent. From the 1970s, non-Indigenous Australians began to recognise previously overlooked native Australian foods. Textbooks such as Wildfoods in Australia (1981) by botanists Alan and Joan Cribb were popular. In
544-632: The 'bush lollies' on the gidyea trees after rain, and other traditional foods. There are no secondary schools in Dajarra. The options are distance education and boarding schools. Spinifex State College has boarding facilities in Healy , Mount Isa . The Post Office Museum is at 19 Matheson Street ( 21°41′41″S 139°30′50″E / 21.69481°S 139.51398°E / -21.69481; 139.51398 ( Post Office Museum ) ). Suburbs and localities (Australia) Suburbs and localities are
578-474: The Australian coastal communities. Examples of Australian native plant foods include the fruits quandong, kutjera, muntries , riberry , Davidson's plum , and finger lime . Native spices include lemon myrtle, mountain pepper , and the kakadu plum . Various native yams are valued as food, and a popular leafy vegetable is warrigal greens . Nuts include bunya nut and the most identifiable bush tucker plant harvested and sold in large-scale commercial quantities,
612-583: The bark of Melaleuca species, is widely used for wrapping food placed in ground ovens. Bush bread was made by women using many types of seeds, nuts and corns to process a flour or dough. Some animals, such as kangaroos, were cooked in their own skins, and others, such as turtles , were cooked in their own shells. Kangaroo is quite common and can be found in Australian supermarkets, often cheaper than beef. Other animals, for example, jimba (sheep), emu, goanna and witchetty grubs , are eaten by Aboriginal Australians. Fish and shellfish are culinary features of
646-512: The camp. In early 2003, the first cooking show featuring authentic Australian foods and called Dining Downunder was produced by Vic Cherikoff and Bailey Park Productions of Toronto , Canada. This was followed by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) production of Message Stick with Aboriginal chef, Mark Olive . In 2008, Ray Mears made a survival television series called Ray Mears Goes Walkabout , which focused on
680-438: The first instance, decisions about the names and boundaries of suburbs and localities are made by the local council in which they are located based on criteria such as community recognition. Local council decisions are, however, subject to approval by the state's geographical names board. The boundaries of some suburbs and localities overlap two or more local government areas (LGAs). Examples of this are Adamstown Heights , which
714-438: The first opportunity for bushfoods to be tried by non-Indigenous Australians on a gourmet level. Following popular TV programs on "bush tucker", a surge in interest in the late 1980s saw the publication of books like Bushfood: Aboriginal Food and Herbal Medicine by Jennifer Isaacs, The Bushfood Handbook and Uniquely Australian by Vic Cherikoff , and Wild Food Plants of Australia by Tim Low . An advantage of growing
SECTION 20
#1732848827254748-423: The industry being founded on Aboriginal knowledge of the plants, Aboriginal participation in the commercial sale of bush tucker is currently still marginal, and mostly at the supply end of value chains. Organisations are working to increase Aboriginal participation in the bush-tucker market. Gourmet-style processed food and dried food have been developed for the domestic and export markets. The term "bushfood"
782-518: The late 1970s, horticulturists started to assess native food-plants for commercial use and cultivation. In 1980, South Australia legalised the sale of kangaroo meat for human consumption, and it is now commonly found in supermarkets and prized for its nutritional value as a lean meat . Analysis shows that a variety of bushfoods are exceptionally nutritious. In the mid-1980s, several Sydney restaurants began using native Australian ingredients in recipes more familiar to non-Indigenous tastes, providing
816-425: The macadamia nut. Knowledge of Aboriginal uses of fungi is meagre, but beefsteak fungus and native "bread" (a fungus also) were certainly eaten. Australian bush tucker plants can be divided into several distinct and large regional culinary provinces. Some species listed grow across several climatic boundaries. Arid and semi-arid zones of the low rainfall interior. Subtropical rainforests of New South Wales to
850-471: The minerals potassium , phosphorus and magnesium . In addition, the folate level is among the highest of commercially available fruits. Its potential as a commercial crop for Indigenous communities is being investigated. Toxic seeds, such as Cycas media and Moreton Bay chestnut , are processed to remove the toxins and render them safe to eat. Many foods are also baked in the hot campfire coals, or baked for several hours in ground ovens. " Paperbark ",
884-529: The more densely colonised areas of south-eastern Australia, the introduction of non-native foods to Aboriginal people resulted in an almost complete abandonment of native foods by them. This impact on traditional foods was further accentuated by the loss of traditional lands, which has resulted in reduced access to native foods by Aboriginal people, and destruction of native habitat for agriculture. The 19th century English botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker , writing of Australian plants, remarked that although bushtucker
918-509: The names of geographic subdivisions in Australia , used mainly for address purposes. The term locality is used in rural areas, while the term suburb is used in urban areas. Australian postcodes closely align with the boundaries of localities and suburbs. This Australian usage of the term "suburb" differs from common American and British usage, where it typically means a smaller, frequently separate residential community outside, but close to,
952-399: The native foods is that they are well adapted to Australia's environment, in particular at the extreme ends, and are ecologically sound. Bush-tucker ingredients were initially harvested from the wild, but cultivated sources have become increasingly important to provide sustainable supplies for a growing market, with some Aboriginal communities also involved in the supply chain. However, despite
986-583: The nearby Phosphate Hill phosphate mine and fertilizer production plant. The mining company has assisted the community in developing a better water supply for the town. The town has a rich Aboriginal heritage and is home to Aboriginal tribes from around the Diamantina River , the Gulf of Carpentaria , and the Northern Territory. In the 2011 census , the locality of Dajarra and the surrounding area had
1020-433: The school had an enrolment of 27 students with 4 teachers and 5 non-teaching staff (3 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 22 students with 4 teachers and 5 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent). An Aboriginal language is taught at the school, along with how to make boomerangs , what wood to use and what timber is best for didgeridoos . The children are also taught where to find bush foods and
1054-399: The train at Dajarra. Dajarrra State School opened in 1920. St Martin de Porres Catholic Church was built in 1962. Competing road transport eventually captured the cattle market and Dajarra railway station closed when the line from Duchess closed on 1 January 1994. The last train left Dajarra in 1988. More recently, some opportunities for local employment have come with the development of
Dajarra, Queensland - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-488: The wet tropics of Northern Queensland. Warm and cool temperate zones of southern Australia, including Tasmania , South Australia , Victoria and the highlands of New South Wales. Malcolm Douglas was one of the first TV presenters to show how to 'live off the land' in the Australian Outback. Major Les Hiddins , a retired Australian Army soldier popularised the idea of bush tucker as a food resource. He presented
1122-488: Was on the Dajarra railway line which connected Dajarra to Cloncurry via Duchess and reached Dajarra on 16 April 1917. This line was intended as part of the proposed Great Western Railway which would connect Sydney in New South Wales through to Darwin in the Northern Territory ; however, the next section of the line from Dajarra towards Camooweal was started but never completed. Dajarra once had importance as
1156-428: Was processed by cooking on open fires, boiling in bark containers, pounding vegetables and seeds, or hanging bags in running water. Bush tucker provided a source of nutrition to the non-indigenous colonial settlers, often supplementing meagre rations. However, bushfoods were often considered to be inferior by colonists unfamiliar with Australia, generally preferring familiar foods from their homelands. Especially in
#253746