Rich Pickings - Taroona's Coastal Plants

Rich pickings Taroona’s coastal plants

Contents Introduction 3 Where the Mouhenneener gathered 4 Plants for food, medicine, shelter and tools 5 Europeans arrive and settle 6 The landscape changes 7 TEN rich pickings 7 Acacia melanoxylon – blackwood 8 Allocasuarina verticillata – drooping sheoak 9 Banksia marginata – silver banksia 10 Carpobrotus rossii – native pigface 11 Dianella revoluta – spreading flax lily 12 Eucalyptus globulus – Tasmanian blue gum 13 Exocarpus cupressiformis – common native-cherry 14 Lomandra longifolia – sagg 15 Poa labillardierei – silver tussockgrass 16 Tetragonia implexicoma – bower spinach 17 Taroona’s coastal flora 18 ... and its fauna 19

“We’re so lucky to live here!”

It’s almost a catchcry, it’s heard so often. We Taroona residents do appreciate the beauty of our home. How could you not! Just minutes from the centre of Hobart, nestled between the beautiful ever-changing waters of the Derwent and the fragrant eucalypt forests in the foothills. Our days are filled with birdsong ... our nights with the quiet scurrying of bandicoots and possums.

But as with all homes, we share responsibility for its care.

The founders of the Taroona Environment Network, back in 1997, recognised this. A small group of likeminded souls were inspired to ‘clean-up’ the coastline, and battle the boneseed and other invasive weeds that had begun to smother our special remnant coastal vegetation. Only a decade later, the group has around one hundred members, including a core group who regularly meet for working bees. The results speak for themselves. Much of the coastline has been rehabilitated with coastal plants that once grew naturally.

As these plants mature, the opportunities for our native wildlife to find food and shelter improve: nectar and pollen for birds, bees, butterflies and ringtail possums; nesting sites for barred bandicoots and birds; and hiding spots for skinks and lizards. Along the way, we’ve learned a little about the history of the area, how it’s changed over the years ‑ even how the Aboriginal people valued the landscape. It’s an exciting process to be involved in, which is why we’d like to share what we’ve learned about our patch of coast with you. We hope you enjoy discovering Taroona’s coastal plants.

See you on the track!

Fiona Rice, Project Coordinator, Taroona Environment Network

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Where the Mouhenneener gathered In the early 1800s Taroona was the territory of the Mouhenneener, one of four bands of the South East Tribe of Aboriginal Tasmanians.

They numbered about 80 people, comprising several groups of up to a dozen family members sharing a hearthfire. They camped on headlands and in sheltered coves, close to animal and plant food sources. Their diet included crayfish and shellfish, seaweed, water rats and sea birds. On land, women gathered plant material for food, medicine and other uses, and the men hunted for larger marsupials.

Countless generations of Tasmanian Aborigines have lived along this coast over many thousands of years.

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Living here for many thousands of years in intimate connection with the land, the Aborigines built up a great knowledge of each plant and what it offered them. The information about the plants in the following pages draws on both local records and knowledge of the plants’ use by Aboriginal people elsewhere in Tasmania and other parts of eastern Australia.

Plants for food, medicine, shelter and tools Aboriginal people gathered food rather than cultivating plants as we do, but they cared for plants, whose roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds provided them with much of their food – and their medicine. Knowing they would return one day, a group would always leave healthy plants behind to ensure a sustainable food supply. They used ‘burning off’ to encourage succulent young growth – both food for themselves and a lure for game animals.

Aborigines used plants for many other things. Plant fibres became string and baskets. Kelp was fashioned into containers for carrying water and honey. Tree bark became canoes and dishes.

Weapons and digging tools were crafted from wood using shell and stone tools. And in the open forest behind the beach they built their windbreaks or shelters from pliable branches interwoven with bark or grass.

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Europeans arrive and settle Around 200 years ago, Europeans sailed up the Derwent to begin their new life in this strange country. Within months of the establishment of the Sullivan’s Cove settlement in 1804, colonists were taking over the Mouhenneener homelands, clearing scrub, hunting wallabies and forcing the indigenous peoples to find their sustenance elsewhere in an ever-diminishing territory.

Above: An 1830s view of the Derwent River and Taroona foreshore (painting by Mary Morton Allport).

Right: An 1826 map showing the acreages of early European landowners in Taroona.

Below: The 90-acre farm at Crayfish Point advertised for sale in the Hobart Town Gazette of 2 January 1824.

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Among the first Europeans to settle what is now the suburb of Taroona were many Norfolk Island settlers and former convicts who were evacuated to Hobart in 1808.

The Mouhenneener people were steadily forced off their traditional lands as the bushland was cleared for wheat, potatoes and sheep. In a very short time, they saw their territories, culture and lives taken or destroyed.

The landscape changes After thousands of years of Aboriginal occupation, in only 200 years the landscape has been transformed: from bushland to farmland to a garden suburb. As the suburb of Taroona grew, much of the native flora was replaced by exotic garden plants. The landscape as the Mouhenneener knew it was lost.

Much has indeed changed since the Mouhenneener walked these shores and used its natural resources for their living needs. But for Aboriginal and recent Taroona arrivals alike, this was, and remains, a special place.

Top: The 22-acre ‘Retreat Farm’ once occupied the site where Taroona High School now stands.

Above: Taroona today.

TEN rich pickings The following pages describe ten commonly seen native coastal plants found growing along Taroona’s foreshore. Each description includes the plant’s value to the Mouhenneener people for food, medicine, shelter and tools; its importance to our native wildlife; and how we value the species today.

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Blackwood Acacia melanoxylon This highly adaptive plant can grow almost anywhere in Tasmania and much of mainland Australia, from rainforest and swampy areas, where it can grow tall and straight, to arid coastal sites where it is often short and spreading.

Size 5–30 m high, depending on rainfall and soil.

Natural distribution Wet and dry forests in eastern States and South Australia.

Habitat value The seeds are a source of food for birds such as grey currawongs and green rosellas. Brown thornbills also forage amongst twigs, leaves and branches of the blackwood.

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Tasmanian Aborigines used its wood for weapons and digging sticks (for digging up roots and tubers). They found the fibres of its bark made strong lines for fishing and other purposes, and that this same bark could be used soaked in water for an infusion to treat arthritic joint pain.

Aborigines found food value in blackwood gum soaked in water, and may also have eaten its seeds. Blossom from this and other acacia trees, hung near where they slept, was thought to induce sleep.

These days blackwood is a prized timber, known worldwide as one of the best furniture and craft timbers.

Like other acacias, A. melanoxylon is an effective fixer of the essential element nitrogen, thereby making it available to other plants. Blackwood seeds can survive for hundreds of years in soil until fire or other disturbance breaks their tough outer casing.

Drooping sheoak Allocasuarina verticillata This modest tree, found everywhere along Tasmanian coastlines and in drier parts of the interior, comes in male and female forms. Male trees have long tendrils of yellow flowers, while female trees have tiny red flowers, which develop into oblong cones.

Sheoak timber produces a very hot fire. Early settlers used its ash to whiten sheets and to make soap, and found that honeybees liked its pollen. Today it is valued mainly for its beautifully grained red timber.

Aborigines used the timber to make clubs and spears. In its sap, its green seed-pods and its young leaves, Aboriginal people found both a food and a thirst-quencher. Toothache and other pains were relieved by a gargle made from its sapwood and bark. And its wood, especially when immersed in water, attracted protein-rich grubs.

Sheoak’s ability to develop extensive root systems in poor coastal soils, including sand dunes, makes it a valuable soil-stabiliser.

Size Around 5 m high.

Natural distribution Abundant along rocky Tasmanian shores, common in dry areas; also Victoria and NSW.

Habitat value Fungi on its roots are eaten by bandicoots, potoroos and bettongs.

Seed-eating birds such as yellow-tailed blackcockatoos and green rosellas feed on the cones.

Brown thornbills and superb fairy-wrens forage for tiny invertebrates in the foliage. The flowers’ pollen attracts honeybees and butterflies.

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Silver banksia Banksia marginata

Size 3–6 m high.

Natural distribution Widespread in coastal heaths, forests and woodlands in the southeastern States and South Australia.

Habitat value Silver banksias are an excellent nectar source for both honeybees and native carpenter bees.

Native bees bore into the trees’ soft wood and make honey-filled cells for their eggs. The nectar is also valuable food for ringtail and pygmy possums, insects and nectar-eating birds. Yellow-tailed black-cockatoos rip apart banksia cones to eat ripe seeds. Thornbills glean tiny insects found on banksia leaves, twigs and branches.

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The dried flowers of banksia trees are well-known to many Australians as the inspiration for the wicked ‘banksia men’ in the children’s stories of May Gibbs. For Tasmanian Aborigines, the young banksia flowers had a much more attractive value, as the source of a sweet nectar drink.

Banksias can easily be recognised by their flowers, which remain on the tree throughout summer and autumn, finally ejecting seeds from seed-cases which May Gibbs turned into facial features for her banksia men.

Early Europeans found another use for the ‘banksia men’ – they made lanterns from the old cones by soaking them in wax and spiking them on sticks.

Native pigface Carpobrotus rossii This ground-hugging plant with its fleshy, drought-resistant leaves is at its most spectacular when it opens its bright magenta flowers. Flowering happens at any time of year, depending on location. Native pigface can be distinguished from an introduced pigface species, Carpobrotus edulis, by its white (rather than yellow) stamens.

Pigface is a valuable food plant. Its scientific name is derived from Greek words meaning ‘edible fruit’ – a fact well-known by Tasmanian Aborigines. For a guaranteed food source in dry, lean times they would camp close to the plant they knew as wend-dar.

Most valued was the sweet centre of the red or purple berry, an exceptionally tasty wild fruit with a flavour compared to strawberries, figs, kiwi fruit and raspberries. The fleshy leaves were eaten cooked, and the juice from the leaves was used to soothe blisters, burns and pain from insect bites.

Early European explorers used the plant as an anti-scurvy treatment.

Size Ground-cover; can cover many square metres.

Natural distribution Common on coastal sandy or rocky ground in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia.

Habitat value Pigface shelters many small animals, including skinks, and provides food for birds. In some areas it is used by groundnesting birds, and is a valuable soil-binding agent in exposed coastal places.

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Spreading flax lily Dianella revoluta A tussocky plant with long tapering leaves, the flax lily is commonly found with a related species, the broader-leafed D. tasmanica.

Both species went largely unnoticed by early Europeans, but are more recently being appreciated as attractive garden plants.

Size Up to 1 m high.

Natural distribution Coastal heathlands and forests in eastern States, South Australia, Western Australia.

Habitat value Bluetongue lizards and skinks eat the seeds, and mice and marsupials, including antechinus, eat both seeds and fruit.

Birds such as honeyeaters and silvereyes feed on the fruit. Fairy-wrens forage amongst and under these plants and, along with brown thornbills, use them as nesting sites.

Frogs shelter in them in the summer.

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Flax lilies were highly valued by Tasmanian Aborigines. The leaves produced a nourishing tea and the roots and characteristic small, slightly tart, berry-like fruits were edible.

The berries were also used as a dye and for treating ulcers.

The long leaves of the flax lily were split and twisted into cords, and used to weave mats and bags. They also made fine, high-pitched whistles which were used to warn off snakes.

Tasmanian blue gum Eucalyptus globulus This classic Tasmanian eucalypt is the State’s floral emblem. Blue gum grows from a tiny seed ejected from its characteristic large ‘gumnuts’ during summer. Blue juvenile leaves give way to shiny dark green foliage which for much of the year is highlighted by cream flowers producing copious nectar – food not only for bees but also the nationally endangered swift parrot, a migratory bird which breeds only in Tasmania.

The hard, close-grained wood of the blue gum made spears for Aboriginal Tasmanians, while projecting burls on the trunk were used for bowls. Bowls were made, too, from its thick bark, which was also used for making canoes.

Aborigines used the liquid residue from boiled leaves for drinking or rubbing on the body to treat chest colds, and inhaled its odours for headaches. Blue gum leaves were also used in poultices for wounds, inflammation and rheumatism, and the sugary white residue of dried sap oozing from the trees made a sweet food.

Modern Australians value blue gum for its timber. It yields pale, hard and durable wood for poles, piles and sleepers. It’s also been used for paper pulp and firewood, and its pollen and nectar is food for honeybees.

Blue gum eucalyptus oil is used for many things – as an insecticide, a decongestant, a deodorant, and for antifungal and antibacterial use. It is also a food flavouring and a cosmetics fragrance.

Size Large tree, around 20 m high; can grow to 70 m.

Natural distribution Widespread southern, eastern Tasmania, far southern Victoria.

Habitat value Blue gums are a source of food, shelter and accommodation for a wide variety of wildlife. Brush and ring-tailed possums feed on leaves and flowers and sleep and nest in tree cavities, and bandicoots find invertebrate prey in leaf litter. Many birds use blue gums, including swift parrots, yellow wattlebirds, musk lorikeets, rosellas, honey-eaters and pardalotes.

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Native cherry Exocarpus cupressiformis This tree is semi-parasitic, getting nourishment at first from nearby tree roots but becoming more independent with age.

It is similar in appearance to some conifers, especially some cedars, and was perhaps most widely used by early Europeans as a native alternative to the traditional pine Christmas tree.

Size 2–8 m high

Natural distribution Common in dry forests in all eastern States and South Australia.

Habitat value Silvereyes, grey currawongs, bronzewings and green rosellas feed on the fruit and disperse the seeds. Thornbills forage in the foliage.

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Its strange cherry with its external seed was one of the very few native fruits known to early settlers, who came to value its sharp, dry flavour. For Tasmanian Aborigines it was one of many edible fruits.

Aborigines also used the plant’s foliage as a treatment for sores and cuts, and its sap for cases of snakebite. Smoke from burning leaves was found to be an effective insect repellent.

Sagg Lomandra longifolia Tasmanian Aborigines placed a high value on this humble, hardy perennial plant – widespread in open forests and heathlands in all eastern states and South Australia. Besides being a rich source for food, medicine and a wide variety of practical uses, it also indicated a good place to find small animals for eating.

The leaves provided the Aborigines with flexible strands for mats, dillies (a dilly is a bag or basket), twine, nets, necklaces and armbands, and the tender leaf bases were eaten. The flowers made a tasty nectar drink and the seeds – which stay on the plant most of the year – were ground into flour. The roots were used for treating insect stings and the leaves for making bandages.

Early Europeans had no use for it, although today it is a popular garden plant.

Sagg has separate male and female plants. Its roots are good for binding soil.

Size Tussock up to 70cm high.

Natural distribution Common in eastern States, South Australia.

Habitat value Provides habitat for white-spot skipper butterflies, and its heavily scented nectar lures pollinating beetles. It is a good nesting site for superb fairy-wrens and brown thornbills and attracts green rosellas.

It provides habitat for bandicoots, skinks and snakes, but its spines deter other animals.

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Silver tussockgrass Poa labillardierei

Size About 1.2 m high.

Natural distribution Dunes, rocky shores, salt marsh; Tasmania, southeastern States and South Australia.

Habitat value Silver tussock grass is a source of food for small seed-eating birds, and its roots and leaves are eaten by insects, notably butterfly larvae. In turn, the eastern barred bandicoot feeds on the insects, digging distinctive conical holes in grass patches. Native birds scavenge the grassy forest understorey for seed heads and insects.

Many birds line their nests with dried grasses interwoven with spider webs. It is a favoured habitat for reptiles such as the metallic skink and the blue-tongue lizard.

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This perennial tufted grass, with its dense foliage, silvery leaves and plume-like flower heads, is the most common Tasmanian tussock grass, found in most saline soils in coastal areas. It is often found together with a relative grass, Poa poiformis.

Tasmanian Aborigines found its thin leaves ideal for fine weaving, making baskets, bags and mats from the tightly-woven fibres. The leaves were also made into cord for nets and other applications.

The plant’s greatest value is undoubtedly ecological. Like all coastal native grasses it is important as a binder of soil, growing where few other plants can take hold.

Bower spinach Tetragonia implexicoma This trailing plant with its succulent leaves and orange-red berries was a significant source of food for Tasmanian Aborigines. The berries, which darken to near-black when ripe and were valued as a red dye, were a sweettasting snack or addition to a main meal.

The leaves were highly valued as food by both Aborigines and by early Europeans who found them a valuable counter to scurvy. As its common name indicates, it has a similar flavour and texture to spinach.

Specimens collected by botanists, including Joseph Banks, found their way into European gardens. In France they became so widely used they were thought to be native.

Size Ground-covering; will spread to 1 m.

Natural distribution Dry sandy coastal sites in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, NSW.

Habitat value Shelter for skinks and invertebrate animals, food for birds, a natural shelter for little penguins and a pioneer plant in dry disturbed sites, where it readily and quickly spreads.

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Taroona’s coastal flora You’ll see many other native plants along our coastal foreshore. In Taroona we’re fortunate to have small areas of remnant coastal vegetation to inform us of the type of vegetation that would have existed prior to European settlement. Crayfish Point, the Alum Cliffs and the coastal bushland north of the High School are three such places.

Variations occur along our coastline according to soil, aspect and drainage. Typically though, blue gums, white gums, blackwoods and sheoaks dominate the canopy, while smaller trees include banksia, hop bush and prickly box.

Typical understorey shrubs include saltbushes, coastal wattle, white correa, and boobialla, and there is a variety of ground covers, including bower spinach, pigface, native pelargonium, flax lilies, rushes, saggs and native grasses.

By observing the remnant vegetation, Taroona Environment Network plan their coastal plantings accordingly, to restore the coastal vegetation and provide habitats for our wildlife.

From top: Pelargonium australe (southern storksbill) Acacia verticillata (prickly moses) Dodonaea viscosa (broadleaf hopbush) Bursaria spinosa (prickly box) 18

Other common plants of Taroona’s foreshore Acacia sophorae (coastal wattle) Acacia verticillata (prickly moses) Atriplex cinerea (grey saltbush) Austrostipa stipoides (coast speargrass) Bursaria spinosa (prickly box) Correa alba (white correa) Dianella tasmanica (forest flax lily) Dodonaea viscosa (broadleaf hopbush) Eucalytpus ovata (black gum)

Eucalytpus viminalis (white gum) Isolepis nodosa (knobby club-rush) Juncus spp. (various rush species) Leucopogon parviflorus (coast beardheath) Myoporum insulare (common boobialla) Pelargonium australe (southern storksbill) Poa poiformis (coastal tussockgrass) Rhagodia candolleana (coastal saltbush)

... and its fauna The Taroona foreshore boasts an impressive range of more than 70 bush, shore and sea bird species. Some are raucous, some melodious, some shy and secretive; some dazzle with brilliant colour, some blend into the bush; and some are resident while others migrate north during winter. If you’re lucky, you may hear the distinctive piping call of the endangered swift parrot as it streaks out of the blue gum foliage.

Our coastal foreshore also provides habitat for another nationally threatened species – the eastern barred bandicoot. You might spot one in the evening scratching for seeds and insects in the native grass. Or you might see another of our native mammals, perhaps a water rat scuttling along the shoreline. During the day, look out for reptiles – a metallic skink basking on a log or a blue-tongue lizard feeding on bugs in the leaf litter.

Common foreshore fauna Birds Black-faced Shag White-bellied Sea-Eagle Masked Lapwing Silver Gull Kelp Gull Common Bronzewing Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo Musk Lorikeet Swift Parrot Green Rosella Eastern Rosella Laughing Kookaburra (introduced) Welcome Swallow

Grey Fantail Superb Fairy Wren Brown Thornbill Yellow Wattlebird Yellow-throated Honeyeater Black-headed Honeyeater Crescent Honeyeater New Holland Honeyeater Spotted Pardalote Striated Pardalote Silvereye Grey Butcherbird Australian Magpie Grey Currawong Forest Raven

Reptiles Metallic skink Blue-tongue lizard

Mammals Tasmanian bettong Eastern barred bandicoot Ringtail possum Brushtail possum Water rat Common dolphin Bottlenose dolphin Australian fur seal

From top: Swift Parrots Silvereye Eastern barred bandicoot Ringtail possum 19

Taroona Environment Network

The Taroona Environment Network (TEN) is a local volunteer bushcare group formed in 1997 to protect and restore Taroona’s coastal foreshore and gully reserves.

Email: info@ten.org.au Project coordination: Fiona Rice Research and writing: Liz Haywood & Peter Boyer Design: Liz Haywood Flora photographs: David Fitzgerald Aerial photograph page 7: Courtesy of Richard Mount Illustrations: Cover, pages 4, 5 and 6a – State Library of Tasmania; Page 2 – Kris Schaffer; Page 6b & c – Archives Office of Tasmania; Other photographs: Page 3 –Jemery Day; Page 7a – Taroona High School; Page 7c & d – Liz Haywood; Page 19b – Alan Fletcher; Page 19c – Mike Driessen; Page 19d – Hans & Annie Wapstra; Back cover – Fiona Rice.

Published by the Taroona Environment Network, October 2007 This interpretation has been approved by the Tasmanian Land and Sea Council CAUTION

For safety’s sake, please don’t sample the plants.

Some of the plants along Taroona’s foreshore are poisonous unless treated properly. Aboriginal people were experts about which could be eaten and which had to be left.