Source:

Aboriginal Australia
Aboriginal People of NSW
Produced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission 1997
(c) Commonwealth of Australia 1997
ISBN 0 664 10152 0

Living off the land

Across Australia Aboriginal people lived by hunting animals, fishing and collecting
plant foods. It was mainly the men who hunted and fished, while the women gathered
smaller animals, shellfish and plant foods such as yams, fruits and berries.
Certain plant foods, such as the nuts of the Macrozamia (Burrawang palm), had to be
treated to remove poisons before eating.
New South Wales contains a range of different environments, which gave rise to many
different subsistence practices. The main animals or plants eaten, the degree of
mobility, the nature of seasonal movements, and the foods eaten at different times
of the year varied from region to region throughout the State.
For people living on the coastal plain, the sea, estuaries, rivers and the land all
provided food. Fish and shellfish were an important part of the diet for those
groups living on the coast or estuaries. In most hunting and gathering societies,
fishing was done by men; however, in coastal south-eastern New South Wales, women
also fished.
On the dry plains of western New South Wales people relied more on land animals
such as kangaroos and emus. Grass seeds (Panicum sp.) were an important vegetable
staple.
In the inland riverine areas, such as the Murray River, fish were the major food
source, but shellfish, land animals (particularly possums), water birds and
vegetable foods (water-lily tubers, as well as yams and seeds) were also important.
In the alpine areas in the south-east of the State people gathered on the peaks in
the summer months to feast on the Bogong moths which gather among the rocky tors in
their thousands.

Equipment
Tools and weapons were made of wood, bark, reed and other plant materials, as well
as stone, bone and shell. The design of the implements and the materials from which
they were made varied according to regional traditions as well as the materials
locally available. Important materials not readily available (for example, certain
types of stone) were obtained by visiting the source of the material or by trade
with groups in other regions.
All groups in New South Wales used the same basic range of items - spears, spear
throwers, clubs, shields, boomerangs, stone axes, digging sticks and containers
such as net bags, bowls and baskets.

Shelter and clothing

Huts were constructed using a frame of branches or boughs, with sheets of bark,
leafy branches or grass laid across. Methods of construction varied, some huts
being quite substantial and others more casual bark structures. In sandstone or
other rocky country, overhangs in cliffs or under boulders were used as overnight
campsites or as 'retreats' during the day in which to eat a meal or shelter from
the weather. The walls of these shelters were sometimes decorated with paintings or
stencils.
Aboriginal people generally wore no clothing except for ornamental bands and belts
made from hair or animal fur. In some areas - for example, in the mountain ranges,
and along parts of the Murray River and the north coast -people wore cloaks in
winter. These were usually made from the skins of possums or flying foxes.
Hairstyles varied from group to group. Many groups decorated their hair with small
objects such as parts of plants, animal bones and teeth.
The arrival of European settlers changed Aboriginal cultures for ever. Much of our
information about Aboriginal life before contact comes from the records of the
first British colonists and later explorers and settlers, the collections of
artefacts held in various museums, as well as the oral traditions of present-day
Aboriginal people. Yet another, different source of information is the
archaeological record.