Seed picking season is one of my favourite times of the year.  The sun is shining, you’re outside and as close to the natural world as you can be – elbow deep in a shrub, nose down in a grassland, gently harvesting seed into your bag or bucket. 

My favourite collection day this year was with Tony Fitzgerald and the Biik team harvesting Water Ribbons.  Water ribbons are the best bush tucker.  I think they’re Uncle Shane’s favourite too.  The tubers are crisp and crunchy, the closest likely flavour is the water chestnu,t I think.  Even the green, swirly seeds are a nice salad garnish and oh so easy to pop in your mouth and snack on while you pick. 

Wading into a billabong to harvest can be a bit intimidating.  First you push through the common reed – well above your head height and situated on the water’s edge in the boggy mud.  It rustles as you push through, eyes peeled for snakes. Wetland birds are part of the soundscape of the wetland experience.  We all saw some and heard more.   Tony got a little too close for comfort to a White Faced Heron, watching its slow lope and following its flight path as it resettled a little further away.  At about ankle depth in the water, the water ribbons start.  The Whanregarwen billabong is quite shallow with a gentle slope, so the water ribbons almost fill the whole pond.  Just when you think your gumboot is about to flood, the water ribbons give way to clear water – it’s just too deep to sustain them in the deeper water.

Tony, Ryan, Daphne, Blair, Jack, Ben and I spent an hour wading through the billabong, reaching into the mud for tubers, snacking on seeds and incidentally filling our buckets with seeds.  The seeds are tricky to tell when they are ripe – they stay green.  But if you close your eyes and feel the laden stem, the ripe seeds fall off in your hand effortlessly, the unripe seed need a yank to release them.  The plant is literally giving its seeds to you to help distribute.

We looked back when our buckets were full.  You could hardly see the dent.  There was some disturbance in the reeds where we had pushed through, seed scattered across the water’s surface ready to settle in the mud and germinate, and our buckets were full and ready to sow our seed in Horseshoe Lagoon downstream.

To me, this is reciprocity in action. Folk just like us have been wild harvesting seed for eons and there is a timelessness to our activity.   Harvesting spread seed in the pond, fed our little group happily and provided enough seed to help repair a downstream billabong.  The water ribbons in their turn filtered the water of sediments, cleaning the water.  They provided habitat for frog’s eggs to attach, dragonfly larvae to hide and macroinvertebrates to feed.  These creatures then sustain the wading birds, frogs, fish, snakes and lizards that inhabit the billabong.  For a short time, we became a part of the cycle, healing country and having a feed in the process. 

Written by Cath Olive at Euroa Arboretum and Tony Fitzgerald – Taungurung Land and Waters Council

Image credit: Biik Environmental

We are proud to partner with Cath and her team at the Euroa Arboretum and invite you to join our wawa Euroa experience to learn about how Taungurung People have harvested their food from wetlands for generations.

The Waring (mid-Goulburn River) is defined by the many hundreds of wetlands, billabongs and lagoons that spread across its flood plain. These have formed over many thousands of years, as the living river has changed course over time, leaving depressions that fill with water when the river floods in the high flows that come in winter and spring. This water brings life to the wetlands, which provide nursery grounds for fish, and rich nesting and feeding places for countless water birds. The wetlands are also the lungs and kidneys of Waring, helping slow and filter flood waters, and retaining water in the landscape to support all life.

Taungurung people have always had a strong connection to these wetlands. They provided important places to gather, collect the many food and medicine plants, fish and hunt the game that thrive in the wetlands, and conduct ceremony. They are the lifeblood of Taungurung Biik (Country).

However, since the construction of Lake Eildon in the 20^th century to harness the flows of Waring for irrigation, natural floods are no longer able to regularly nourish the floodplain wetlands. Many wetlands have dried out, or receive unseasonal high flows in summer which upset the balance of Country. In some places billabongs remain visible only as low points in the landscape.

Taungurung have been working to heal the wetlands of Waring. In 2017, the Taungurung community came together to carry out the first Taungurung Aboriginal Waterway Assessment, which visited many of these places. A key cultural objective identified was the need to return water to Horseshoe Lagoon, near Trawool, an important cultural place. This billabong now only receives water in very high flood events, and had been dry for some years, becoming choked with weeds.

This first assessment also led to the formation of Baan Ganalina (Guardians of Water), the Taungurung water knowledge group, with the goal of allowing Taungurung elders, knowledge holders and community members to speak strongly for Baan (water) on Country.

By working with Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and Parks Victoria, Taungurung Land and Waters Council and Baan Ganalina were able to first return water to the lagoon in 2019, through the delivery of an “environmental flow” by pumping water from Waring. Water has been delivered to the wetland regularly since then, alongside other activities to heal and care for the wetland, including planting of aquatic plants, and management of weeds. Turtles, including the endangered broadshell turtle, and a variety of water birds now thrive at the site. Food and medicine plants are returning alongside thriving wetland vegetation. Most recently, Baan Ganalina, TLaWC and the Taungurung rangers have built a floating “turtle island” that will allow turtles to build their nests away from the risk of their eggs being raided by foxes. The island was launched in late 2024 just in time for the nesting season of the Macquarie River turtle, and trail cameras have recently recorded hatchlings leaving their nests on the island.

Baan Ganalina continue to work ever more strongly to care for the wetlands of Taungurung Biik. The return of “right way water” – water at the right time, in the right amount and of the right quality – is a key priority. While Taungurung continues to advocate strongly for a change in the way the rivers are managed so that Waring can increasingly flow the right way, this is a long journey that will require significant changes in how people live and make their living on the river. But there are things that can be done now, to pave the way. Baan Ganalina is currently working on restoring right way flows to Molesworth Billabongs, also on Waring, as part of a project with the Victorian Environmental Water Holder. Taungurung Land and Waters Council has also led the development of a Corop Cultural Waterscape program, which is looking at how the Corop wetlands – a cluster of wetlands near Rochester – can be cared for in a holistic way that takes into account cultural knowledge and values, while collaborating closely with government agencies and the wider community. This program has now been launched, with support from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and other government departments and agencies. A key aspect of this program will be to find solutions to complex land and water management challenges by working closely together with present day local communities to understand their needs and perspectives, and will provide many opportunities to connect to the practical work of caring for Country at important places within the waterscape.

The road to heal the rivers and wetlands of Taungurung Biik is a long one, but the first steps are already being taken. Taungurung invite all who care for Country to join them in walking this long road together. If you’d like to learn first-hand about Taungurung cultural connections to water Country, you can participate in a wawa Nagambie experience, led by Taungurung guides. This experience visits Reedy Lake, near Nagambie and part of the Corop waterscape, and nearby tabilk tabilk wetlands, on Waring. More information can be found at www.wawabiik.com.au.   If you are keen to get involved in any future Taungurung-led caring for Corop activities or wawa biik experiences in this area, please register your interest at hello@wawabiik.com.au.

Author: Voytek Lapinski – Cultural Water Program Manager, Taungurung Land and Waters Council