Jungle

Jungles provide plenty of shade and plenty of tucker. Inside we can find cool springs, tall banyan trees and plenty of foods. There are many different plants in the jungle that we don’t find anywhere else.

Our jungle is especially important for women and they have strong knowledge for these areas, including bush foods, materials and medicines and sacred knowledge. Women visit the jungle to collect yams and fruits, including many different yams, red and orange berries, bush peanut and arenga (Arenga australasica) palm.

The jungle gives us as fire sticks, spears (wada wada, makarunga, bodi), Bombax wood for carvings and string from the banyans. We hunt for echidna, python, flying fox, rock wallaby and birds such as pigeon.

Our jungle is important for its conservation significance. In our area, nine different animals and four plants are listed as either vulnerable or endangered and another three animals and 41 plants are considered rare. All of the vulnerable plants are found in our jungle.

The biggest problems for jungle are wildfires, feral animals and weeds. Hot fires make our jungles smaller and thinner.

Pigs and buffalo like jungle and the yams that grow there. They cause a lot of damage to jungle and around springs, fouling the water for drinking as well as damaging areas where a important plants grow.