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Project Noah Nature School
Araucaria bidwillii
We found this football-sized cone on the side of the road a few blocks from our house. I couldn't quite believe it at first... while Bunya trees are native to Queensland, I am pretty sure there are none growing near us. These large cones have a strong cultural significance in our local area - every few years, Aboriginal people from all around southeast Queensland would travel for days to meet up for a Bunya Festival, where they would cook up the kernels from inside these cones and have a Bunya nut feast. Our local Gubbi Gubbi people have recently revived the Bunya Festival tradition which showcases their ingenuity with Bunya cones/nuts, and also involves perhaps not-quite-so-traditional activities such as Bunya cone rolling. : ) The Bunya tree grows to a height of 30–45 metres, and the cones can pretty much knock you unconscious if you are unlucky enough to be standing under a Bunya Tree when the cone falls. Anyway, my husband and I have never eaten Bunya nuts so we took it home to have a go... and were very disappointed to discover that all the nuts inside were rotten! If you look at the second pic, the brown blotches are where the nuts should be, but there were just rotted hollows in this specimen. Still, a pretty cool (and mysterious) find.
Spotted on Jan 13, 2013
Submitted on Jan 26, 2013
6 Comments
Thanks Gerardo! : )
Sort of, Keith! I shied away from calling it a 'Bunya Pine' cone because, even though they are commonly known as 'pine trees', they are not technically a pine tree (of the genus Pinus). This cone is mature, they stay green.
So basically its a giant pine cone. Is this mature or are mature cones brown like here in the states.
Wow nice :)
Yes, there are still plenty in the Bunya Mountains National Park, about three hours' drive from here. : )
Apparently the nuts are really tasty, Chief RedEarth! (Hopefully one day I'll have a chance to find out for myself!) There used to be lots of these trees in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, particularly around the Baroon Pocket Dam. A friend of mine who is Indigenous and has a very good knowledge of local history told me that the Bunya trees are excellent for building - the wood is strong and straight, and great for cutting into planks. He says that when the land around Baroon Pocket Dam was first given to European settlers, the government of the day was fairly environmentally-conscious and legislated against any Bunya trees being chopped down. However, a later government overturned the law and the trees were harvested... and there are now no Bunya trees left there. A sad story.