The Explorers - stories from the Australian frontier

While traveling over and through Australia by plane, train and bus, I chose to carry along a copy of Tim Flannery's "The Explorers: Stories of Discovery and Adventure from the Australian Frontier". It was the perfect companion to staring out the window at the often barren and alien landscape that passed by. Flannery, the director of the South Australia Museum, has compiled 67 fascinating excerpts from the pages of explorer's journals, each one offering the experience of being a fly on the wall during remarkable moments in the history of European attempts to circumnavigate, traverse, and settle the harsh environments of Australia. It is perhaps the best look into these explorer's experiences, penned by their own hands and under some of the most extreme conditions imaginable.

Their words contain all the adventure and insight of the famous mission of discovery embarked upon by Louis and Clarke in North America. The most telling difference however, is that unlike their American counterparts, the explorers of Australia have a tendency to get killed. They die off in tragic accidents, in skirmishes with Aboriginals, but most often from their inability to extract the bare necessities of food and water from the strange and inhospitable land they encounter. Many of the stories in Flannery's anthology are wrenched from the accounts of sole survivors or found among the remains of failed expeditions. Together they paint a picture of a harsh and unforgiving continent, capable of destroying even the most thoroughly prepared team of explorers.

There is the story Charles Sturt, who's journal reveals his obsession with finding a mythological lake in the center of Australia. We learn of the daily misery of dragging a boat through a landscape so hot and dry that it bursts the party's thermometer. nearly his entire party falls to an extreme case of scurvy. Perhaps the most astonishing demise is that of John Ainsworth Horrocks, who is killed by his own camel, which apparently turned on him for having been dragged into such inhospitable a terrain. The most famous expedition however, is that of Burke and Wills who set out to be the first to cross the center of Australia from South to North. Despite being well funded, the team is soon divided and reduced to near starvation. It's leader made the fateful decision of attempting to mimic the modes of subsistence he observed among the aboriginals he had encountered. Unbeknownst to him however, the ngardu seeds he sees them eat must first undergo a complex process, without which they contain thiaminase which depletes the body of Vitamin B1. The mistake costs him his life.

This and other stories in the collection hint at a far more difficult story to tell - that of how the thriving indigenous communities that these adventurous explorers run into managed to survive for entire lifetimes in these landscapes that make such short work of even the most well provisioned expeditions. Indeed the various ways of life that aboriginal Australians developed in order to live in Australia's harshest environments is staggering. Gaining nutrients from unlikely plants, tiny grass seeds, stems of small flowers, sap and even the bark of certain trees, digging up hidden roots and even eating grubs and other insects - their diets reflect an extraordinary adaptation to the land. Some of these foods involve such complex processes to remove poisons and extract nutrients that one wonders how they were ever recognizes as foods at all. Burrawang seeds for example, are extremely poisonous, but because they are one of the only sources of starch in some areas of Australia, indigenous people pounded and soaked the seeds in water for a week, changed the water daily, then turned the pulp into a cake which is roasted over hot embers. Any mistake in this method could cost you your life.

Some of these recipes came to mind when I was visiting an exhibit in a Sydney Museum which stated that aboriginals "lacked agriculture". I suppose another way to look at it is that they were doing remarkably well without it.

For a really unique look at the Australian environment and a detailed explanation of what it can offer to sustain human life, check out the book "Bush Food" by Jennifer Isaacs.