Containers

Containers such as these were used for collecting seed, for sifting and winnowing, and as receptacles for holding water and seed meal.

Nardoo, like some other species of plants that Aboriginal people exploited, required special processing to make it suitable for human consumption. Nardoo was made famous by being the food on which the explorers Burke and Wills starved to death in June 1861. Emulating what they saw local Aboriginal people doing, the men harvested and ground nardoo into flour. However, they did not realise that if nardoo is not processed in a particular manner, it robs the body of vitamin B1 and has little nutritional value.

E. 68140 Container (35 cm long), Central New South Wales. Acquired 1983. Photo: S Humphreys.

E.5044 Nardoo (Marsileaceae) spore cases acquired 1895. Photo: S Humphreys.

B.8531 Container (18 cm long) used by Aboriginal people living between the Lachlan and Darling Rivers, New South Wales. Acquired 1885. Photo: S Humphreys.