Calls for Beverley farm to host Australia’s first Aboriginal bush produce hub to develop $25 million industry

A farm in the heart of one of the State’s grain growing regions could be central to developing Australia’s $25 million native bush foods industry and unlocking its potential on the global stage. A business case has been put forward for Avondale Farm, 130km inland from Perth near Beverley in the Wheatbelt, to become the first Aboriginal bush produce innovation and manufacturing hub in the country. It follows Noongar Land Enterprise Group’s project ‘Yoordaninj-bah,’ consulting with Aboriginal organisations across the country to identify how Indigenous communities could benefit from the commercial production of bush foods. “We’ve been able to ... engage with Aboriginal people and create a forum where they told us where the gaps are and what support is needed to enable greater participation by them in the bush food industry,” NLE chief executive Alan Beattie said. “We’re looking forward to continuing this journey and putting in place the solutions that came out of the program.” The project — funded by Agribusiness Growth Centre (trading as Food Innovation Australia Ltd or FIAL) and the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Innovation and Science — identified cultural protocols to encourage participation, mapped bush food species and highlighted their nutritional and medicinal values. The industry, which is driven largely by the restaurant sector and employs around 1000 people nationally, is booming, with Kakadu plum, finger lime, sandalwood, wattle seed, lemon myrtle, macadamias and bush tomatoes becoming household names in recent years. More than 20,000 tonnes of Kakadu plums were harvested in 2019 by the Northern Australian Kakadu Plum Alliance for fruit and powder, valued at $656,000, while Australia’s macadamia nut production (50,770t) accounts for a fifth of global production. Industry figures believe there is plenty more room for growth, with increased engagement with Indigenous communities the key to building a “contemporary, Aboriginal-led, bush produce industry”. Of Australia’s 35,000 native plant species, only about 1500 are publicly known to be consumed as food or drink or used for medical purposes by Aboriginal communities. Despite Aboriginal knowledge being key to the industry’s commercialisation, the report found only a small proportion flowed back to Aboriginal people, with Aboriginal participation valued at less than 2 per cent of the industry’s value. FIAL managing director Mirjana Prica said the Yoordaninj-bah project provided Indigenous people an opportunity to grow their share in the industry. “Models were explored that can be adopted broadly, like grower groups or cooperatives, and found to align with the strengths of Aboriginal culture, including collaboration and sharing of benefits for Aboriginal people and the broader good,” Dr Prica said. “But this can only be achieved if there is a shared investment by government and industry together with research across Australia to build a contemporary, Aboriginal-led bush produce industry.”