Let the city become your restaurant as you taste local flavours and learn how to use Australian ingredients from expert guides on Aboriginal food tours. Learn about native plants, connection to Country and where to try bush tucker in Sydney.
- 4 min read
Group tours with Koori Kinnections
See Sydney in a new light on a tour with Koori Kinnections. Explore Orphan School Creek in Glebe with knowledgeable guides to learn what plants and animals are native to the area. To visit a treasured fishing, hunting and camping site for Aboriginal people, join the Berry Island Tour. Keep an eye out for rock carvings, shell middens and axe grindings. As you learn about traditional food sources, you’ll also learn about Aboriginal cultural connection to the land, sustainability and soak in some amazing views. Specialising in group tours, Koori Kinnections can also curate a two-hour session to your interests, with options to enjoy a bush food cooking workshop or enjoy a bush food tasting platter.
Koori Kinnections tour, Sydney - Credit: Rebecca Farrell
Forage with Seadrift Distillery
Want to learn how to distil unique flavours? The Foraging at Dawn and Dusk experiences with Seadrift Distillery show you firsthand how distillers gather Australian sea botanicals and integrate seaweed into non-alcoholic beverages. During this three-hour adventure in the Northern Beaches, a local Aboriginal elder will teach you about the various types of seaweed that thrive in the region and how their flavours are best captured. Then back at the distillery, you’ll be guided by the master distiller and get to taste the resulting botanical drinks for yourself. This tour includes coffee, pastries and a complimentary bottle of Seadrift non-alcoholic spirits.
Seadrift So-Bar, Seadrift Distillery, Brookvale - Credit: Seadrift Distillery
Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour at the Royal Botanic Garden
Home to thousands of native plants, Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden offers an Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour to share how Australian plants are used as food, medicine and tools. Wander through the Cadi Jam Ora Garden to learn traditional food preparation methods and how you can incorporate bush foods into your everyday recipes. Offered Thursday to Saturday, you’ll get to taste the flavours for yourself on this one-hour tour.
Aboriginal bush tucker tour, Royal Botanic Gardens
Salty Air & Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour with Australia by Nature
Discover the sights and tastes of Sydney’s Northern Beaches on a full-day, private tour with Salty Air & Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour. Led by Australia by Nature’s passionate local and First Nations guides, see stunning coastal scenery before you enjoy a gourmet picnic lunch by the sea at Whale Beach. The afternoon is dedicated to a hands-on introduction to native plants, learning about their traditional cooking and medicinal uses thanks to Bush to Bowl, a 100% Aboriginal-owned social enterprise.
Diggers lookout, Australia by Nature, Manly - Credit: Caroline
Splendour Tailored Tours
Immerse yourself in the oldest living culture on earth as you learn to care for Country and cherish its produce with Splendour Tailored Tours. On an Indigenous Culture Tour, take part in a traditional Welcome to Country ceremony with your guide before exploring some of Sydney’s most beautiful natural spaces, rich in history and plant life. Over morning tea, taste traditional recipes as well as contemporary creations showcasing native ingredients such as lemon myrtle, wattle seed and macadamia nut oil. The tour includes a two-course lunch celebrating modern Aboriginal culture, then opt to see Indigenous masterpieces at Yiribana Gallery at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Splendour Tailored Tours, Sydney
Midden by Mark Olive
On the western boardwalk of Sydney Opera House, you’ll find Midden by Mark Olive. Named after the middens located around the harbour where Gadigal people feasted on oysters and other local produce, this popular restaurant has sweeping views of the water and Sydney Harbour Bridge, and is inspired by chef Olive’s Indigenous heritage. Native ingredients are showcased throughout the menu, from wattleseed to bush honey, saltbush to sea succulents. Feast before or after a show at the Sydney Opera House or pair your meal with a Sydney Opera House Tour of the iconic building. Head to Little Midden at Hay St Market for more delectable dishes, including paperbark-smoked barramundi.
Midden by Mark Olive, Sydney Opera House - Credit: Midden by Mark Olive
The importance of bush tucker
The importance of bush tucker
