@Loudmouth,

Being closely involved with mining companies in WA, NT and Qld., one thing is consistent and that is the difficulty of first getting Aboriginal Australians to train for employment and then getting them to continue in the job. And this with huge efforts going into allowing them the, laughably cultural, practice, of having regular walkabouts.

Millions if not billions have been wasted setting communities up with projects, including cattle stations, which within a few years are in ruins, because no-one wants to do the work, or simply abandoned because everyone has wandered off.

Yes, there are exceptions but they are rare and often require the individual leaving the community and ensuring no-one knows where he or she has gone so the continual sucking dry of funds and goods by community members, can end.

Hi rhross,

I note from your above post a blinked and pessimistic view of Aboriginal people. In response to; "is the difficulty of first getting Aboriginal Australians to train for employment and then getting them to continue in the job....because no-one wants to do the work, or simply abandoned because everyone has wandered off. " my answer is; WHY SHOULD THEY. In typical sarcastic fashion you refer to "regular walkabouts", it would do you well to really understand what "walkabout" is and its significance to Aboriginal people, it is not simply as some uneducated think, nothing more than wandering off.

You lampoon Pascoe for his lack of formal qualifications, but you also have no such formal qualifications yourself. Describing his book at "fiction" is unreasonable, as it clearly is no such thing. I would like you to put up quotes from 'Dark Emu' that you claim are "fiction", upon reading I came across no such fiction.

Hi Joe,

Glad you admit you "made it up" but there is no relevance to whether its 100kg to hectare, or 1000kg. The fact is Aboriginal people were undertaking the growing of crops, be they yam gardens in Sydney or kangaroo grass somewhere else. BTW there is a long list of productive grass like seeds given by Pascoe, you will find it in the chapter 'Agriculture'.

The wife is still a "gatherer" she has a "crop" of 'poha' growing down the side of our place. We had it with a 'boil-up' the other night. It rather tasty if picked young. Me thinks she getting 1000kg to the hectare, but it will be a lot less if this whitefella introduces it to his European "whipper-snipper'. I can recommend her 'kamo kamo pickles' with a side of 'fry bread', a nice change on brisket bones from our normal 'mustard pickles', but at $10/kg 'kamo kamo' is a real cash crop for some enterprising Maori around Brisbane. I'm drying some seeds, me thinks I'll try growing my own cash crop in the spring.

BTW Joe, I forgot to mention, there is a Maori bloke out in the Lockyer Valley growing 'poha' and 'kamo kamo' commercially. It must be productive, he's selling it up and down the east coast in Maori shops like butchers and grocery stores as far away as Melbourne, delivered overnight. 'Poha' doesn't keep well, it wilts quickly, but it does freeze, 'kamo kamo' keeps well, but never gets a chance around here, I believe the same chap is going to start growing 'Maori potatoes' as soon as he gets enough root stock, which he is developing now. The daughter got me to pick up a couple of kamo kamo's for her, cost me $12, yet to see the money, these "indigenous" know how to take advantage of the white fella when it comes to money, but he doesn't mind, loves the girl. I like the 'kumra' at $0.89/kg and 'purple sweet potato' at $1.49/kg, down at the local veg, more my price range.

Hi Paul,

So ...... wherever there were miles and miles of daisy yams, Aboriginal people still, for some reason, planted them ? And in areas were there were hundreds of miles of kangaroo grass in every direction, Aboriginal people still stubbornly went out of their way to plant it ? Although any tools they might have used have been destroyed by whitefellas to hide any evidence of Aboriginal agriculture ? Why, god knows - their 60,000-years of knowledge of agriculture, hydrology, stonewall technology and local ecology would have been a huge advantage to newly-arrived 'settlers'.

Anything else ? You've got the book, so why not tell us and save us $ 50 ?

Mmmmmm, I love puha with plenty of salt and pepper. But I would have thought that you could get many thousands of kilos to the hectare, so it might be worth your while growing some for the local market. Can you save the seed and market that as well ? I'd buy some. And the kamo kamo seeds as well. There's a business for someone :)

Cheers,

Joe

Paul,

Of course the beautiful black soil of the Lockyer Valley - combined with the bountiful Qld rain - would almost guarantee huge crops year-round. God, I hate that bloke.

Joe