The Noongar season of Bunuru is a time of sweet blossoms and salty dips.
Feature by Carolyn Beasley
From Perth (Boorloo) to the Swan Valley on Whadjuk Noongar Country and beyond, the season of Bunuru or ‘second summer,’ usually coincides with February and March and is traditionally a time when Noongar families enjoyed a riverside lifestyle. These sunny days were spent together, gathering the tasty treats of nature’s supermarket, from Zamia palm seeds pods, to lizards, fish and prawns.
“The weather in Bunuru is going from a hot season into an even hotter one,” says Dale Tilbrook, owner of Dale Tilbrook Experiences. “If we’re lucky, we can still get some relief with the afternoon breeze, but it’s not as guaranteed as in Birak, the season before, when the westerlies come in like clockwork.”
A Wardandi Bibbulmun woman, Dale’s company operates in the Swan Valley, just 25 minutes from Perth. In the shady garden at Mandoon Estate winery, brewery and restaurant on the upper reaches of the Swan River / Derbarl Yerrigan, Dale guides visitors through bush tucker tastings.
Dale Tilbrook, Swan Valley
Dale explains that Bunuru was known as a time of reptiles, which were often found basking in the warm sunshine.
“We flush out the snakes, goannas and lizards by burning some of the land, and wait for them to come out the other end.” Dale explains. “Then they’d be on the menu!”
Bunuru also offered sweeter gifts. The season is associated with white, as many of the eucalypts like marri, jarrah and blackbutt trees will be covered in pale flowers.
“We soaked the flowers in water to make a sweet drink,” Dale says. “If it got left standing for a little while, then it would become very mildly alcoholic.”
Harvesting wattle seed was another task of the season, which would then be roasted in the hot ash and ground into a flour. The flour could be mixed into a paste, or cooked in the fire into bread cakes called mandjaly.
Bush Foods with Dale Tilbrook, Swan Valley
“We would also wrap fish in wet paper bark, and sometimes we’d add the leaves of Geraldton wax,” Dale says. “It has a lovely kaffir lime flavour.”
Dale says that later in Bunuru, people would be carefully harvesting the fruit of the Zamia palm.
“That would be toxic unless they're treated,” Dale says. “We would sink them into the river in baskets, and a week later the seed can be pounded and made into those little bread cakes as well.
Kerry-Ann Winmar is a Whadjuk and Ballardong Traditional Owner, and operates her Nyungar Tours along the South Perth Foreshore and at Kings Park (Kaarta Koomba). Kerry-Ann explains that traditionally, Bunuru would see local people night fishing in the Swan River (Derbarl Yerrigan).
Kerry Ann, Nyungar Tours
“They would tie all the ends of the Zamia palm leaves together, it would make a giant torch light,” she says.
Prawns were also a favourite, with Kerry-Ann’s ancestors weaving nets from sedge reeds to drag through the river.
“There was a technique for nets that they made, and there’s quite a bit of information about that down in the WA Maritime Museum.”
Kerry-Ann explains that although the white eucalypt blossoms are the flamboyant signs of Bunuru, other trees have their own important habits.
“There's new shoots coming through on the sheoak tree,” she says. “They've got long thin leaves, but there's no flowering on that, but there’s a rusty coloured seed they throw off. It was medicinal, used for a calming potion.”
For Noongar people, Bunuru is considered a time of adolescence, when young animals are leaning into adulthood. For human adolescents, Bunuru meant joining the family collecting food and cooling off with a splash in the river.
Kerry-Ann recalls her own adolescence, and the warm Bunuru nights.
“We’d be just crabbing and prawning, just getting together along the river and the beach area,” she says. “We used to start off fishing about five o'clock, and go right through to 10 o'clock at night.”
Dale agrees, explaining that dips in the water, food collection, and family are all the vital ingredients for Bunuru.
Kings Park, Nyungar Tours
“This is the season when we'd be by the rivers, and the kids would be in and out of the water,” Dale says. “They'd be enjoying going out on Country and collecting food, because that's always fun.”
Dale proudly continues this tradition today, and during Bunuru, she’ll take her adolescent grand-daughter out on Country where they will practice culture together.
“She just loves seeing things growing, where they're supposed to be,” Dale says. “She loves picking wattle seeds, seeing the transition from the fluffy yellow flowers to the seeds that we can eat.”
Published January 2025.