Skills & methods
Cooking meat: coals, oven, trough and grill
The dictionary cooks in detail: wayjul 'to cook food; to burn something', dindal 'to roast on coals', jani 'well cooked, done', jirra 'burnt, as food', jirra-bungal 'to overcook, to burn the food', kayal 'raw', jika food that 'when cooked, is not hard but squishy', bangkal the 'tongs made from voya vine, used in cooking in a kurrma, an earth oven', kunukunu 'fat in food or fatty meat', jirrburr 'meat with no fat, an animal in poor condition (this kind of animal will not be eaten)', and wuynkurr 'juice of meat'[1]. Roth, 1901: 'the actual cooking of both animal and plant food is effected either by roasting, baking, boiling, or grilling. Of these, roasting — broiling would be a better term — is perhaps the simplest and easiest process, the material to be cooked being just placed on and in the hot ashes. Baking in ground-ovens with heated stones, or with chunks of ant-bed when the latter are not available, varies slightly in the different districts. At Cape Bedford and on the Bloomfield a number of stones (KYE, kurma), after being well heated in a fire, are removed together with the ashes, and a hole quickly dug in the position just occupied. Along its bottom are next placed several kinds of leaves (various species of ginger); upon these the pieces of meat, amongst which the hot stones and ashes are packed, then a covering of some more leaves or tea-tree bark, and lastly a layer of earth and stones'[2]. 'Meat is certainly preferred fresh to being tainted, and is always cooked in some way or another'[2]. The earth oven has its own page; this one is the whole kitchen, from cutting up to the grill, with the meat pages, wallaby, goanna, pigs, turtle, fish, for each animal's own way.
Hann River Cape York
Possum People's country on the upper river and Thaypan (Kuku Thaypan) country downstream: stringybark and bloodwood woodland and a spring-fed sandy river that runs north-east from the Great Dividing Range, past the Peninsula Developmental Road, into Rinyirru (Lakefield) and the North Kennedy. Not Kuku Yalanji country: the Kuku Yalanji words on this page are the dictionary's, not the Hann's own languages. Place guide
For the Hann's country the oldest cooking notes are Walter Roth's, from 'the back of Princess Charlotte Bay' about 1900: snakes stretched over the flames before roasting, tortoises killed with a stiff bristle, and an ant-bed oven on the Morehead[2]. The Kuku Thaypan Elders spoke of fire 'for cooking and for warfare', and of the woods and barks they cook with[7].
How people cooked here
What was cooked. On the upper Hann the Court recorded a Possum man's evidence of 'fishing for barra, jewfish, catties and spotties' and 'hunting pigs, kangaroos, goanna, porcupine, and plain turkeys'[8]. A Thaypan man: 'We get wallaby, barramundi, freshwater fish and turtles and mussels'[9]. Roth: '"Poisonous" snakes are eaten at Princess Charlotte Bay, but avoided on the Bloomfield'[2].
Roth's notes, back of Princess Charlotte Bay, about 1900[2]:
- Snake. 'Presumably to stop all reflex action when roasted in a coil over the fire, I have seen the snake previously and forcibly stretched, length by length, over the flames.'
- Tortoise. 'In this same district, and possibly for a similar purpose, tortoises are killed by inserting a stiff wooden bristle through the nostril into the brain.'
- Boiling. Roth 'met with the process' of boiling 'in the hinterland of Princess Charlotte Bay', though he does not say what was boiled.
- The ant-bed oven. On the Morehead River he saw yams 'baked in a hot ant-bed covered with tea-tree bark and earth' for about twenty minutes.
Kuku Thaypan Elders (recorded by Standley)[7]:
- Boxwood (Ku ronga, Molloy box): 'This timber burns hot and makes good coals for fire and cooking.'
- Paperbark is used 'as a wrap for food to keep it clean when cooking in the ground'.
Safety here
In Rinyirru the rules are: 'Never leave food scraps, fish frames or bait at a camp site', and 'never prepare food, wash dishes or pursue any other activities near the water's edge or adjacent sloping banks'. Visitors are asked to bring a 'fuel or gas stove for cooking' and 'rubbish bags as no bins are provided'[10]. Crocodiles come to where food is cleaned.
On country today
The upper Hann is the Possum People's country and the middle and lower Hann are Thaypan country, under native title determinations of November 2023[8][9]. Ask them before hunting or lighting a cooking fire on their country.
Upper Mitchell Western Yalanji
Western Yalanji country west of the Great Dividing Range: dry open woodland cut by the sandy, paperbark-lined upper Mitchell River, around Karma Waters and Mount Carbine. Place guide
At Karma Waters the station's induction sets the fire rules for cooking at the river camps[11].
On country today
The Karma Waters river camps cook on the carbeen coals and in the ground as the old camps did, and the station's induction has the fire rules[3][11]. The Western Yalanji cooking words, and the Mitchell's leaves for the oven, are for the contribution box below[1].
Eastern coast Eastern Kuku Yalanji
Eastern Kuku Yalanji country: rainforest, beaches, mangroves, reef and the short steep rivers from the Daintree to the Bloomfield and the Annan.
On the Bloomfield, the Bloomfield people boiled, 'in a bark-trough', 'before any permanent European settlement ever took place there', when Cook's Endeavour River people sixty miles away did not[2].
How people cooked here
Boiling, older than the settlers. Roth: 'Boiling is done in a bark-trough (e.g., Curcuma australasica on the Bloomfield), or more usually in a large Melo shell ... From the evidence of one of the earliest pioneers (Messrs. Hislop), it is a certainty that the Bloomfield blacks practised boiling before any permanent European settlement ever took place there. On the other hand, Lieutenant Cook, in describing the Endeavour River natives, only 60 miles distant, says: "They do not appear to eat any animal food raw; but, having no vessel in which water can be boiled, they either broil it upon the coals or bake it in a hole by the help of hot stones."'[2]. See bark troughs and bailer shells.
Everywhere
Names
wayjul 'to cook food; to burn something'; waju-l 'to cook, burn, or light (a fire); also boil'; dindal 'to roast on coals'; jakalambal 'start a fire, start to cook food'; balnji 'properly with a fire as in cooking'; jani 'well cooked, done'; jirra 'burnt, as food. Sometimes also the crust of bread'; jirra-bungal 'to overcook, to burn the food'; kayal 'undeveloped, green, unripe; raw'; kalki 'unripe'; kulbul 'ripe'; jika 'any food if, when cooked, is not hard but squishy'; kurrma 'earth oven'; bangkal 'tongs made from voya vine, used in cooking in a kurrma'; jidu a scrub fruit whose 'leaves are also used to line a dirt oven'; ngunjil 'charcoal; hot coals or hot ashes'; nulu 'ashes'; kunukunu 'fat in food or fatty meat'; jirrburr 'meat with no fat, an animal in poor condition. (This kind of animal will not be eaten)'; wuynkurr 'juice of meat'; minya 'meat, eggs (protein food)'; mayi vegetable food; muyu wayjul 'singeing the hair of the pig before cooking'[1].
Roth's kitchen, 1901
Cutting up. 'Any large portion of flesh is cut up into conveniently-sized pieces, on the lower Tully River, by means of the spines on a lawyer-cane used after the manner of a cross-cut saw. Leichhardt, when on the Lynd River, speaks of "flints fastened with human hair to the ends of sticks, and which are used as knives to cut their skin and food." Flint flakes with gum-cement handles are used for similar purposes in the far Western districts'[2]. See stone and lawyer cane.
Fresh, and the few things raw. 'Meat is certainly preferred fresh to being tainted, and is always cooked in some way or another: the only exception I know of is on the Tully, where the intestines of some of the larger mammals, reptiles, and birds may be eaten raw'. 'At the back of Princess Charlotte Bay, presumably to stop all reflex action when roasted in a coil over the fire, I have seen the snake previously and forcibly stretched, length by length, over the flames'; there too 'tortoises are killed by inserting a stiff wooden bristle through the nostril into the brain'; and 'a common way of killing fish is to bite into them deeply just at the back of the head ... who thus makes sure that on throwing the fish already caught on to the banks there is no chance of their skipping back'[2].
Roasting. 'Roasting — broiling would be a better term — is perhaps the simplest and easiest process, the material to be cooked being just placed on and in the hot ashes'[2]. The dictionary's dindal, 'to roast on coals', and ngunjil, the hot coals, are this; the pig's hair is singed first, muyu wayjul, and the dictionary's meat pages, the mussels roasted then cleaned, the witchetty grub raw or roasted, say what goes in the ashes[1].
Baking: the earth oven. 'At Cape Bedford and on the Bloomfield a number of stones (KYE, kurma), after being well heated in a fire, are removed together with the ashes, and a hole quickly dug in the position just occupied. Along its bottom are next placed several kinds of leaves (various species of ginger); upon these the pieces of meat, amongst which the hot stones and ashes are packed, then a covering of some more leaves or tea-tree bark, and lastly a layer of earth and stones.' 'On the Pennefather River, instead of cutting the carcass up into pieces, heated stones are placed inside the animal to be baked. Take, for instance, the case of a kangaroo, which, on being killed, is usually first of all robbed of its tail-tendons, and then has the main joints of its upper and lower limbs dislocated to enable them to be subsequently folded over and bound together. The tongue is next drawn out and skewered with a wooden splinter over the incisors (required for spoke-shaves) to prevent them being too much damaged by the heat. The belly, incised horizontally, is now freed of its intestines, which are replaced by heated stones. The limbs are finally drawn up to the sides of the body, the whole covered with bark, tied round and round like a bundle, and put into the hot ashes, etc., with which it is well covered over. Large turtle is similarly baked here, with the insertion of hot stones through an incision in the neck.' 'On the lower Tully, an additional fire is lighted on top of the oven, which, met with in sandy places, is found to be used over and over again: banana leaves and tea-tree bark generally line it. In the Endeavour River district, around the Annan, etc., the old discarded stone heads of the original axes have been utilised in large measure for lining the ground-ovens'[2]. See earth oven, sinew and termites and ant beds for the oven of ant-bed chunks.
Boiling. 'Boiling is done in a bark-trough (e.g., Curcuma australasica on the Bloomfield), or more usually in a large Melo shell ... There is no such thing as boiling on the Tully River'[2]. His Bloomfield and Princess Charlotte Bay notes are with those places above. See bark troughs, bailer shells and wild ginger.
Grilling. 'Grilling, which I have seen practised at Atherton and Cooktown in the case of the Colocasia, is the general way for cooking eels on the Tully River ... The Tully appliances are of two types; the one is formed of four upright forks supporting two main cross-pieces, on which several sticks are laid, the whole reaching to a height of from 18 to 24 inches from the ground; the other is lower, and built convex after the manner of a miniature hut'[2]. See eels.
The wood. 'Dead branches from the grey boxwood (Eucalyptus tessellaris) made the best cooking wood: it is very hard, but splits easily and burns slowly and intensely', and the smoke of the milky-sapped trees blinds; see camps and firewood[3].
Which way for which meat
- Small game, fish, mussels, grubs: on and in the hot ashes, dindal[2][1].
- Kangaroo, wallaby, pig, turtle, big fish, a bundle of birds: the earth oven, whole or in pieces, with ginger or wattle or gum leaves[2][3].
- Eels and yams: the grill of sticks over coals[2].
- Stews and the ginger root: the bark trough or the shell, with hot stones dropped in[2].
- Snake: stretched over the flames, then coiled and roasted[2].
- Pig: singed, scraped, and cooked right through[1][4].
Signs of an old kitchen
- A ring of fire-cracked stones in the sand: an earth oven, 'used over and over again'[2].
- Old axe heads in the oven lining, on the Endeavour[2].
- Burnt ant-bed chunks where there was no stone[2].
- A grinding boulder by a riffle: the zamia camp; see camps and firewood[3].
Where the cooking was done
At the camp on the sandy terrace, 'the camps were the usual sites for food preparation and consumption', with the oven dug in the sand and used again, and the trough and shell at the hearth[3][2].
Fat, lean and fresh
The dictionary's rules are a hunter's ecology: a jirrburr animal, lean and in poor condition, 'will not be eaten', the fat, kunukunu, is the point of the meat, and Roth's people 'preferred fresh to being tainted'[1][2]. Fat follows the season: the turtles and goannas are fat in the late dry and the wet, the wallabies after the green pick, the ducks and magpie geese in the late wet, the fish before the flood, the flying foxes in the blossom; see the year on country.
Seasons
The big ovens of the dry-season camps, with the zamia and the game of the branch camps; the grill for the eels of the falling river; the trough for the wet[3][2]. See the year on country.
The methods, by name
- Roasting on the coals and in the ashes: fast, for small things[2].
- Baking in the kurrma: slow, for whole animals and bulk, in ginger leaves and bark[2][1].
- Boiling in the bark trough or bailer shell: the Bloomfield's own method, older than the settlers[2].
- Grilling on a frame of forked sticks: eels and roots[2].
- Singeing: the pig's hair, muyu wayjul[1].
- Drying: grubs 'dried in the sun and put away for future occasions' in the west; see witchetty grub[2].
Baking a kangaroo whole, after Roth
The Pennefather method, for a wallaby or a small kangaroo[2]:
- Take the tail tendons first, for the sinew[2].
- Dislocate the main joints of the legs so they will fold[2].
- Draw the tongue and skewer it over the front teeth with a splinter, so the teeth are not spoilt by the heat; the incisors were wanted for spokeshaves[2].
- Open the belly across, take out the guts, and pack the cavity with stones heated in the fire[2].
- Fold the legs up to the body, wrap the whole in bark and tie it round and round like a bundle[2].
- Bury it in the hot ashes and cover well; on the Tully a second fire is lit on top[2].
- Open it when the smell says jani; the bark comes away with the fur[1].
The simple oven, for pieces: heat the stones in the fire, rake them and the ashes out, dig the hole where the fire was, line it with ginger or wattle leaves, lay the meat with the hot stones packed among it, cover with leaves or paperbark, then earth and stones, and leave it an hour or more; lift with the vine tongs, bangkal[2][1][3].
Safety
- Cook the pig through; 'freezing, smoking, drying and pickling do not kill the bacteria that cause brucellosis'[4]. See pigs.
- Fresh, never tainted, and not the lean animal[2][1].
- The poison nut's roasting smoke 'is poisonous'; see leaching[1].
- Hot stones burst; heat river stones slowly and stand back; see earth oven.
- Clean the fish and butcher the game away from the water the camp drinks and swims in[5].
On Country today
Each place cooked with its own woods and leaves: see each place above. Native title holders hunting for personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs don't need the licences others need, and their rights differ from place to place[6].
Language
wayjul 'to cook, to burn'; dindal 'to roast on coals'; jani 'well cooked'; jirra 'burnt'; kayal 'raw'; kulbul 'ripe'; jika 'soft when cooked'; kurrma 'earth oven'; bangkal 'vine tongs'; ngunjil 'hot coals'; nulu 'ashes'; kunukunu 'fat'; jirrburr 'lean, not eaten'; wuynkurr 'juice of meat'; minya 'meat'; mayi 'vegetable food'[1].
References
- Hershberger, H. D. & Hershberger, R. (1982). Kuku-Yalanji Dictionary. Work Papers of SIL-AAB, Series B, Volume 7. With Toby Bloomfield, Roy Friday, Billy Roberts, Hector and Doris Sykes, Joe Walker and others. www.sil.org/resources/archives/18038
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 3: Food — its search, capture, and preparation. Brisbane: Government Printer. Bloomfield River information from the Hislops. — Sect. 6 'Cooking'; plant list ('Castanospermum australe', 'Dioscorea sativa', 'Elettaria Scottiana', 'Nymphaea'); sect. 4 (snakes eaten at Princess Charlotte Bay); sect. 5 (preparations for cooking, back of Princess Charlotte Bay); sect. 6 (cooking); Dioscorea sativa var. rotunda (Morehead River) archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Anderson, C. (1996). Traditional material culture of the Kuku-Yalanji of Bloomfield River, North Queensland. Records of the South Australian Museum 29(1): 63–83. Based on fieldwork at Wujal Wujal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. — Hunting (spears, spear-throwers, harpoons); fishing (stupefacients); manufacturing (gums and resins); post-contact bush component archive.org/details/RecordsSouthAus29Sout
- NSW Health. Brucellosis: fact sheet (accessed 10 October 2026). www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/brucellosis.aspx
- Queensland Government. Be Crocwise top tips; Be Crocwise in Croc Country (web pages, accessed 5 October 2026). www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/animals/living-with/crocodiles/becrocwise/be-crocwise-top-tips
- Native Title Act 1993 (Cth), section 211: preservation of certain native title rights and interests (hunting, fishing and gathering for personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs). www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A04665/latest/text
- Standley, P.-M. (2019). The importance of campfires to effective conservation. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Records the fire and country knowledge of Kuku Thaypan Elders Dr Tommy George and Dr George Musgrave. — Fire 'for cooking and for warfare' (p. 15); boxwood as cooking wood (p. 427); paperbark as a food wrap in the ground oven (p. 450) researchonline.jcu.edu.au/64274/
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 21) (Possum determination) [2023] FCA 1316 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area (upper Hann and Kennedy rivers); prescribed body corporate; affidavit evidence on hunting and fishing www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1316
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 20) (Thaypan determination) [2023] FCA 1315 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area and waters; prescribed body corporate (Awu-Laya Indigenous Corporation); affidavit evidence on hunting www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1315
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Visiting Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) safely (web page, last updated 1 December 2025; Wayback Machine copy, accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/visiting-safely
- Karma Waters Station. Induction, waiver and indemnity form (updated 9 June 2023). www.karmawatersstation.com/uploads/3/1/9/2/31929385/induction_waiver_and_indemnity.pdf
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