The popular Australian native fruits include Davidson Plum, Kakadu Plum, Illawarra Plum, Finger Lime, Sunrise Lime, Lemon Aspen, Outback Lime, Muntries and Quandong. These nutrient-dense fruits from the Australian backyard are now considered 'superfoods'.
Examples of Australian native plant foods include the fruits quandong, kutjera, muntries, riberry, Davidson's plum, and finger lime. Native spices include lemon myrtle, mountain pepper, and the kakadu plum. Various native yams are valued as food, and a popular leafy vegetable is warrigal greens.
We are growers and suppliers of Australian native tropical fruits such as the Davidson's Plum, Lemon Aspen, Rainforest Cherry, Herbert River Cherry, Finger Limes and Rainforest Tamarind.
Some well known edible native vegetables include yams, warrigal greens, native leek and water plantain. Australian natives offer a diverse and tasty range of vegetables to cultivate at home.
Although mango is not native to Australia, many selections of trees were made in the 1960's. These trees were generally found in the vicinity of Queensland ports. Many of the trading ships in the 1800's left mango seeds behind that found their way on to farms and stations.
Native to central Australia, bush tomato is a globular fruit some 10–15 millimetres in size which turns from green to yellow as it ripens. It is usually sun dried on the bush before harvesting, when it takes on a reddish colour.
The kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) is a large, woody, deciduous vine native to the Yangtze Valley of China.
The two major species are Citrus glauca or 'Desert Lime' and Microcitrus australasica ' Finger Lime' are two of the more popular native citrus trees. Australia has six species of citrus, all commonly called finger lime, native lime, wild lime or similar.
The types of fruit and seed depended on the season and availability, but could include wild passionfruit, wild oranges, bush tomato, bush banana, bush plums, mulga seeds and wattle seeds. Aboriginal Australians would also gather honey and nectar from bees, honey ants, flowers and trees.
Bauple nuts, Queensland nuts, Mullumbimby nuts, Bush nuts, Maroochi nuts, kindal kindal or boomberaare. All names for our native nut, the macadamia – which is not only delicious but beautiful. If you've only ever seen macadamias when ripe – or hidden in their thick, hard-to-crack shells – you're missing out.
yam, taro, cassava, wild yams, eggs, shellfish and small animals whilst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men fished and hunted for larger land and sea animals such as dugong, kangaroo and turtles.
Wheat, maize and barley were first grown in Sydney shortly after the arrival of the First Fleet. Inland exploration and the establishment of new colonies (particularly South Australia and Western Australia) opened up new farmland and crop growing boomed.
Australia has six species of native citrus, with the most well known and cultivated species being the finger lime. The Australian finger lime (Citrus australasica) is native to the rainforests of the border ranges of SE Queensland and Northern NSW.
You can read about 11 popular varieties of Aussie Apples including Jonathan, Royal Gala, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Jonagold, Fuji, Braeburn, Cripps Pink (sold as Pink Lady™), Granny Smith, Jazz™ and Cripps Red (sold as Sundowner™).
The Wild orange (Capparis mitchellii) also known as native orange or wild pomegranate is one of the traditional Australian fruits.
Apples as we know them today are the result of a very long tradition of cultivation that goes back thousands of years to the wild apple forests of central Asia. Apples were domesticated, cultivated and introduced to the rest of the world via ancient trade routes and arrived in Australia with the First Fleet.
Citrus tree
In terms of limes, one of the most unique Australian native fruit trees is the finger lime. Citrus trees prefer free-draining soils that are neutral to acidic. They also require regular watering and thrive with a layer of organic mulch.
China is one of the earliest and most important centers of origin of cultivated plants in the world. Many deciduous fruits such as peach, Asian pear, apricot, plum, jujube, chestnut and filbert that are grown today are native to China.
The Australian National Dictionary also gives the first use of the term "Kiwi Kids" and "Kiwis" in 1917, to mean Australian army recruits who had kiwied up; in other words, they had highly-polished boots.
In financial year 2022, the production value of potatoes in Australia amounted to just over 830 million Australian dollars. Potatoes were the leading vegetable type produced in the country in terms of production value, followed by tomatoes at approximately 645 million Australian dollars.
Possums are omnivores, enjoying a varied diet that includes fruit, insects, grains, and even small rodents and birds. Tomatoes also find a place on their menu. They are also nocturnal animals, which means that, when they come across them, possums eat tomatoes at night.
The bush tomato (also known as Solanum centrale) is a fast-growing shrub native to the arid desert regions of central Australia, from Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory to Marla in South Australia and the east Kimberly in Western Australia.