Snotty gobbles, bush celery, wattleseed flour, and wild rice - within a 20-metre radius, there was a veritable feast hidden to most, but glaringly obvious to two Aboriginal conservationists. Now the pair are hoping to share some of their new-found knowledge with school children in an effort to revitalise the local indigenous culture.
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Adam Shipp and David Thomas were part of the Yurung Dhaura Aboriginal Land Management team, which was on Thursday presented with its third award in three months, despite no longer existing.
Yurung Dhaura, which wound up in March after its two-year federal funding ended, was named indigenous land management program of the year at the ACT Landcare awards, after two honours at the ACT National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee awards in July, including one for trainee of the year.
The program began in 2011 to train indigenous rangers and conservationists in land care, while helping build knowledge of indigenous culture in the lower Cotter catchment. With the program over, Mr Shipp and Mr Thomas are setting up training days, with a focus on teaching youth valuable bush skills - from tool-making to recognising edible and medicinal native plants.
They hope to begin in the next few weeks in Kowen Forest, east of Canberra, with groups of children from the Queanbeyan school where Mr Thomas works.
''My goal, my aim is to promote our culture, and land management, community development, medicines, food, and our law and the way we lived as people for thousands of years,'' Mr Thomas said. ''I sort of want to keep that alive for the next generation. And not only that, it teaches them respect, it teaches them history, their culture.''
Mr Shipp, who now works for Greening Australia, said their idea was to continue the dual role of Yurung Dhaura, which taught culture through land management.
''Although we were learning conservation land management, we were also learning about traditional foods and things in this area,'' he said, and pointed out a host of edible and medicinal plants growing between noxious weeds in the forest.
''I want to just work with the community now, with the Aboriginal community and the Canberra community in general, and just teach about what's out here.''
Mr Thomas said he was disappointed funding for Yurung Dhaura wasn't extended, especially given its acknowledged success.
''There needs to be an indigenous team in ACT parks because, no offence, a lot of white people don't know how to identify certain things,'' he said. ''With us, it's different. It's part of us, it's who we are, it's our culture.''
