Aborigines have an extensive and intimate ecological knowledge of the Australian landscape. Common is the view of Aboriginal culture that prior to European settlement people wandered constantly in search of food to survive in a harsh and desolate land. The country was not exploited continuously. Each clan or language group lived in a well defined area that is owned according to ancestral law or Dreaming. Each had a detailed knowledge only of the resources of its own area and a limited knowledge of surrounding areas.
Many rules concerning food are taboos on eating certain types of meat.
Such taboos occur, for example, during the initiation of young boys, at a girl's first menstruation or during pregnancy, childbirth and lactation. The taboos on food are generally said to have been made as law in the Dreaming, songs and legends support belief in the dire consequences that will befall people if they break these taboos. Almost all the techniques of butchering and cooking animals, as well as sharing the flesh have been decreed by legends from the Dreaming. If you are interested in Aboriginal Art Works click on the Rock Art below for a virtual tour of the bush art gallery .