The overland explorers Charles Sturt and John Stuart would probably have died of scurvy in central Australia, had they not eaten the wild fruits including the Quandong on their travels. Early settlers used the fruit of the Desert Quandong in jams, pies and jellies. They also dried the fruit like the Aborigines to keep them for future use. More recently the Quandong is often used in wild food restaurants and sold as jams and pies. The Aborigines often ate the nutritious oily kernels of the Quandong.
Some trees produce sweet almond flavoured kernels while others produce a distasteful kernel.
The seeds of the Quandong, both Desert and Bitter are round, pale and knobbly. The Early settlers used these for making necklace beads, stud buttons and Chinese checker marbles. Today, they are only rarely used for these purposes, by locals and art and craft shops. Occasionally small operators use the wood as craft wood. They hope to turn it into a commercially viable crop.