Contrary to their usual habits, they sometimes store up the Bunya nuts, hiding them in a water - hole for a month or two . Nuts are seeds. Tree seeds of one kind or another have been eaten in every part of the planet we wandered to.
Nuts are seasonal, but they have the tremendous advantage of storing for a long time.
Our ancestors probably camped under bearing nut trees for as long as the supply lasted. The energy expended in gathering and preparing nuts is much less than the time and energy spent obtaining the same calorie value from hunting. A small number of nuts provides a large part of the daily energy requirements. They are also low glycemic, which means they 'burn slow' and don't cause a surge in insulin levels which can result in a crash in blood sugars. The tree is not only found scattered in open woodlands-in some areas there are large stands, up to 60,000 hectares in extent.