Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00153:body:0:p11
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00153
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 29424–32480

fruits include: gooseberry (Buchanania arborescens), broad-leaved native cherry (Exocarpos latifolius) and wild apple (Syzygium suborbiculare) in the Cape York region; banyan (Ficus virens), Burdekin plum (Pleiogynium timoriense), cheese fruit (Morinda citrifolia) and lawyer cane (Calamus caryotoides) in the Wet Tropics region; lilly pilly (Syzygium smithii) and wild grapes (Cissus hypoglauca), and young shoots and leaves of pandanus (Pandanus spp.) in south-eastern Queensland, northern New South Wales and Sydney Basin regions (Isaacs 2002). In south‑east New South Wales and northern Victoria fruits of the lilly pilly and the cabbage-tree palm (Livistona australis) were important food sources, rhizomes from common bracken (Pteridium esculentum) were beaten into a paste, roasted and eaten and flowers of Callistemon species were sucked for nectar (Isaacs 2002). Basket weaving material often included the leaves of long-leaf mat-rush (Lomandra longifolia), while leaf bases were eaten raw (Low 1989).
Gathering of fruit in Littoral Rainforest habitats was also accompanied by hunting of a variety of mammals and birds that were attracted to the fruiting plants, as well as hunting of snakes which were drawn in by the high abundances of mammals and birds. Numerous insect larvae, snails and other invertebrate taxa were also collected from the moist environments of Littoral Rainforest (Isaacs 2002). Large shell middens have been found around the Clarence Estuary near Iluka in New South Wales (Grantley 2010).

Many plant species were valued for their medicinal purposes: stingray and stonefish stings were treated with heated leaves from the peanut tree (Sterculia quadrifida); swelling and diarrhoea were remedied using the leaves of the sandpaper fig (Ficus opposita), wounds were treated with a bark infusion made from the cocky apple (Planchonia careya); coughs and chest trouble were healed by a tonic created from native sarsaparilla (Smilax glyciphylla); rheumatism and sprains were treated with boiled leaves or a poultice created from stinging nettle (Urtica incisa); and the seeds of the buttercup orchid (Cymbidium madidum) were said to confer sterility (Isaacs 2002). Stomach ailments, muscular pains and toothaches were remedied with various concoctions derived from the young leaf tips, bark and wood of the red ash (Alphitonia excelsa) (Low 1990).
Many Indigenous groups continue to have a deep connection with Littoral Rainforest. However many Traditional Owners may know patches of the ecological community by place name, rather than by vegetation type. There are a number of Indigenous groups and Traditional Owners that have in the past or are currently involved in the rehabilitation of Littoral Rainforest sites.

1.5.2      Values of local ecological communities and native vegetation to people
As Littoral Rainforest occurs at the transition zone between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, it provides numerous vital ecosystem services that benefit humans and the coastal communities they inhabit (Lavorel et al. 2015).