A town built on macadamias.
Story By Chris Pritchard
This may sound nutty, but it isn’t. Bauple folk describe their town as the “spiritual home of macadamias”. Butchulla and Kabi Kabi people dined on the nutritious nuts on Mt Bauple’s slopes for many thousands of years. Macadamias are most commonly found on relatively flat ground, so the nut-growing areas on the mountain are unlike other macadamia areas, and were ceremonially significant. The Aboriginals traded macadamias with pioneering settlers, who also acquired a taste for them.
These days getting to blink-and-you’ll-miss it Bauple demands a detour from the Bruce Highway, about halfway between Gympie and Maryborough and a 1.5-hour drive from the sea. The flattened pyramid shape of Mt Bauple and its national park provide a green backdrop to the town that comprises nothing more than a cluster of houses in quiet residential streets, a few shops and a doctor’s surgery.
This story excerpt is from Issue #94
Outback Magazine: Apr/May 2014
