“What’s in Cape Otway?” I asked Suraya. She had particularly wanted this stop. Usually, her travel style is très budget, but she was willing to fork out nearly A$20 for the admission fee at Cape Otway Lightstation. So I was curious.

All photos by Teja

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Cape Otway LighthouseI personally like lighthouses in general. There’s something curious about its necessary remoteness, and something romantic about its purpose as a beacon. Some lighthouses are fascinating due to the difficulty and danger of even constructing them in the first place, in locations of strong waves and lack of land connections.

That’s not to mention the often lonely job of being the lighthouse keeper. The guy who had to keep the light going. And if he has a family with him, what about the isolated life of the family of a lighthouse keeper? The safety of countless ships carrying the fortunes of nations, and the independent travellers of those days, all owe a debt to the sacrifice of lighthouse keepers.

Fortunately, today the sacrifice is no longer necessary. Today, the actually functioning Cape Otway lighthouse lies on a ledge, somewhere below the photogenic older lighthouse. No longer requiring keeping, it’s more like a light signal, since no house is required!

What kind of history would you get from the history talk? Well, there’s the history of the lighthouse itself, and the reason for its construction. I guess it falls under the category of Australian (specifically Victorian) history. Cape Otway also has a bit of WW2 history.

The Bush Tucker TalkWe were attracted to the bush tucker talk when we walked past this curious thing by the path.

Nearby was a little hut. Around the hut grew many shrubs, and we wondered if they would be part of the talk. (They were.)

We deduced that it must be the Talking Hut. (Don’t you love how straightforward the names are? It reminds me of Oman!) We returned to the hut close to the start of the Bush Tucker Talk, and explored the Aboriginal artifacts kept inside the hut while waiting for the guide to arrive.

The guide for the bush tucker talkWhen the guide arrived we were surprised, because he looked Caucasian – albeit one who had gone very native indeed. We looked at each other, wondering if he was mixed, since we had naturally expected a guide giving an Aboriginal talk, to be Aboriginal himself.

But his somewhat disheveled appearance counted in his favour where we were concerned. Suraya has the firm belief that for these kinds of things, it is better to have a guide who looks like he might be homeless. Don’t ask me why. In fact, she intentionally chose to learn diving from a divemaster who looked as though on non-teaching days, he bums around the beach loaded with rum.

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So when he began talking, I was not surprised that Suraya’s mad convictions were once again proven correct. He might look Caucasian, but his heart and soul is all Aboriginal.

Why did we like the bush tucker talk?It was an extremely fun talk! He utilised many of the bushes and shrubs around the talking hut, giving us a crash course on how not to die if left out in the bush all by yourself. I can never forget the hilarious, yet infinitely more sensible method of hunting emu than chasing it down. Suffice to say that it involves daubing yourself with emu poo, and taking advantage of the emu’s poor eyesight to fool it into thinking you’re an emu too!

It was actually fairly difficult for us to follow the talk, due to the guide’s very fast speaking pace and thick Australian accent. It was too fast for us to remember exact details, but slow enough for us to remain enraptured by his eccentric storytelling and energetic instruction in bush foraging. His disparaging dismissal of what he considered to be excessively onerous Western agriculture was very amusing!

There were many such anecdotes, all meant to illustrate the worldview of Aboriginal peoples. That their way was to attain a high degree of knowledge of their own land, which then enables them to obtain food with very little exertion.

Aboriginal and Malay worldviewsWhen we were back on the road, Suraya confided to me how much she liked the bush tucker talk. Despite having been in Melbourne for nearly a year, that was her first introduction to Australian Aboriginal culture. It was very different from mainstream Australian culture, she said. A completely different worldview.

Not a worldview of comparing and competing, of exertion and industriousness for the sake of "more".

Instead, it was a way that sees the sign of the impending arrival of migrating birds, and begins walking to arrive just in time for the hunt. It was a way that forages as you wander, scattering seeds along the way so that future generations would have more shrubs to forage from along the same route. It was a way that doesn’t bother to harvest seafood before it is the right time. Its way to find food is more by cleverness and cunning, rather than superior force.

She said, it was the first time that she felt things made sense, since she came to Australia.

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I can’t say that the Malay worldview is quite the same. We were a nation-building people, so there is an element of striving and industry. But at the same time, I understood what she meant. Competition is difficult for us, whose natural inclination is to maintain harmony. And for Suraya personally, I knew that her character is just like that – necessary exertion only, and don’t force anything.

It’s difficult for me to say why this is not the better worldview. At least, not while considering myself still a good person.

The extent of my bush tucker knowledgeI still remember two things I learned about foraging in the bush. It was because I applied the knowledge straight away, while still on the road trip. I can’t remember the names of the shrubs, but I know what I can eat from them.

I kept foraging at almost every stop throughout our road trip, to Suraya’s great disapproval. Her medical profession naturally inclines her to a cautious disposition, and she would rather I ingest only small amounts just in case I’ve been poisoning myself!

One was a shrub common on the top of the coastal cliffs along the Great Ocean Road which bear white berries (the white berries are ripe). Though you need to eat a lot of it if you’re seriously looking for something to eat, occasional snacking on the little berries is quite fun.

The other one was a green shrub with vaguely diamond-shaped leaves. Just pluck the leaves and eat them directly. I remember the taste was slightly salty. This one could be mistaken for a different shrub, so I had to look at the overall shape of the shrub to be sure. Nevertheless, the other shrub didn’t seem to be poisonous. You know immediately when you’re wrong, because the leaves taste different and are completely yucky.

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