A sense of place and indigenous tastes: Perth's Wildflower Experience gives a true sense of Australia
One of the benefits of visiting Perth, the Western Australia (WA) capital, is that there's no need to head out of town to experience the Outback.
I'm standing on a bluff overlooking a wide sweep of the Swan River and the high-rise city skyline on its bank. Behind me sprawl the gardens, lawns and forest of Kings Park - at 400 hectares, it's one of the largest inner-city parks in the world.
Nearly three quarters of this vast green space is covered in native bush, complete with hiking trails, wild bandicoots and around 80 species of bird.
Already this morning I've watched black cockatoos eating breakfast in the treetops, deftly plucking eucalypt fruits and cracking them open with powerful bills. Other birds sing from the undergrowth while lizards bask beside the path, powering up for the day by absorbing energy from the sun.
But although I appreciate these animal encounters, it's the park's plant life that I've come here to see. Over 300 types of Western Australia's unique flora, from orchids to she-oaks, can be found in Kings Park. Many have great significance to the indigenous Nyungar clans whose story I am learning on a heritage walk through this, their "boodja" (country).
I'm here in early April, which coincides with Djeran - one of the six Aboriginal seasons around which traditional Nyungar life revolved. Djeran is early autumn in the Southern Hemisphere: in Nyungar culture, a time for festivities and feasting before colder, wetter Makuru sets in. This was a time for harvesting the freshwater turtles, frogs and fish which would have been valued as seasonal staples of the Nyungar diet.
Teaching me the ways of his people this morning is Olman Walley, an affable Nyungar elder who's guiding the tour. Like most Aboriginal peoples, the Nyungar were nomadic, moving from place to place with the seasons to take advantage of each one's bounty.
In Makuru (June/July) they would head inland as the rains bought the landscape to life; then in Djilba (August/September) they would harvest birds' eggs and hunt emus and kangaroos. Each of the six seasons had its own culinary merits and provided all that the Nyungar needed for their millennia-old culture to thrive.
As we wander through the park, Olman points out plants on which his ancestors depended. The red gum oozing from a marri tree is a natural antiseptic, while naturally curved she-oak branches make the best boomerangs for hunting waterfowl.
More versatile were the grass trees, which had all kinds of uses - not least as a source of witchetty grubs (which Olman says taste like peanut butter). Along with pepperberry, quandong (native peach) and others, these were highly prized as nutritious bush tucker back in the day.
I encounter some of these same ingredients (though thankfully not the witchetty grubs) over dinner later on at Wildflower. As the signature restaurant at COMO The Treasury, Perth's most upmarket hotel, the fine-dining experience it offers is anything but a bush tucker trial.
Located within a glass-and-steel extension atop one of the property's three restored heritage buildings and decorated with maxi-scale murals of Australian gum trees, it's an elevated eyrie serving some of the city's most celebrated cuisine.
In addition to an à la carte menu, Wildflower serves a five-course degustation that changes every two months in accordance with the Aboriginal seasons. This is my chance to savour the flavours and textures of Djeran that Olman introduced earlier, each exquisite dish paired with quality Australian wines.
I kick off the evening with a pre-dinner cocktail of lemon myrtle-flavoured local absinthe, sipping it while admiring the view over rooftops towards the Swan River. And then the food comes.
The team is slick and professional, while remaining on the right side of friendly, delivering each dish with an explanation of the unusual ingredients that it features. The starter, for example - snapper sashimi - comes on a bed of punchy crème fra?che with wafer-thin strips of daikon.
Its light, clean flavours are complemented by fleshy-leafed beach banana; found on WA's beaches, it's a diminutive plant that adds a bitter tang.
Indigenous elements in the next dish come courtesy of kombu seeds and finger lime that breathe life into a serving of abalone, a shellfish harvested by hand from just north of the city. A crust prepared with squid ink imparts an additional layer of texture enhanced with saltbush (as the name suggests) for a subtle, ocean-fresh saltiness.
No less local is the wine accompanying my main course of dry-aged duck. From a vineyard just upriver in the Swan Valley winelands, it's typical of the cool-climate reds that do so well in this part of WA.
A boutique, small-production blend of shiraz, grenache and mataro grapes, its berry flavours complement those of the bush currant sauce that's been spooned across my beautifully cooked, crispy-skinned duck.
All too soon, I'm being presented with my final course: an airy chocolate mousse made from cocoa beans grown in the Margaret River region. It has coconut flakes for bite and a dollop of raspberry sorbet on the side. It's delicious.
Admittedly its ingredients would have been unfamiliar to the Nyungar, but this evening's coming together of regional produce and indigenous influence has nonetheless combined the most distinctive local produce with an exceptional fine dining experience and an immersion in Aboriginal culture that is unlike any other I've experienced on any of my many other trips to Australia. I can't help thinking that Olman would approve.
COMO The Treasury's two-night Wildflower Experience costs from AU$775 (￡422) for two people and includes B&B accommodation and a five-course tasting menu (with wine pairings). The Kings Park heritage walk is bookable via concierge.
Original Travel can package three nights at COMO The Treasury and four nights at Cape Lodge in Margaret River from ￡4,540pp, including flights, accommodation on B&B basis, car rental and a wine-tasting tour in Margaret River and a day trip by seaplane to Rottnest Island.
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