Tourism Interpretation – George Aldridge

I picked up the original of this cartoon by George Aldridge in a fund-raising auction at the recent Hearts and Minds Conference in Adelaide.

The conference was put on by Interpretation Australia Association. Various keynote speakers and presenters from around Australia and overseas made the conference well worth attending. Interpretation being what makes visiting a place like the Flinders Ranges worthwhile, whether it’s Wadlata Outback Centre or a yarn with a local.

Georges interpretation shows Burke and Wills who perished up near Innamincka in 1861 (hence the reference to the Dig Tree). They died from beri beri, a condition caused by eating uncooked nardoo spore.

Cooking is a vital part of the preparation of the nardoo spore, that the ‘locals’ would have known, had they been asked. Nardoo contains an enzyme that breaks down thiamine, which the human body needs, if in only tiny amounts, to function.

“But there may be worse ways to go.” As Wills wrote four days before he died, “Starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move oneself, for as far as the appetite is concerned, it gives me the greatest satisfaction.”

The tragedy of this story is that nardoo could have saved Burke and Wills. They failed to add the extra step in the preparation of nardoo that indigenous people followed. Aboriginal people would roast the spore cases (sporocarps), before grinding them. This simple step of adding heat to the process completely breaks down the thiaminase, making it harmless.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/03/08/2041341.htm?site=science/scribblygum

Read about George Aldridge here http://www.abc.net.au/australianetwork/nexus/stories/s2048869.htm