RIC-6277 I can dance the Barramundi

BUSH DAMPER
Presentation
• Say the rhyme with the actions for the class.
• Discuss bush damper and how it is made
from flour and water mixed to a scone
dough and cooked in a camp oven over the
hot coals of a bush camp fire.
Additional activities/information
• Read the diary entry below to the students.
CAMPING WITH DAMPER
‘Today we go camping! We get up early. First Uncle
and Auntie and our two cousins arrive in their
truck, then Grandma and Grandpa. We are all going
camping at the Gardner River! We close and lock
the farm gate and drive south along the gravel
roads through jarrah and red gum forests. Then we
eat our lunch and drive on through the karri forest
until we bump onto a sandy track and we know we
are almost there!
‘The sea,’ we shout, ‘the sea!’ And there it is, behind
the sandhills. We camp nearby on a fl at stretch of
green grass with the Gardner River running through
the sandhills to the sea and little creeks running
into the river. In the green grass is an old well. We
fi ll the water bag with water and tie it to a branch
with an enamel mug to drink from.
We help the grown-ups put up the four tents. One
is especially for us children. Then we unload the
camping things except for a bag of fl our. It is too
heavy. We always bring fl our to make damper. And
we bring axes, rope, fi shing lines, camp stretcher
beds, a tin bathtub, buckets, a camp oven, marron
nets, torches, hurricane lamps, honey, tea, salt,
sugar, apples, billies, frying pan, cricket bat, tennis
balls and bait.
The grown ups take their fi shing lines to the beach
at high tide to catch fresh fi sh for tea. We play
cricket with an old wooden box for a wicket. The
fi sh is very good and Grandma makes damper in
the camp oven on the camp fi re. We cook our own
damper, twisted around long sticks and turned
over and over in the hot coals of the fi re. We eat it
• Say the rhyme with the actions again for the
class.
• The class claps the beat while saying the
rhyme.
• The class says the rhyme with the actions.
with lots of honey and listen to the grown-ups talk
around the camp fi re while Uncle plays his mouth
organ.
Our fathers fi ll the buckets from the well, heat the
water on the fi re and pour it into the bathtub. Each
of us has a hot bath before bed then we talk and
talk and talk and the grown-ups let us talk until we
fall asleep one by one.
Next morning we rush out of bed, get dressed, rush
over to the fi re to eat breakfast and rush to the
sandhills to play. The grown-ups are going fi shing
so we fetch our fi shing lines and rush after them.
We fi sh on the morning rocks at low tide. We swing
our fi shing lines round and round and let the sinker
and the baited hooks fl y out to sea.
We eat the fi sh for lunch and later we go up the
river with the grown-ups to catch marron. Marron
are delicious black freshwater shellfi sh. We use drop
nets with old meat for bait and drop the nets near
an underwater log where marron like to hide. We are
allowed to pull up the nets. We pull them up fast.
It’s so exciting! Sometimes we get one marron,
sometimes two and sometimes more.
©R.I.C. Publications
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Display Copy
Back to the camp for tea. We boil the marron in a
large bucket of hot water with a spoonful of salt
and a pinch of sugar and pour them onto a large
clean cloth, shell them and eat the tails. They are
really good.
Then it’s hot baths before bed and we try to talk
but we fall asleep.’
J L Summer 1928
Discuss what the family did while they were
camping. Ask the students to compare
the events to what happens when they go
camping.
I can dance the barramundi 16
R.I.C. Publications ® www.ricgroup.com.au
ISBN 978-1-74126-424-1