Gunditjmara smoked eel

What it is

Gunditjmara smoked eel is a preserved eel made by sustained smoke drying in the hollows of large trees. Eels were kept alive in ponds, and some were taken to the smoking trees. The product is a transportable reserve rather than a fresh food.

It belongs with prolonged smoke drying, which combines heat, smoke and airflow to remove a substantial part of the water from fish or meat. The combination, not smoke alone, is what the method relies on.

Place and site

The record places the practice at Kurtonitj within the Budj Bim cultural landscape of south-western Victoria. Stone eel traps, channels, house sites and eel-smoking trees are documented there, and the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners interpret the site.

The National Museum of Australia describes the smoking in tree hollows. The record does not give a date for the smoking practice, and the antiquity of the eel ponds does not establish one.

How the smoke dries the eel

In prolonged smoke drying, sustained heat and airflow take water out of the flesh while smoke deposits compounds on the surface. The drying is what makes the reserve transportable.

The sources do not give durations, temperatures or the arrangement of the eels in the tree. The steps above name only the stages the record supports.

Limits and modern practice

Smoke alone does not preserve a fish. A modern attempt at this method needs process validation, and the historical account does not establish the storage life of the smoked eel.