 The stem also provides starch that was used by colonials as 'bush flour', a substitute for flour derived from introduced grains.Evarist (1979) notes that early settlers observed aboriginal practices and used the starch from the pith of the trunk (for food) "after drying, shredding, soaking in water for several hours, filtering, settling, washing several times, drying slowly and powdering.Aside from finding the foodstuff at Nyungar camps, or offered it when hungry, early visitors and colonists recorded people harvesting the fruit.