Star trialled bush tucker long before Jungle celebrities
I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! is my niece’s favourite show, mainly because she loves seeing the stars having to eat all sorts of yukky grub – including grubs! – on the Bush Tucker segment.
But I remember a show called Bush Tucker Man, where a guy called Les, I think, went around Australia showing all the stuff you could eat.
What can you tell me about him? –R.
Les Hiddins became an Australian icon after his Bush Tucker Man series aired in the late 1980s.
Born in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1946, Les joined the Australian Army, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam, in 1966 and ’68.
“When I came back, I transferred to army aviation and found myself in the seat of a helicopter flying all around northern Australia,” he once said.
“When you go to these very remote areas, you ask yourself ,‘ How would I get on if something happened and I had to survive here?’”
He was then given the task of cataloguing all of the edible plants and wildlife in north Queensland, which he did with Aboriginal people from the area – who gave him the nickname “Bush Tucker Man”.
Australian television soon came calling, and Les filmed three series of Bush Tucker Man, which detailed all the natural resources available to eat, and some tales of survival.
The genial Les was never without his trademark wide-brimmed hat, which is now an exhibit in the NationalMuseum.
Now a successful author, Les still enjoys camping trips in the outback.