'Bush tucker' cafe opens in Sydney

But they're the specialities being served up at a 'bush tucker' cafe, which has recently opened in Sydney.

It was once a residence for gardeners, then it was converted into public toilets.

Now a listed sandstone building in Sydney's Victoria Park is home to a 'bush tucker' cafe.

Those behind it want to promote Australia's aboriginal history, giving customers an opportunity to taste some of the oldest recipes known to man.

The cafe, in the grounds of the University of Sydney, is also providing unemployed people with on-the-job training.

Hospitality teacher and restaurateur Beryl Van-Oploo is behind the venture.

She'd dreamt for years of taking over the building, which overlooks a duck pond - once a waterhole where the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, an Aboriginal tribe, gathered.

"I used to call it the little house on the prairie for eight years and I never thought that I'd be here operating it as one of the owners," Van-Oploo says.

"I'm very passionate about it because it used to be a watering hole for the aboriginal people that lived in this area and that was their meeting place and their gathering place because that's where they came for water," she adds.

The building housing the cafe had set idle for a decade before it was recently converted.

"Some terrible things have been done in the past haven't they and it's really good to rescue beautiful pieces of our history," says Clover Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Some bush tucker cafes existed in the 1980s, but few were owned by Aboriginal people.

Van-Oploo, who is from the Gamillaroi people of north-west New South Wales, came to Sydney from the town of Walgett 50 years ago to work as a nanny.

She runs a hospitality college near the cafe and has trained five Aboriginal employees to help out in the kitchen.

April Ceissman was given an opportunity after she found herself jobless and on Government support, also known as Centrelink.

"It gives you a better chance in life. You don't have to worry about harassing Centrelink all the time," says Ceissman.

The cafe helps staff stay connected to the Aboriginal culture which is otherwise in danger of disappearing.

"Most of that's lost because we don't have people like Aunty Beryl that can pass it down to us, so it's good to keep that going," says Ceissman.

Van-Oploo already has a dozen Aboriginal students on a waiting list to work at the cafe.

And, with plans to go global with her bush tucker concept, there could be further work opportunities in the future.