LINKS to Port Campbell’s tragic maritime history are to be found at many places along the rugged coast.
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But there’s one intriguing possible connection that is now contributing to the region’s range of specialty foods.
Port Campbell garlic grower Simon Illingworth and Princetown nursery operators Russell Deppeler and Kim Morton are cultivating a strain of garlic which, legend has it, is linked to the early shipwrecks.
The story goes that ships making the long journey to Australia needed food with a shelf life to last the distance — and there is one strain of garlic that will easily do the job.
It’s known as Russian garlic or “elephant” garlic — the latter an obvious reference to its huge size.
When ships were wrecked along the coast, the bulbs would float ashore. Early settlers supposedly gathered and planted them.
This might be drawing a long bow, but the story does have some credence. There are plots of the garlic growing wild at several locations along the coastal hinterland, mostly where there has been some sort of dwelling in the distant past. All the locations are close to where there has been a shipwreck.
It can also be found on Griffith Island at Port Fairy, close to the lighthouse.
The plant is not a native, so it had to have been brought there. Once established it regenerates indefinitely and continues to thrive at these locations.
Myth or fact? We can never know for sure.
“If you were going on a voyage that was going to last many months, it would make sense to take this type of garlic,” Mr Illingworth said.
“It had to get here somehow and it has been here a long time.”
Mr Illingworth has now established the strain at his specialist Port Campbell garlic farm, starting from stock harvested at those sites.
He says the garlic is very mild, offering a softer option than some of the eye-wateringly potent strains he also grows.
He has also started growing another unusual plant known as the “walking onion”. It is so named because it propagates by growing seed pods on the ends of long stems which eventually droop to the ground and take root, establishing a new plant.
Like the elephant garlic, the walking onion is mild and suitable for eating raw in salads.
Mr Deppeler’s White Ibis nursery specialises in native trees, scrubs and grasses. “We’re growing the garlic to preserve it, not trying to sell it,” he said.
“I’ve known the story about it coming from shipwrecks for a long time. We will never really know if it’s true.”