We've been drinking heaps of Native Australian Jilungin this winter, a potent tea that is both refreshing in the day and relaxing at night. We asked Marion from Twin Lakes to share the wealth of her knowledge about the Native Australian Jilungin tree.

"Bruno's grandmothers, Mimis used to drink Jilungin. He remembers them boiling herbs and teas in Bailer Shells over the fire. These are very big shells found on the reefs in Nyul Nyul country. About ten years ago we decided to drink the tea again. There are about 3 varieties of Jilungin and I picked the strongest small leaf variety. We felt the effects pretty quickly amongst other things like relaxation it works on the digestive system and gives the body a good flush out! It was quite an experience and we both felt better for it.  Now we drink it regularly and it works like a tonic on the body it alkalizes the system gives us energy during daylight and wonderful sleeps at night... For Loving Earth we harvest the long leaf variety which is a lovely golden colour as you experienced and works as an elixir or general tonic, the colour speaks for itself! There has also been some results for people who suffer from insomnia and migraine headaches.

The sap or gim is the most potent medicine! Nyul Nyul people suck it like lollies. It is the life blood of the plant and traditionally highly prized for its deep healing abilities.

The Jilungin oil is green and there is a layer of it under the bark is wonderful for the skin & hair. We boil it up and put it into our bath water.

We use every part of the plant and I always have a pot on the go out bush for drinking and washing its so refreshing!

We sun dry the tea on our roof in big bags on a wooden floor which is also our viewing platform for star gazing at night. It is oil based and doesn't lose potency in the drying process. We put stem & bark into the mix so that people experience all the plants properties.

We find the more we drink it the more we love it and it can be reused over and over at least up to 8 times. We put about 2 grams to a cup or 5 grams to a pot and keep refilling it.

It is a Terminalia, the same as the gubinge tree, and only grows in the top end of Australia. It has the same flowers as the gubinge but bears a small flat seed with no edible fruit.

We are at the educational stage with use, as far as we know Bruno holds the knowledge and he wants to pass his knowledge on now. This is the purpose of the cultural park is to share knowledge. Twin Lakes is a very rich area for Jilungin, it doesn't grow everywhere on the Dampier Peninsular. We need to train people how to harvest it without damaging the plants. We are working very hard to save trees as they are fire prone so a lot of our time whilst harvesting is also spent restoring the forest.

We'll be heading out again tomorrow to harvest more Jilungin This is Jilungin season now. We follow Nyul Nyul six seasons at Twin Lakes."

You can buy Native Jilungin Tea from Nyul Nyul here.