The fish commonly taken and eaten in Gippsland are as follow:—
| English. | Native. | How taken. |
| Schnapper | Nerabogang | With bone-hook. |
| Gurnet | Koortgut | In the net; seldom with hook. |
| Flounder | Pertpin | Speared. |
| Gar-fish | Thacki | Speared. |
| Large flat-head | Bimbiang | With spear and hook. |
| Flat-head | Brindat | With spear and hook. |
| Bream | Kine | With the bone-hook. |
| Perch | Tambun | With the bone-hook. |
| Travalla | Karie | With the bone-hook. |
| Sand mullet | Krinyang | With the bone-hook. |
| Fat mullet | Pertpiang | In net made of grass. |
| Sea trout | Billing | With the bone-hook. |
| Golden perch | Looterak | In the net. |
| Silver perch | Kooee | In the net. |
| Large perch | Wirrinbown | Speared. |
The whale (Kaandha) and the porpoise (Kornon) are only procured when stranded. No efforts are made to catch them. The seal (Ngalewan) is killed on the beach.
The dugong is caught and eaten by the natives of the north, and much skill is shown by them in capturing this creature.
The natives did not use much art in cooking fish. They were thrown on the fire and broiled, and eaten without salt. The women often had fires in their canoes, and they could cook and eat the fish as soon as they were caught. In some parts, however, they adopted an excellent method. It is thus described by Grey:—
"If the fish are not cooked by being merely thrown on the fire and broiled, they dress them in a manner worthy of being adopted by the most civilized nations; this is called yudarn dookoon, or 'tying-up cooking.' A piece of thick and tender paper-bark is selected, and torn into an oblong form; the fish is laid in this, and the bark wrapt round it, as paper is folded round a cutlet; strings formed of grass are then wound tightly about the bark and fish, which is then slowly baked in heated sand, covered with hot ashes; when it is completed, the bark is opened, and serves as a dish: it is, of course, full of juice and gravy, not a drop of which has escaped. Several of the smaller sorts of fresh-water fish, in size and taste resembling whitebait, are really delicious
see them climbing in and about the stinking carcass, choosing tit-bits. In general, the natives are very particular about not eating meat that is fly-blown or tainted, but when a whale is in question this nicety of appetite vanishes. . . . . . . They remain by the carcass for many days, rubbed from head to foot with stinking blubber, gorged to repletion with putrid meat, out of temper from indigestion, and therefore engaged iu constant frays, suffering from a cutaneous disorder by high feeding, and altogether a disgusting spectacle. There is no sight in the world more revolting than to see a young and gracefully-formed native girl stepping out of the carcass of a putrid whale."—North-West and Western Australia, vol. II., pp. 277-8.
