An ancient Aboriginal tradition celebrating the harvest of the spiky, football-sized bunya cone is being revived on the Sunshine Coast — more than 120 years after the last traditional gathering.

For thousands of years, Aboriginal people on the east coast of Australia gathered to celebrate the harvest of cones from the bunya tree, araucaria bidwillii, which can grow to 50 metres high and produce cones that can weigh up to 10 kilograms.

These contain dozens of nutritious kernels, or nuts, that are high in protein and can taste similar to chestnuts or potatoes.

A Bunya cone sits on the forest floor awaiting collection for the Bunya Dreaming gathering. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Megan Kinninment )

The bunya feasts traditionally held in the Blackall Ranges region of the Sunshine Coast, would attract thousands of people from as far afield as Victoria and Western Queensland and would involve corroborees, trading, sharing food, arranging marriages and resolving issues of law.

The last traditional gathering is believed to have been held around 1900.

The practice ended with white settlement and subsequent displacement of many Aboriginal people and the felling of Bunya trees for their timber.

The tradition has been brought back to life by Kabi Kabi elder, Aunty Beverly Hand, who re-established a new Bunya gathering in 2007 during summer, when the bunyas were in season and ripe.

Kabi Kabi elder, Aunty Beverly Hand, collects bunya cones for the 2019 Bunya Dreaming gathering on the Sunshine Coast. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Megan Kinninment )

Aunty Beverly said the Bunya Dreaming event was not an attempt to recreate a traditional gathering but was a reimagining with a modern twist.

Even after the traditional Bunya gatherings stopped, Aboriginal people continued to collect the cones," she said.

"My family, for example, would go out every year to collect bunyas and we had such a good time we wanted to share that with other people on the Sunshine Coast.

"What I have sought to do with Bunya Dreaming is to uphold those traditional values of caring and sharing, of gathering people together, of organising new corroborees and new foods to share — but do it in a contemporary way.

Cakes on display at the Bunya Dreaming gathering. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Megan Kinninment )

"At Bunya Dreaming I set down eight challenges, and they are meant to emulate the bunya harvest."

The challenges interpret how to gather, store, shuck and cook the bunya nuts.

The gathering challenge involved a race to collect and carry as many bunya cones as possible within a set timeframe, while the storing challenge involved bowling the spiky cones down a dirt track to land in a hole in the ground.

The Bunya Dreaming also had activities to create art from the natural environment, plant identification challenges, and music with a talent quest winner taking home a guitar made from bunya timber.

Dancers on the shore of the Ewan Maddock dam prepare to perform at the Bunya Dreaming gathering. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Megan Kinninment )

The day ends with a traditional corroboree and culminates in the crowd being invited to join in the dance.

Unlike many modern-day festivals, the Bunya Dreaming was not profit-driven or about growing crowd numbers, Aunty Beverly said.

"Bunya Dreaming isn't about how many stalls you have or how many bands are here," she said.

"It's about how much of a good time is had and how many memories are made.

Traditional Indigenous dances are performed at the Bunya Dreaming gathering. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Megan Kinninment )

"Our success isn't about numbers, it's about the quality of the experience — the smiles, the connections, the new partnerships that are formed."

While the 2019 Bunya Dreaming saw more than 900 people come together on the shores of the Ewan Maddock Dam, it was not the games, arts or food — or even the bunyas — that mattered most, Aunty Beverly said.

"What is actually happening here is reconciliation," she said.

"We're taking time away to be together, to honour each other, to share with each other.

"We shouldn't have to develop a policy about reconciliation, it should be something that happens naturally, just like it happens here."