Forget traditional fine dining, starched napery and sommeliers with a forbidding attitude — travellers in the Australian bush are tapping into old-school bush tucker as the new immersion experience.

And communities like Trundle, in the New South Wales central-west, are capitalising on this hunger for traditional Australian bush tastes by inviting travellers from across the region to sample old and new-style camp cooking.

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In the tradition of My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef, the bush tucker experience has also taken on a competitive edge, with visitors combining their cooking and camping credentials to battle it out in the annual National Bush Cook Championships.

The standards at the cook-off in Trundle are just as stringent as in a commercial kitchen, albeit with a hint of gumleaf and wood smoke.

Barmedman farmer Geoff Bush brought his family to Trundle to compete in the cook-off for the first time last year, but it came after years of family bush cooking.

"We actually won it in our first year, but we have been cooking over the fire out the back for years," he said.

"In the middle of winter, when it's cold, we sit out the back near a fire and the family comes and we eat out of the camp ovens."

Kelsey and her family are camping and bush cooking. She is in charge of the damper scones. ( ABC Rural: Sally Bryant )

There were three generations of the Bush family at the Trundle event, enjoying the freedom of being in the bush and thinking of things other than the drought.

"We have five children and we've been doing this since they were really little," Michelle Bush said.

"And now it's rubbed off on them, and to their children. On weekends, they all come to the farm for camp oven dinners and they all love it."

The fine art of bush cooking

Around the campground at Trundle, other families are honing their cooking skills and getting some hot tips from Ranger Nick, a camp oven expert who is giving presentations throughout the day.

He is quick to point out the finer points of old-fashioned bush cooking, and is happy to share tricks of the trade with travellers who do not have time to build up the necessary coals.

"You can get these bags of charcoal at the hardware store," he explains to a crowd of eager students.

"And get them burning, and heap them up on the top of your camp oven. They'll burn there for a couple of hours."

A discussion of the burning merit of the various timbers found in the bush follows.

Like any new converts, these new camp cooks are keen to get all the finer points of their trade.

The traditional cast iron camp oven is a prized piece of equipment in the cupboard of the aspiring bush cook, and can be worth hundreds of dollars to the collector. ( ABC Rural: Sally Bryant )

Trundle Bush Tucker Day organising committee president Donald Anderson said the festival had been running for more than 30 years and was growing in popularity.

"It started off as just a little informal event at the back of the pub," he said.

"These days we attract a crowd of a couple of thousand people.

"We started this event before the food shows became popular on the telly, and now they are driving interest to us as well. It is MasterChef under a gum tree."

Event important in tough times

The Bush family was enjoying the Trundle Bush Tucker Day with particular relish this year, given the severe drought that has gripped NSW and much of the eastern states.

Geoff and Michelle Bush say camp cooking is their default family down-time, where generations of the family get to relax together. ( ABC Rural: Sally Bryant )

Ms Bush said it made a huge difference to be able to "turn off" at the end of the day in a drought, and to have a break.

"It's just beautiful to get to the end of the day and sit by the fire and have real conversations, without a television, without electronic devices, with your family," she said.

"Things are pretty desperate everywhere, but it's good to be able to come along and support people, and kick back by the fire.

"Our kids all have a go. They cook dampers and all sorts of things in the camp ovens. It's just a completely different way of spending time together."