Best I could find was a citation in Wickpedia and I quote;

"A. bidwillii was a sacred tree for the Aboriginal people. The vernacular name is Bunya, Bonye, Bunyi or Bunya-bunya, from various tribes or European variations of the Australian Aboriginal name for the tree; it is also often called Bunya Pine (though this is inaccurate as it is not a pine). It is also commonly referred to as the False Monkey Puzzle, despite its obvious physical differences from the Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana). The seeds are edible, and are similar to pine nuts, and have been an important food resource for Australian Aboriginal people; groves of the trees were often under particular tribal ownership. They are eaten both raw and cooked. Traditionally they were also ground and made into a paste, which was eaten directly or cooked in hot coals to make bread."


HTH

This is from a Bush Tucker site, much the same as OzJeepers, there doesn't seem to be any problem eating them raw.  


Plant Description
Botanical name: Araucaria bidwillii This plant is a large tall tree to 40 m high with a straight trunk, prickly leaves, and separate male and female flowers. The female cones, up to 300 mm long and weighing up to 10 kg, contain the edible seeds. A large harvest occurs approximately every three years, January to March.

Uses.
Bunya harvest was a time of feasting and ceremonies. Aboriginal tribes headed for the Bunya mountains where each tribe had ownership of particular trees. The tribes gathered in designated meeting places and any hostilities were suspended. Fruit was gathered and taken home.
The fruit was eaten raw, roasted, or pounded to flour to make a kind of bread.
Today, the nuts can still be eaten raw when fresh, or boiled to make it easier to extract the nut from the hard shell. The nuts can then be sliced or pureed and added to desserts and savoury dishes. The nuts' flour can also be used to make breads and cakes.

Apparently there is a Bunya festival up at Baroon Pocket Dam this saturday. The dam is near Maleny.

Work is putting together a Bunya Nut Chucking Team for the event

This is from the same site.  Storing in the fridge bit sound good.


These Bunya Nuts were a rich source of food for the Aborigines of south-east Queensland. During the Bunya season they would temporarily set aside their tribal differences and gather in the mountains for great Bunya Nut Feasts. The aboriginal word for the Bunya Pine was actually bon-yi and the Blackall Range, west of the Sunshine Coast, was known to our local Pine Rivers aborigines as the Bon-yi Mountains. Rollo Petries grandfather, Tom Petrie, was the only free white man to ever attend a bon-yi feast. It was Toms father, Andrew Petrie, who discovered this tree around 1838, and who later gave specimens to Mr. John Bidwill, after whom it was ultimately named.

The Aborigines ate the Bunya Nut raw or roasted, and they also buried them in mud for several months. This was said to greatly improve the flavour and may have been a means of storing them. Certainly, raw nuts in their shells, that have been stored in the bottom of the refrigerator in a sealed container for several months, have a much sweeter taste, and are as fresh as the day they fell from the tree, even though the shells may look a bit mouldy.

I have found many uses for the fruit of the Bunya Pine, both cooked and raw and in savoury and sweet dishes. It is one of the most versatile and useful of all our native foods My family and friends have been mostly willing, but sometimes unwitting guinea pigs, as I researched various recipes. So far I have used Bunya Nuts in soups, casseroles, quiches, pies, pastas, vegetables, desserts, cakes, biscuits, bread, damper, scones, pikelets, pastry, lollies and porridge.

The simplest way to prepare Bunya Nuts for eating is to put them in a saucepan of water and boil for about half an hour. Remove from the water and split open while still hot. Remove from the shell and serve with butter (pepper and salt if required). They may be eaten cold, but are better hot.


BUNYA NUT CASSEROLE:

4 cups minced or finely chopped boiled Bunya Nuts
250 g bacon rashes
2 medium onions
1 can peeled tomatoes (425 g)
250 g grated sharp cheese
pepper and salt to taste

Grease a 2-litre deep casserole dish. Cover bottom with a layer of Bunya Nuts, then add a layer of sliced onions, which have been fried in a small quantity of oil until soft and clear. Next add a layer of lightly fried, chopped bacon, then a layer of tomatoes. Sprinkle with some of the grated cheese. Repeat layers, finishing off with Bunya Nuts sprinkled with grated cheese. Cover, place in a moderate oven for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, removing lid for last 15 minutes.

Hey Phill, we don't see you over here often enough.

Many years back I was in a Natio ................. State Fo ................ in the bush and collected a few of the big cones.   

Boiled them up in salty water and in to them.  I to have heard that the little yellow part in the middle shouldn't be eaten