They are normally eaten with a side of fries, cooked in chilli, or with some spaghetti, but scientist Michelle Hobbs is working to reframe the way we look at mussel conservation and show just how important the species is for Indigenous communities.
A descendent of the Bidjara and Dunghatti people, Doctor Hobbs' research hones in on providing new insights on the management of Australian freshwater ecosystems and freshwater mussels.
Since European settlement, mussels have continually been affected by changes to the Australian landscape.
Their numbers have declined and in some instances, disappeared completely from bodies of water.
Hobbs has found the way scientific knowledge operates, does little to really enunciate how important mussels are to freshwater ecosystems and to Indigenous groups.
"We don't really know much about mussels which is kind of crazy because they're huge in terms of their physical mass in rivers and they likely play really important roles in the ecosystem," she said.
"From my own experience I've realised that conservation is not really set up to address the way that Indigenous people value their fauna and their ecosystems.
"It's more focused on threatened species which doesn't really help if a population or a species disappears from one (Indigenous) groups' Country.
"So I really want to change that conversation and find a way to acknowledge Indigenous values of ecosystems."
Through research and work in the Murray Darling Basin, Hobbs has found other species of mussels are suffering from having access to urban water.
Worsening and extended droughts have meant there is an upwards mortality rate of mussels of 90 per cent in the Darling River.
And despite new populations which have been discovered, they've also discovered risks which pose a threat to their survival in this area.
"There's some really dense populations of mussels on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland which haven't been document before," Hobbs said.
"It's quite a populated area, but it's also a bit concerning because those areas are going to be increasingly under pressure from urbanisation over the next few years and decades."
Because of her Bidjara and Dunghatti heritage, Hobbs is also motivated to help preserve mussels because of their importance to Aboriginal people.
"The freshwater mussels that I'm talking about, they're all the ones you find in all the middens in the inland areas," she said.
"So they've been important for Aboriginal people for a long time. They've been a stable food source in the past when other food sources were scarce.
"There are stories about them to do with their role in the ecosystem but also to do with their cultural role so they continue to be important in Aboriginal culture.
"Mussels are often a health indicator for the river so there's that understanding of their importance in the ecosystem."
According to research compiled by the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment, the presence of freshwater mussels indicate good, healthy conditions for other animals.
Mussels have a long life span and are sedentary. When mussels begin to disappear from a body of water or an area, this is indication something is awry.
Hobbs said it's become extremely important to protect 'low flows', which are naturally occurring, regular, small flow events part of annual water flow pattern of a catchment.
Natural patterns of low flows reach waterways throughout the year and supports patterns and cycles of native fish, animals and plants.
"In the last few years there have been a lot of licenses granted for the extraction of low flows," Hobbs said.
"I think this information shows us that it is really really important to protect those low flows because that's what's going to sustain the ecology of the river channel through those dry times.
Hobbs hopes to build on her current knowledge of freshwater mussels in Australia by travelling to Canada to work researchers on the diverse species of mussels which are native to their land.
