Minister chooses bush figs over onion

"It beats eating an onion," the federal environment minister said as he munched down on some bush figs from central Australia.

The delicacies were brought as a gift for Josh Frydenberg by Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews, who recently visited indigenous rangers.

"They're beautiful," Mr Frydenberg said as he tried the little colourful fruits picked 200kms south of Uluru.

They tasted much better than onions, which his colleague Tony Abbott famously tried, he said.

The minister later passed around a fig french tart, made by Mr Andrews.

"If Tony Abbott was here he'd get into that," he said, smiling for the cameras.

Mr Frydenberg was on Monday visiting Mulligans Flat, a fenced feral-free area on the outskirts of Canberra home to the eastern bettong.

The federal government has pitched in $600,000 to help nearly triple the size of the cat-free area, and Mr Frydenberg got to hold one of the 200 marsupials at the nature reserve.

The nocturnal little kangaroo cousin used to be a pest in the area preventing locals from planting potatoes.

But it's now hoped the federal funding, announced on World Environment Day, will help see hundreds more bettongs hopping around the hillside.

"We nearly lost the bettong forever but now we'll have a bigger, more sustainable population," Mr Andrews said.