Charlene Carrington / Gunyalgee (Crane) Dreaming

This story happened in the Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming). All the birds gathered on top of the hill at Turkey Creek with their spears sharpening the spearheads. The crane got greedy and dropped a poison tree in the water to get those fish for supper but the poison tree started to grow in the water and killed all the fish. The birds got angry at the crane and hit him with a stick. He cried out and that’s the noise that we know today as a crane’s call. The birds turned into rocks and you can still see them in that hill today.

For Aboriginal people there is a common belief that people came from the land on which they live, and that they have occupied that land since the creation era known as the Dreaming. It is believed that during this time, spirit beings (often depicted as animals, fish and birds) roamed across the land performing certain actions that modified or created natural features, made waterholes, springs and rivers, and filled the whole land with a spirituality that remains vitally potent to this day.