What is the Dreamtime? If you’ve been to Australia for quite some time, you would have heard of this term somehow. Australia is the home of possibly the world’s best story tellers, the Indigenous Australians. The Dreamtime features their rich spiritual beliefs and existence. This, along with other popular Australian legends and myths are what this blog post is going to be all about.
From what I have observed so far, Australians generally don’t have much of a belief in ‘myths’, ‘folklore’, ‘superstitions’ and things alike. However, I would say that the Aboriginal Australian’s Dreamtime is an important part of the Australian culture.
The Dreamtime
To my understanding, the Dreamtime are the Aboriginal’s ‘creation’ stories. They tell us about the period when spiritual ancestors created the world and how life came to be according to Aboriginal culture. These stories have existed for thousands of years and have also served as a guide for the Indigenous Australian’s ways of being.
Popular Dreamtime Stories
With a long history reaching as far back as 40,000 years, the Aboriginal Australians have created numerous Dreamtime Stories which make up the Australian Mythology. Throughout Australia, there are many Dreaming stories of how the ancestor spirits have created the world and everything in it. Each group of Indigenous Australians will have creation stories of their own that are unique to them. Below are some of the most popular ones.
Rainbow Serpent
The story of the Rainbow Serpent mainly tells us about the creation of life on Earth. The story started off with the world being dry, flat, and lifeless until Goorialla (the Rainbow Serpent) had awoken and traveled all around Australia looking for his tribe but he didn’t find them. He noticed that his long body had created gouges into the land. He called the frogs to come out and tickled the water out of their bellies. The water filled the gouges creating rivers, streams and eventually, life. Goorialla have set rules and those who follow will become human while those who disobey will turn into stone.
Image source: https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/articles/rainbow-serpent/
The story also addressed how the rainbow after the rain came about. In the story, the Rainbow Serpent became very hungry and tricked two men into climbing into his mouth and ate them. He hid in the sky to avoid getting caught when humans looked for these two men. To make humans happy again, he had turned his body into a rainbow that you see after it rains.
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Tiddalik the Frog
The story is about Tiddalick, the biggest frog in the entire Dreamtime world, who one day drank all the fresh water in an entire billabong. When the other animals found out that there was no more water left for them to drink, they planned to make Tiddalick laugh until the water spills out of his mouth. The echidna, wombat, and kookaburra all tried to make him laugh but they were unsuccessful in doing so. the snake started to dance and wriggle all over the ground and eventually ended up tying himself into a knot. This made Tiddalick laugh, filling up the billabong again.
Emu and the Jabiru
This is about two brother-in-laws, Gandji and Wurrpan as well as their kids. Gandji and his kids went fishing for stingrays and returned to camp. Gandji saved the best parts for himself and then shared the rest of the meat to Wurrpan and his family. Wurrpan wasn’t happy about that so he argued with Gandji about it and they began physically fighting with spears, hot coals and rocks until Gandji flew away and turned into a jabiru and Wurrpan transformed into an emu.
Some of Australia’s Most Popular Mythical Creatures
Bunyip
An Australian mythical monster, Bunyips go by many different names as it has many variations throughout Aboriginal Australia. Its descriptions may vary but common characteristics are flippers, tusks, and a horse looking tail. It is believed to live in billabongs, swamps, and lagoons and comes out at night to devour animals and humans. It might have stemmed from some truth though as some say that it may have been inspired by the extinct Diprotodon.
Image source: https://www.australiantraveller.com/australia/australian-outback-myths-and-legends/
Drop Bears
These are basically just scary Koala-look-a-likes that are around a size of a leopard with orange fur. They sit in Eucalypt trees waiting for an unsuspecting victim to make eye contact then they’ll attack. They bite their prey initially in the neck.
Image source: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2013/04/drop-bears-target-tourists-study-says/
Blue Mountains Panther
If you Google Blue Mountains Panther, you would see articles upon articles of alleged sightings of this mysterious giant black cat. It has been described to have a head shape of a cat and a body that’s the size of a big black dog. What do you think? Are they out there? Maybe you can lookout for them the next time you’re driving near the bush at night?
Image source: https://www.9news.com.au/9stories/couple-who-filmed-famous-big-cat-footage-mocked-for-years/5a9b98ed-1aeb-4419-a976-2e563ff3bfb5
Conclusion
Honestly, for some reason, I didn’t expect Australia to have much legends and myths but as I researched more about it for this article, I couldn’t be any more wrong. We have barely scratched the surface so I recommend that if this is something that is of an interest to you, look it up. There are tons more out there.
I also want to point out that the creatures listed above are only mythical and that Australia is not covered with these dangerous beings.
Disclaimer All content and information in this post is for purposes of sharing my experiences only, does not constitute professional advice and does not establish any kind of professional-client relationship.
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