BIG WATER - The legend of Lake Eyre

[Maureen K Clifford]

BIG WATER


Deep set brown eyes peered out from ‘neath the shade of his Akubra
as he stood with one foot resting on his knee,
he idly shooed a fly - that nonchalant Aussie salute,
his face a mask of inscrutability.
He gazed across the shimmering expanse of silver water
that only recently was white salt pans.
It was still white, but now the white was Pelicans and Gulls,
thousands of them, maybe millions ‘cross his land.


Lake Eyre now stretched for miles, its edge blending with the horizon.
A giant mirage was all that most times folks did see
except this time it wasn’t, it was real and full of water.
A thing of beauty in this dry country.
He felt his countries lifeblood move, heard marsh frogs call again.
The sluggishness was gone and now it stirred,
Tiddalik had drunk every last drop out of the lake
and by the other animals fate was not perturbed.

But Nabunum the eel and wise old Wombat had a plan
to make Tiddalik laugh , release the water.
So all could share the bounties that the Mother had bestowed
and quench their thirst, and thus avoid the suns slow slaughter.
It was a Dreamtime story, heard around campfires at night,
one his Grandfather had told him long ago.
Now he passed the story on to piccaninnies of his tribe
his own Grandchildren just loved that story so.

The waters of Lake Eyre were spread for miles across three states
they’d slowly travelled down the Rainbow Serpents path.
Nobody knew the joke that Wombat and Nabunum told
but it must have been a good one, a good laugh.
For Tiddalik the greedy frog who drank up all the water
coughed and spluttered fit to burst – and out it came
and it washed the frog to Warwick, on the River Condamine
where there’s a statue still today that bears his name.

It must have been a bloody good joke.



Maureen Clifford ©

based on the Aboriginal legend of Tiddalik the greedy frog who drank all the water and would not share with the other animals, leaving them and all the plants and trees to die of thirst - until the clever Wombat came up with the idea of telling a funny story to make him laugh and open his mouth wide thus releasing the waters. There is a statue of Tiddalik alongside the Condamine in Warwick SE Qld.

as at 1/12/12 Lake Eyre is again considered 'DRY' - maybe that greedy Tiddalik frog found it's way back there.

[Heather]

I heard on the radio the other day that Lake Eyre is about to be re-named. It will have a dual Aboriginal and Eurpean name - like Ayres Rock/Uluru.

Maureen my kids had a book about Tiddalick.

[Neville Briggs]

You learn something everyday. I thought it was just evaporation in the heat from the sun.

[r.magnay]

...don't get me started Heather!...

[warooa]

I heard on the radio the other day that Lake Eyre is about to be re-named. It will have a dual Aboriginal and Eurpean name - like Ayres Rock/Uluru.

Yeah I heard that, too . . . (I think it's European but Heather ) they said there's a number of SA places that they're looking at changing, amongst them Port Lincoln.

Deep breaths now Rossco

[Maureen K Clifford]

Fail to see why this should be a problem after all Santa Claus has many names and no one gets their knickers in a knot over that and Merry Christmas is still Merry Christmas regardless of which language it is spoken in and at least an Aboriginal name is Australian.

joyeux Noël Ross

[r.magnay]

...blackfellas around here still call Ayers Rock...Ayres Rock!...not too sure who decides what they should change the names to...not proper blackfellas anyway!...
by the way...Ayres Rock and Lake Eyre are already Australian names.....if Australia is an Australian name that is.....

[Neville Briggs]

The ABC ( I think ) took a group of prominent artists out to lake Eyre and comissioned each of them to do a painting for an interpretation of the place.
They made a film of it. It was a great film.
Specially Tim Storrier ( winner of 2012 Archibald ), who put a rope between two posts in the water, set the rope on fire at sunset, and painted a picture of a burning rope over the water of Lake Eyre at sunset. Wonderful stuff !!

[r.magnay]

...yep! great big picture of that on the wall of the Alice Springs airport....took me years to figure out what it was......then I realised...just more BS!......ahh culture...

[r.magnay]

...that's if we are talking about the same piece of ...culture!