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Other signs mark a broader seasonal change – the call of the storm bird or the appearance
of the frill neck lizard is a sign the first storms are coming, and the appearance of the
dragonflies and butterflies is a sign that it is at its end:
Marcus Barber: If you are out and about, what do you look for to see if rains are coming?
Colin Hughes: Just mainly the movement of the ants and them old frill necked lizards.
Normally its 3 days before you get rain if you see them old frill necks out with their frills up.
That‟s pretty well the only time you seen them, first storm times, like now you see them.
Once the wet comes you don‟t tend to see them, but then you don‟t get to get around too
much in the wet either.
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Marcus Barber: If you are coming into the wet season, how do you know the rain is
coming?
Michael Ross: Personally me I take note of what‟s moving. Like the old lizard he out, the
one with the big ears. He out. He more time out. Rain might be 2 or 3 days. Your bug come
then. All your night bugs. They come all around. Or they come out of the ant bed... He
[Robert Burns] was just watching them yesterday. If they are going to start coming, the rain
is going to come, look out! If you look closer to the ground you see the ants moving, they
are really busy. They are really moving.
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Marcus Barber: How can you tell it is the first storm cloud? Does it look different?
Paddy Yam: It looks different, watery like that. A good bit of rain in the cloud you can see it.
You know what time it will rain. That old storm bird starts singing out you know rain is
coming. Bird with a long tail. He was singing out this morning too! [makes bird call]. Too
late old feller it is already raining!
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Marcus Barber: How do you know the rains are going to stop?
Wilfred Jimmy: These bugs, these little dragonflies. They fly around altogether. They tell
you the dry season is starting to come back.
Marcus Barber: Do they have a name?
Wilfred Jimmy: I don‟t know what they call them in language. They like a war plane. Double
wings. You see them flying around.
Marcus Barber: Anything else that tells you wet season is coming to an end?
Wilfred Jimmy: The butterflies come out.
Signals correlated with seasons are also correlated with the arrival or maturation of particular
foods - the ti tree flowers show that the crocodile eggs are ready, and the appearance of the
red flowers on the Bombax ceiba (Cotton tree) tree down on the delta show that the
wallabies will be fat. Such signs are also important in deciding what work will be done - the
moisture in the grass determines what time to burn, and therefore what time to muster cattle.
Such signs and correlations are a primary means by which people understand what is
happening now, and what will happen in the immediate future. The reliability of such signals
is also important, and the most valuable signs are those which correlate strongly, even as the
environment around them seems to be changing (2.1.4).
The seasonal indicators described above can be understood as a mixture of correlations and
causes. In some cases, the connections might be clear, as the activity of the sugar glider,
which marks the wet season, is directly related to the appearance of the flowers it feeds on:
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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