Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 1—Geography and climate 23
In the beginning
All the weather and climate phenomena we know
today played a part in the lives of the early
inhabitants of the Australian continent. But in
different parts of Australia there were different
names and different explanations for the various
atmospheric forces—thunder, lightning,
rainbows, clouds and winds—and the march of
the seasons. The peoples of Arnhem Land
defined the seasons in terms of the ‘balmarrk
wana’ or ‘big winds’ with the wet season brought
on by barra the north-west monsoon (Jones and
Meehan 1997). The Aboriginal people of central
Australia developed a very different
understanding of the seasons, and their
influence on the land and its animals and
plants. Further south in Tasmania, they had
learned to recognise the signs of changing
weather and to make use of fire for
protection against the cold.
Much of the modern understanding of the
Aboriginal interpretation of weather and
climate in various parts of Australia has been
captured in a series of writings and paintings
by anthropologist Charles P. Mountford, and
artist Ainslie Roberts (figure C2.1).
C2.1 The Sound of Lightning: a Dreamtime Legend depicted by artist Ainslie Roberts. The
Aborigines of northern Australia have a number of myths that explain the thunder, the lightning,
the wet-season clouds and the rain. In the wet season, the thunder man Mamaragan, roaring with
laughter, beats the great stones of the sky together. His laughter is the rolling thunder, the sharper
crack of lightning is the sound of the stones striking each other and the lightning is the sparks
flying from them. The rain caused by this disturbance falls to the thirsty earth and gives life and
food to mankind and all other creatures.