WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

traditional country is located above Fitzroy Crossing on the upper Fitzroy, know the
river as Bandrarl Ngadu. The Nyikina people call the river Mardoowarra and
themselves Yimardoowarra: 'belonging to the river'. As one Nyikina Traditional
Owner explains, 'The river is a central place in Nyikina cultural belief and spirituality.
It is also a place for fishing and hunting, where we gather medicine and bush tucker
and take our children to learn cultural stories, language and law' (A. Poelina pers.
comm. 27 April 2010). While the permanent pools on the river are very important
culturally; they also provide refuges for animals, birds and fish during the dry season.
The river also provides a rare living window into the diversity of the traditions
associated with the Rainbow Serpent, a narrative across Aboriginal Australia that was
once more pervasive and is recurrent in art, myth, ritual, and social and economic life.
Four distinct expressions of the Rainbow Serpent are found within the Fitzroy River's
catchment. Each tradition is intrinsically tied to Indigenous interpretations of the
different way in which water flows within the one hydrological system, and all four
expressions converge into one regional ritual complex, called Warloongarriy Law or
'River Law' that serves to unite Aboriginal people and their Rainbow Serpent
traditions.
In the jila-kalpurtu domain (the term jila refers to permanent sub-surface water
sources and kalpurtu are said said to be the rain-giving snakes occupying these sites)
of the Fitzroy catchment on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert, water flows
are principally underground and the Rainbow Serpent is said to exist in the
underground structure of the channels, linking excavated waterholes and other water
sources of significance (Vachon 2006; Pannell 2009). Places like Kurrpurrngu
(Cajibut Springs), Mangunampi and Paliyarra are exemplars of this expression of the
Rainbow Serpent. The phenomenon of Galaroo (Galeru, Kalaru), on the other hand is
linked to flowing surface water, in the form of major rivers, and to long and deep
permanent waterholes in broad river channels, like Geikie Gorge (Danggu). In the
upper reaches of the catchment, the Rainbow Serpent of the Wanjina-Wunggurr belief
system known as Wunggurr or Ungud is linked to discrete pools of water and the
movement of the sea, and is often associated with the painted image of Wanjina.
While the Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo narrative of the lower Fitzroy primarily
tells the story of the creation of the lower Fitzroy River and its floodplains and also
has links to the sea.
The Fitzroy River is one of the largest unregulated rivers in Australia, and its flow
varies significantly over the course of a year, and between years. Both the river
channels and the floodplains, which lie below Fitzroy Crossing, are highly dynamic,
shaped by the floods which pour through the system after heavy cyclonic rains. As
water flows, the river branches; splitting and rejoining around large alluvial islands.
Floods flush the deep permanent pools of the main channel, and water spreads across
the plains, creating billabongs and anabranching channels, and renewing groundwater
aquifers (Sutton 1998). The link between the river and the floodplains is vital to the
health of floodplain wetlands, which are important habitat for many water birds.
The main channel of the river is fringed by forest, including river red gums,
freshwater mangroves, native figs and pandanus. The purple-crowned fairy wren
(Malurus coronatus), which is listed as threatened under the WA Wildlife
Conservation Act, is restricted to the forest's understorey (WWF–Australia 2007).
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