Billabong- Aboriginal Australian ConceptConcept

The Serpent's Watermarks

Billabongs, the still, deep pools found along rivers and across the Australian landscape, trace their origins to the creative journeys of the Dreamtime. The Rainbow Serpent formed them as it traveled across the country. Where the great serpent rested, its massive body pressed into the earth, creating depressions that filled with water. Where it dove underground, deep pools appeared.

Because of this origin, many billabongs are places where the Rainbow Serpent continues to dwell. To disturb the waters carelessly or to behave disrespectfully risks awakening the serpent's anger. Stories across multiple Aboriginal groups warn of floods and drownings that followed disrespect. The water is not simply water; it is the serpent's domain, and the serpent remembers who enters it. Blood taboos are especially potent: women approaching during menstruation or anyone allowing blood to fall near a sacred waterhole risks the serpent's particular wrath, for blood above all things disturbs its slumber.

What Lives Below

Billabongs are home to powerful beings. The Bunyip inhabits the deep, dark waterholes, lurking beneath the surface. Various water spirits dwell in billabongs across different traditions, and specific pools belong to specific beings whose presence makes each site dangerous in its own way.

The spirits of unborn children also reside at certain waterholes, waiting to enter the world. A father may dream of a particular billabong and know his child's spirit has come from that place, binding the child to that site and its Dreaming for life. The still surface conceals what lies below, and what lies below reaches into the Dreamtime itself.