Birrarung- Aboriginal Australian LocationLocation · Landmark
Also known as: Yarra River
Domains
Description
Bunjil the creator took clay from the banks of this river and shaped it into two men, then lay upon them and breathed life into their mouths. The Birrarung, called the Yarra in colonial naming, is where humanity began in Kulin tradition.
Mythology & Lore
Clay from the Riverbank
The Birrarung winds through the country of the Kulin nation in present-day Victoria. Morning fogs shroud its upper valleys before the water reaches the broad flats of its lower course. Its name in Woiwurrung has been read as "river of mists" or "ever-flowing."
It was from this river that Bunjil made the first human beings. He took clay from the banks of the Birrarung and shaped it into the forms of two men. Then he lay upon them and breathed into their mouths and nostrils. The clay figures stirred and rose as living beings. The first breath of humanity was drawn on the banks of this river, and those two men were the first of the Kulin peoples.
The river's course passes through the country of several Kulin clans, and its length is marked by places where ancestral events occurred: confluences, deep pools, bends where something happened in the Dreaming. To care for the Birrarung is a ceremonial obligation owed to a place where the first humans drew breath.