Murrundi- Aboriginal Australian LocationLocation · Landmark

The Chase of Pondi

Before Ngurunderi pursued the great Murray cod, the river was only a small stream below the junction with the Darling. Pondi, a cod of immense size, swam ahead of the ancestral hero, and with every sweep of its massive tail the stream widened and deepened. Where the fish turned, it carved bends. Where Ngurunderi threw a spear and the fish surged forward, it cut long straight stretches. At Tailem Bend, known to the Ngarrindjeri as Tagalang, a spear-cast sent Pondi thrashing ahead to shape one of the river's most distinctive reaches.

Ngurunderi followed in a bark canoe, his pursuit driven by more than hunger. His two wives had run away from him, and the chase downstream was also a search for them. The river took shape behind the fleeing cod and the pursuing ancestor, each bend and billabong a record of their passage. At last, near the river's mouth, Pondi left the Murray and swam out into Lake Alexandrina. There, with the help of Nepele, the great cod was finally speared.

Ngurunderi dragged the enormous fish to shore, took up his stone knife, and cut Pondi into pieces. From each piece he made a new species of freshwater fish, naming them and casting them back into the water. The Murray cod and the golden perch descend from the body of Pondi, created by Ngurunderi's knife at the end of the great chase.

The River as Dreaming Track

Each bend in the Murray records where Pondi turned. Each straight stretch marks where the fish surged ahead. The Ngarrindjeri and the other nations along its course maintain traditions connecting their stretches of the river to the Dreamtime beings who shaped them. The sacred sites along its banks form a corridor from the headwaters to the mouth at the Coorong. The waters still sustain the fish Ngurunderi made from the great cod's body.