Pondi- Aboriginal Australian CreatureCreature · Beast

The Fish That Made the River

Before Pondi swam, the Murray was only a small stream below its junction with the Darling. Pondi, the great ancestral Murray cod of the Ngarrindjeri, was enormous, and when it began to move downstream, the stream could not contain it. With every sweep of its massive tail, the watercourse widened and deepened. Where Pondi turned, the river bent. Where it surged forward to escape a spear, the channel cut straight and long. At Tailem Bend, known as Tagalang, a spear-cast from the pursuing Ngurunderi sent Pondi thrashing ahead to carve one of the river's most distinctive reaches.

Ngurunderi followed in a bark canoe, driving spears at the fleeing cod, but Pondi kept ahead. The river took shape behind the great fish, each bend and billabong a record of its passage. At last Pondi left the Murray and swam out into the open waters of Lake Alexandrina. There, with the help of Nepele, Ngurunderi finally drove a spear home. The great cod's death throes widened the river mouth and churned the surrounding lakes into their present form.

From One Fish, All Fish

Ngurunderi dragged the enormous cod to shore and took up his stone knife. He cut Pondi into pieces and threw each one back into the water. From each piece a different species of freshwater fish came into being. The Murray cod and the golden perch descend from the body of Pondi, named by Ngurunderi as he cast the pieces in.

The river Pondi carved stretches over two thousand kilometres from the highlands to the sea. Its course and the fish within its waters all trace back to the flight of one enormous cod and the ancestor who pursued it.