Once upon a time the land had no water,or so all the animals were led to believe, because the only way to get a drink or quench their thirst was to chew "Gulbirra",kangaroo grass, or lick the dew from the leaves.
One day the short nosed bandicoot Gudjilla saw Bangarra the blue - tongued lizard drying himself behind a rock, and when all the other animals heard this, they were very angry, and said to Bangarra, "You must have some water hidden away! Where have you hidden it?"
Bangarra would not tell because he wanted the water for himself.
The animals called a meeting and chose Gudjilla the bandicoot to follow Bangarra wherever he went. But Bangarra was very clever and could see Gudjilla out of the corner of his eye and never revealed where the water was hidden.
The animals called another meeting and chose Jiffirrjiggirr, the little willy wagtail because he was smaller than Gudjilla and could move a lot faster in case he had to hide when Bangarra looked around when he heard someone was following him. But when Jiffirrjiggirr did hide, he could not keep his black and white tail from flicking about. Bangarra still had the water hidden.
The animals did not know what to do. Bangarra was too smart. Then Gula, the rat, the smallest of all the animals said he could follow Bangarra but all the other animals laughed at him, and Midin, the ring tailed possum pushed his way in and told Gula that he was too small and should not be heard.
Gula was very hurt, went his own way and crept up very close behind Bangarra, the blue - tongued lizard. Now when Bangarra thought someone was following, and looked to the left, Gula the little rat would jump to the right, and when Bangarra looked to the right, Gula would jump to the left, and so it was that the little rat Gula followed the blue - tongued lizard Bangarra to the spring that was hidden under a big flat rock, and when Bangarra lifted the rock to let the spring flow, Gula jumped out from hiding and frightened Bangarra away, and all the other animals praised Gula for what he had done.
The animals were so happy for all the running water bubbling from the spring, they all jumped in and began to splash water everywhere and the kingfisher was so glad, he swam to and fro, and with his beak made drains and gullies in front of the running water all the way down to the sea, and that is how the small creeks and gullies were made to this very day.
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Author Notes
Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime stories are handed down from generation to generation; how the land was formed, rivers, trees, animals and so on. The Aboriginal people are one with the land and all animals are sacred. We worship the land and care for all the animals. The moral of this story: He who is thought of least and of no account will be the greatest.
Willy Wagtail: small black and white bird who's tail constantly flicks to attrack prey. His call (if you listen carefully, sounds like "sweet pretty creature."
The blue - tongued lizard can be hand fed, many people feed them meat, they have a vivid deep blue tongue and bite!
The hero of our story, Gula the rat is a threatened species today.
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