One very dry season when there was ngeeye bareeyt in all the meerreeng and animals were perishing of thirst. Tooleep lakan Kookap. Deelakal could not understand why Bareem was never thirsty. Deelakal knew noong would not tell them so they decided to watch and find out where noong tatan.

Deelakal flew high into moornong. Bareem yanan to a flat marree. Before lifting the marree, Bareem, afraid of being discovered, nakenan the mootalarra but deelakal were so high and kept so steady he thought deelakal moornoong.

Bareema lifted the marree and drank from the ngooyt bareeyt running out of the cleft in the marree. He replaced the marree and flew away. The buleetya spies came down and removed the marree and drank and took a bath saying ‘keeng ngako ngal!’

Deelakal flapped their weerreetoong with joy and pareeyt rose until it formed a keeleeng. Deelakal then flew all over the parched meerreng,
flapping their weerreetoong and forming keeleeng which have been drinking places ever since.

Translated by Wayne Harradine from a Dhauwurd Wurrung and Gunditjmara story

Further Information

Keerray woorroong word list

bareem turkey bustard
bareeyt water
buleetya two
deelakal they
kayap one, first
keeleeng lake
keeng ngako ngal! we got him!
kookap gigantic crane
lakan speak, talk
marree stone
meerreeng earth, country
moornong sky, clouds
mootalarra birds
nakenan see, look
ngeeye our/s
ngooyt good, fresh
noong he, his
pareeyt water
tatan drank
tooleep magpie lark
weerreetoong wings
wunda when
yanan went/gone

Sounds of Keerray woorroong

a as in father
e as in bed
o as in pot
u as in put
oo as in foot
ee as in feet
b/p as in big or pig
d as in deer
g/k as in goat or kick
l as in like
m as in milk
n as in nine
ng as in sing
r as in red
rr as in road
t as in try
ty as in chin yt at end of words