All over Australia, Aborigines had their own local yearly calendars. Just as the climate in Kakadu is very different from that of Melbourne, so the Wurundjeri had their own way of marking the changing seasons. The division of the year into four seasons comes from Northern Europe, and does not fit Melbourne.
We still think of winter as an unfavourable season for plants, when northern European trees drop their leaves and become dormant. But for our native plants, especially the small tuberous herbs, winter is a season of growth. At this time the bush is green, and the temperatures are rarely low enough to stop growth. The unfavourable season is high summer, when water is scarce, and much of the ground flora becomes brown and dies off. Water-plants such as CUMBUNGI are usually green during the summer, they die off during the winter.
Jones, Mackay and Pisani, from the University of Adelaide (Jones, D., Mackay, S. & Pisani, A. 1997 Patterns in the Valley of the Christmas Bush: a seasonal calendar for the upper Yarra Valley. Victorian Naturalist 114(5):246-249.) have proposed a seven season calendar. This has
KANGAROO APPLE SEASON Kangaroo Apple Season (December)
- Phuling (Goannas) are active
- Buliyong (small bats) are catching insects in flight
- Bundjil (Wedge-tail Eagles) are breeding
- Bali (Cherry Ballart) is fruiting
- Fruit appears on Kangaroo-Apple bushes
- Days are long, nights are short.
- Changeable, thundery weather.
BIDERAP - DRY SEASON Dry Season (Jan-Feb)
- Female common brown butterflies are flying
- Bowat (Tussock-grass) is long and dry
- High temperatures and low rainfall
- Southern Cross high in the south at sunrise.
Late Summer, February - Mid March
- Autumn rains arrived and days became cooler. Plants now able to renew growth.
- Burning where scrub or tussock grass had become too dense to clear the undergrowth and provide fertilising ash so the small tuberous food plants could grow after the rains came in March. Burning also made it easier to catch animals.
- DJAAK, Wattle gum , was plentiful, and in the middle of this month the WARRAK Banksia or Honeysuckle, Long-leaf Box and Silver-leaf Stringybark came into blossom, providing sweet nectar, and attracting birds.
- March - the female Short-finned eels moving down the streams to the sea; the male eels had been leaving in smaller numbers during the spring and summer. These were an important food, and among the vegetables there were the starchy roots of the water plants, which began to die down after their summer growth.
- Some late summer fruits such as Mistletoe berries were also available. Birds started to flock before heading north for the winter, to be replaced by other birds which will soon start to arrive from Tasmania.
LUK - EEL SEASON Eel Season (March)
- Eels are fat and ready to harvest
- Binap (Manna gum) is flowering
- Days and nights are equal
- Lo-an Tuka, the Hunter (Canopus) is almost due south at sunset
Early Winter, April & May
- All sorts of fungi appeared with the rains, while the ground was still warm.
- BUNJIL, the Eagle, was building his nest
- Brush-tail and Ringtail Possums were mating
- Bolin Bolin billabong started to fill.
- Many different moths emerged, and were food for birds during the day and for Sugar and Feathertail gliders at night.
- Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Wallabies fed on the new growth.
Deep Winter- June, mid July
- Echidnas were breeding, birds nesting.
- The flats near the rivers and creeks were often flooded;
- Low lands generally were wet and cold, unsuitable for camping, so people moved to the best sheltered spots on the uplands, where they were able to catch koalas, possums, and wombats, and to find grubs in the trees
- The leaves of the water plants had become dry and brown, but the small tuberous herbs were green and growing; the roots of both were good food.
- Fragrant nectar came from BURGIL BURGIL, Honey-pots, Acrotriche serrulata, a small shrub which hid its flowers close to the ground.
- BULAIT- Cherry Ballart formed fruit.
- People constructed good bark WILLAMS (shelters) and kept fires burning for warmth.
- They wrapped themselves in rugs made from possum skins.
WARING - WOMBAT SEASON Wombat Season (April-August)
- Waring (Wombats) emerge to graze and bask in the sunshine
- Male Bulen-Bulen (Superb Lyrebirds) perform their courtship displays
- Hearts of kombadik (soft tree-ferns) are the major food when no fruits are available
- Cool rainy days follow misty mornings
- Days are short, nights are long
- Constellation of Sagitarius rises in the south-east after sunset, indicating the mid-point of cold weather.
Early Spring - Mid July, August
- Mid-July, MUYAN, Silver Wattle, started to flower, the first wattles to do so. It earned the name of 'Barak's Wattle' because when he died at Coranderrk on August 15th 1903, MUYAN was in full golden bloom.
- YELLOW BOX also flowered, providing much nectar.
- EARLY NANCY was the first of the small food plants to flower
- By late August MURNONG was budding.
- People moved slowly towards the lower lands as the spring temperatures rose, there they were able to snare ducks, to catch other kinds of wild-fowl, and,
- as the season advanced, they would get eggs from the nests of all kinds of birds.
GULING - ORCHID SEASON Orchid Season (September)
- Guling (Orchids) are flowering
- Ae-noke (Common brown butterfly caterpillars) feed on grasses at night
- Gurrborra (Koalas) begin mating
- Muyan (Silver wattles) flowering
- Cold weather is coming to an end
- The star Arcturus is seen on the north-western horizons after sunset.
POORNEET - TADPOLE SEASON Tadpole Season (October)
- Pied Currawongs call loudly and often
- Superb Lyrebirds have finished displaying
- Myrnong (Yam Daisy) tubers are ready for eating
- Flax lilies are flowering
- Tempatures are rising, rain continues.
- Days and nights are equal.
True Spring- September, October
- A time of plenty. Lilies, Orchids and MURNONG flowered, and still provided root vegetables. Greens were consumed in large quantities.
- Flowers everywhere -Wattles, Hop Goodenia, Burgan, Kangaroo Apple, as well as orchids and small lilies which had been building their tubers over the winter.
- Snakes and Lizards became active, young Kangaroos came out of the pouch.
- Migrant birds - the Sacred Kingfisher for example, returned from the north.
- Tadpoles appeared in ponds, and the river, fed by melting snows from the mountains
- Water-plants put on green leaves. Nowadays this flooding is prevented by dams
BUATH GARRU - GRASS FLOWERING SEASON Grass-flowering Season (November)
- Buliyoung (small bats) are catching small insects in flight
- Male common brown butterflies are flying
- Kangaroo Grass is flowering
- Coranderk (Victorian Christmas Bush) is coming into flower
- Weather is warm and often raining
- The Orion constellation sets in the west around dawn
High Summer November, December, January
- WARRA WARRAP/GARRONG, late Black Wattle, with pale yellow blossoms, flowered in November.
- As the summer advanced, the land began to dry, and people congregated around the reliable water-sources, the creeks, rivers and billabongs.
- Fish was an important food - Galaxias moved up the river from the sea.
- Where rocky falls blocked the river, as in the Prince's Bridge area and at Dight's Fails, fish would accumulate in large numbers, and could be easily taken.
- Eels started to come downriver. Fish traps were set.
- Water sources were important for the wildlife, so large animals such as Kangaroos and Emus would come to drink and could be caught.
- Lizards and snakes were active.
- Grasses flowered - Kangaroo Grass, Wallaby Grass, Spear Grass, Tussock Grass and the Common Reed.
- Fruits ripened -, MORR - Currant-bush
- GARRAWANG - Apple-berry, White Elderberry, Kangaroo Apples and
- Sweet LAAP - Manna, could be collected beneath the WURUN - Manna Gums
- Small tuberous plants died back, but the women still knew where they could dig for their roots, which at this time were at their best. .
- When people went up into the mountain gullies for firedrills, they ate pith from the centre of treeferns. In warm weather, big shelters were not needed unless it rained.
As food was plentiful, large gatherings of the tribes and clans took place.
With permission from Bunurong clans:
- People went to the sea-coast to swim and gather shellfish and
- Flounder and Flathead could be speared or netted in the shallows
- The fruits of Pigface and Coast Beard-heath were gathered
Western Port and Yarra Yarra tribes were frequently seen during summer months, hunting in the forest for wallaby, possum and koalas. |
