This is the Gundungurra Aboriginal peoples Dreaming story of the creation of the Blue Mountains, Jenolan Caves, Cox's River and some other places. Please enjoy it... MIRRINGAN and GURRANGATCH Long ago in the gun-yunggalung, all the animals now were men, or had some form of human sign. These were known to our people as the Burrungilling. The Burrungilling people were very clever, and could make rivers, caves and mountains. One of these Burrungilling was known as Gurrangatch, and he was part eel (fish) and part reptile. One of this fella's main camping spots was in a large deep billabong that is now known as Wollondilly junction of the Wollondilly and Wingeecaribbee rivers; the billabong and the country around it was known as Mur-rau-ral to our people the Gundungurra. Gurrangatch would lie in the shallow water near the bank in the middle of the day to sun himself. One day, Mirragan the tiger cat, who was a famous fisherman, and searched only for the biggest fish, happened to have caught a glimpse of Gurrangatchs eye which shone like a star in the water. Mirrigan tried to spear him but he escaped into the centre of the waterhole, which was very deep. Mirrigan then went into the bush and cut of heaps of hickory bark, known as millewa to our people, and stacked it into heaps in places around the edges of the water, hoping this would make Gurrungatch sick, and he would come to the surface. If you look close at this waterhole today you will see long thin slabs of stone that are the slabs of millewa that Mirrigan laid. The poisoned water made Gurrangatch sick, but he was to clever and to big to get real sick from this millewa poison. Being disappointed, Mirrigan went back to the bush and cut more millewa to make the poison stronger, but Gurrangatch seen him and knew what he was gonna do (because he was so clever) and began to tear up the ground around what is known as the Wollondilly, causing all the water to flow after him and push him along. He kept burrowing on and kept turning until he came out to what is know by the gubbas (white-people) as "Rocky Waterhole", but is known by our people the Gundungurra as Bir-rim-bun-nung-a-lai, because there are lots of birrunbunnungs there (or sprats). Gurrangatch raised his head out of the water here and shoved his tongue out which flashed like lightning. From this point he could see Mirrigan starting from his trail at Murraural. Gurrangatch then returned in his tunnel he had made back to the Wollondilly, and began making another river. When he reached what is known as the junction of the Guineacor river he turned left and went for a few more miles. Coming to a real rocky place which was hard to dig, he changed his mind and went back along the way he had came. He had a hard time getting out of this spot and made a long deep loop in the Wollondilly which almost doubles back on itself at this spot. He then went down another creek and came out inside of Wam-bee-yang caves, which the gubba calls Wombeyan Caves today. When Mirrigan returned back to the Mirraural waterhole and seen that Gurrangatch had got away, he followed on after him and overtook him at Wombeyan or Wam-bee-yang. Mirrigan didn't want to go down into the deep water, so instead he went up on top of the rocks and and dug a deep hole as far down as he could and got big long sticks and poked down the holes trying to fluch Gurrangatch out. If you look on top of the Wombeyan caves today you can see these big holes in the rocks that Mirrigan had made. When Gurrangatch realised that Mirrigan the tiger cat was not going to give up, he started off again and went down the creek again until he came back to the Wollondilly. Some miles further down there lived Mirrigans family. When they heard the noise that Gurrangatch was making as he roared up the river, they ran in terror up the side of the hill. By now, Mirrigan had showed up and his wife was very angry, and tried to stop him chasing Gurrangatch. But Mirrigan would not stop. He chased him again and caught him at what is known by our people as Woon-garree but the gubbas (white-people) call "Slippery Rock". They fought for a long time there, and that is why that rock is still very slippery today. Gurrangatch kept getting away and every time that Mirrigan would hit him with his boondee, Gurrangatch would hit him with his huge tail. This kept going until they came to what is know today as the junction of Cox's River. Here Gurrangatch turned left and went on until he came to whats known as Bill-a-goolla and turned again up the Ked-umba creek, which is now known as the famous Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. Gurrangatch kept travelling and turning and Mirrigan every now and then would catch him and a big fight would take place. Gurrangatch kept digging until he came to Bin-noo-mur or what the white people now call Jenolan Caves. Here he met with some other Gurrangatches. Gurrangatch was real tired. His friends escorted him out of the caves to a place we call Joo-lun-doo. Mirrigan was also very tired and when he came close to Bin-noo-mur (Jenolan Caves) he thought he would build a big wall to try to trap Gurrangatch, so he got lots of stone and built a huge wall called Wan-da-ma-lai or whats known today as Duckmulloy, along the sides of the caves and Joolundoo. He then raced out to his friends out westward to see if they could help him. They were eating eel, and offered him some, but Mirrigan wanted the biggest eel of them all, Gurrangatch. He asked if they could send there best divers to help him, so they all met and decided to send Billagoolla the shag, Gool-a-gwan the the diver, Gundhareen the black duck and Goonarring the wood duck. When Mirrigan returned with all this help, he asked Gundhareen to dive into the water to see if he could see him. After a short while he returned and said that Gurrangatch was to far down in the water to reach. Then Goolagwangen dived in and came back with a small eel and said "is this what your after?" They all soon realised however that all these small fish were trying to hide Gurrungatch the big fish by swimming over the top of him. They all dived in then and tried to pull Gurrangatch out of a hole in a rock on the bottom of the river, but he was to strong. They did however pull off a piece of his flesh, and brought it back to Mirrigan who decided that he would stop the fight now, and they all went back to there families. Today along the course of the Wollondilly, as well as the Cox River, there are big waterholes here and there, that are Gurrangatches resting places. Our people are still wary of swimming in some spots on the Cox's River because of the spirit of Gurrangatch that is still angry for being chased. We are also threatened by the pollution in these sacred rivers by the sewage and other pollution. I hope you can respect these place as our people do, and now realise that these places are special to the Gundungurra people, and that each one has a spiritual and creative background.
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