John Morieson's Website

One hundred and forty years ago, a Boorong family at Lake Tyrrell told William Stanbridge something of their stories relating to the night sky. Some forty stars, constellations and other celestial phenomena were named and located. He wrote them down and related this information to the Philosophical Institute in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1857. In his paper he wrote down the Aboriginal term and gave it's European equivalent. What I have done is look closely at these celestial phenomena, attempt to satisfactorily identify them and to interpret the way the Boorong people may have seen them (see Table 1 for complete list).

I believe the way they saw the stars and constellations relates directly to the way they lived in the Mallee environment of north-west Victoria. Becoming familiar with this country then helps me find out what is in the sky. The basis for understanding the connection between earth and sky is derived from an expression by David Mowaljarli, who said that:

Everything under creation is represented in the soil and in the stars. Everything has two witnesses, one on earth and one in the sky... Everything is represented in the ground and in the sky (Mowaljarli and Malnic 1993). 

Continued on page The Astronomy of the Boorong continued...