One of the books read by students during my teaching years was The Nargun and the Stars. The reason I mention this is we did the walk to the Den of Nargun with some of our grandchildren during the Christmas holidays. I had walked with our two other grandchildren when they were much younger and I thought it would be good for all of our grandchildren to have experienced some aspect of our local indigenous heritage.
I will get back to the book later but the walk to the Den of Nargun was quite a hike as it was a very hot day when we did it, but the bottom of the gorge was quite amazing.
This is a significant site for the Gunaikurnai people. You can find out more on the website of the Bataluk Cultural trail.
We were fortunate to see a rather large lace monitor.
The lace monitor or tree goanna is a member of the monitor lizard family native to eastern Australia. A large lizard, it can reach 2 metres in total length and 14 kilograms in weight.
I think our youngest member of the party was thoroughly exhausted by the time we finished our trek.
Back to the book. A children’s fantasy novel set in Australia, written by Patricia Wrightson. The story involves an orphaned city boy named Simon Brent who comes to live on a 5000-acre sheep station called Wongadilla, in the Hunter Region, with his mother’s second cousins, Edie and Charlie. In a remote valley on the property he discovers a variety of ancient Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime creatures. The arrival of heavy machinery intent on clearing the land brings to life the ominous stone Nargun. The Nargun is a creature drawn from tribal legends of the Gunai or Kurnai people of the area now known as the Mitchell River National Park in Victoria. Other creatures featured in the story include the mischievous green-scaled water-spirit Potkoorok, the Turongs (tree people) and the Nyols (cave people).
The book was made into a television series back in the 80s.
Gippsland Granny 