Australian Aborigines and meteorites 
95 
group of Henbury craters (24°35'S, 133°10'E) and 
associated meteorites situated near the Finke River 
in the Northern Territory. The craters, formed by 
the impact of an iron meteorite, were recognised as 
meteoritic by Europeans in 1931 (Alderman 
1932a,b). Buchwald (1975) estimates that more than 
1,200 kg of iron meteorites have been recovered 
from the craters and surroundings, the bulk being 
collected before 1933 (Graham et al. 1985). 
Measurement of the activities of the 
radioisotopes Cl 36 and C 14 in the Henbury meteorite 
by Goel and Kohman (1963) and Kohman and Goel 
(1963), respectively, show that the impact event 
occurred less than 5,000 yrs BP. It is significant that 
this age is well within the currently proposed time 
(50,000 yrs BP) of Aboriginal occupation of 
Australia (Roberts et al. 1990). 
Alderman (1932a) noted that inquiries from 
Aborigines in the district revealed that none had 
any ideas as to the origin of the craters. However, 
in an addendum to Alderman's 1932 (a) paper, L.J. 
Spencer communicated a report from Mr R. 
Bedford of the Kyancutta Museum that a local 
prospector (J.M. Mitchell of Oodnadatta) asserted 
that local Aboriginal people described the locality 
as "Chindu chinna warn chingi yabu" which 
translates as "Sun walk fire devil rock". This 
description suggests that it is quite possible that 
the ancestors of the people with whom Mitchell 
spoke witnessed the fall and impact of the Henbury 
meteorite. However, in contradiction to this view, 
Mountford (1976) recounts the southern Aranda 
myth of the lizard-woman, Mulumura, in relation 
to the Henbury meteorite craters. According to the 
myth, the largest of the Henbury craters was the 
camping place of a menstruating Mulumura lizard- 
woman. When the sand on which Mulumura was 
resting became saturated with blood, she picked it 
up and threw it away; the crater was thus created 
and the piles of meteoritic iron surrounding the 
crater represented the blood-stained earth. 
Mountford (1976) suggests that the myth shows 
that the Aborigines have no memory of the impact 
event that created the large crater, though qualifies 
his conclusion by noting that he did not obtain any 
myths accounting for the other craters, and that 
there was little doubt that other myths existed. 
Magellanic Clouds 
Mountford (1976) describes a myth of the Ngalia 
people of the Northern Territory concerning the 
Magellanic Clouds. The myth deals with two men, 
the Walanari, who ate the kumnba (spirit) of a dead 
man during the time of creation. Afterwards, the 
Walanari rose into the sky and made their camps in 
the Magellanic Clouds, from where they act as both 
helpers of the law-abiding, and punishers of evil¬ 
doers. The Ngalia believed that meteors were 
glowing stones thrown to Earth by the Walanari. 
New South Wales 
The Paakantji (Bakendji) people of western New 
South Wales record an ancient event that is 
reported to have occurred at a place along the 
Darling River between Wilcannia and Mount 
Murchison (Jones 1989). A bend in the river is 
called "purli ngaangkalitji", meaning "the fallen 
star". According to the legend, a group of people 
were camped at the location when “they heard this 
rumbling noise from the sky, like thunder... and as it 
[the falling star) came down there was red streaks, and 
a great big ball of fire coming down... and there was 
smoke...." (Jones 1989). The Paakantji account 
continues thus, " and where it fell, some of them died 
there and some of them got burnt.... there was fire in it. 
The ones that weren't too badly burnt, they got away. 
The others died there...." 
This description of the event suggests that 
ancestors of the Paakantji people witnessed the fall 
of a large meteorite, and the account of the impact 
indicates a crater-forming or Tunguska-type, event. 
According to the legend the event was followed by 
a deluge. However, no evidence of an impact crater 
or meteoritic material occurs at the site indicated 
in the legend (Steel and Snow 1991: 5). It is quite 
possible that the site on the Darling River is where 
the legend was recounted, but that it was not the 
actual site of the recorded event. 
South Australia 
In reference to the description of the passage of a 
large meteor across the sky, Tindale (1974) notes 
that the Ramindjeri people of Encounter Bay 
(35°35’S, 138°45’E) visualised the event as the flight 
of an evil being named "Mulda", who was a 
harbinger of sickness and blindness. 
Western Australia 
Wolfe Creek Crater 
The Wolfe Creek meteorite crater in the 
Kimberley of Western Australia has been dated at 
300,000 yrs BP (Shoemaker et al. 1990). Therefore, 
the formation of the crater pre-dates the known 
human occupation of Australia and is unlikely to 
have been witnessed. Wolfe Creek Crater is an 
example where no recognition is afforded by 
Aboriginal tradition of the meteoritic origin of the 
site. The local Djaru people call the locality 
" Kandimalal". Their mythology speaks of two 
rainbow snakes, whose sinuous paths across the 
desert formed the nearby Sturt Creek and Wolfe 
Creek (Bevan and McNamara 1993). The crater 
represents the place where one of the snakes 
emerged from the ground. No mention is made in 
the Djaru account of the association of meteorites 
that occurs at the crater, and it is interesting to 
note that their mythology attributes the origin of 
the crater to events within the Earth rather than 
from above it. 
