In Aboriginal Dream-time stories from this area, “Taggan” was the spirit of the Rainbow.
Whenever the end of the rainbow touched the water, Taggan would leave small crystal stones, and the Aborigines seemed to know exactly where to dive for these prized stones.
Only one or two older, experienced men in a tribe would be allowed to have these stones which they believed gave them special powers to bring thunder, cure disease, or bring rain.
These special men were called “Turwrans”.
One of the great Turrwans of our area was Dalaipi. The local people looked on him as their Rain Maker.
Tom Petrie tells of how Dalaipi wanted to make rain come once, and dove into the North Pine River with his tomahawk to look for a “taggan” stone quite close to where I took this picture today.
The North Pine Tribe believed that in winter, the flying foxes hid under the water where the “taggan stops”, and that they waited till the warm weather came back before returning.
Today I couldn’t see any rainbow spirits, or flying foxes, but I thought a lot about Dalaipi and this place that was special to him.
(Source: “Tom Petrie’s Reminiscences of Early Queensland” by Constance Campbell Petrie)
Total climbing: 57 m
Average temperature: NAN
Total time: 00:44:12
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True story you might like..i was talking to the great great great grandson of Dallaipi just last night as we were having a cookup ( i cook’d kangaroo meatballs and cherries in syrup /sweet potatoes) he told me a story of when he was in a shopping center in Ascot and noticed someone was staring at him, they kept glancing at each other until finally one of them said , are you right mate ? can i help you ?..the other guy said ‘ i feel like i know you from somewhere ? anyway they exchanged names and the man said his name was John Petrie 🙂 what a coincidence ! anyway they keep in touch via email now and have met again a few times as well as the descendants of Parson’s Finnegan and Pamphlett have all been in touch as well 🙂
Jason
I only just read this (after 2 years). This is amazing.
I’d love to hear more about this when I see you next.
Neil