Country, seasons & weather
The year on country: seasons and their signs
Kuku Yalanji people count five seasons, not two, and each is read from the country rather than the calendar: from what is flowering, what is fruiting, which insects have arrived and which way the thunder is[1][2]. In the dictionary's words the year turns through kambar the wet, the cool rains after it, kiway the cold, wangariji the hot season and jarramali the storms, and then back into the rain[2][1]. The dictionary carries a whole almanac inside its plant and animal entries: the cotton tree's big red flowers say the scrub-hen eggs have started, the junjun fruit brings the scrub turkeys down from the high country, a mountain locust says it is time for turkey eggs, the green ants that are eaten come in December and January, and a run of fruit trees ripen from August to October[2]. This page is the year, season by season and month by month: the weather, the signs, what the waterhole and the woodland are doing, what is in season to gather, and what the law closes and opens. How the year runs on the Hann River, on the upper Mitchell and on the coast is under each place.
Hann River Cape York
Possum People's country on the upper river and Thaypan (Kuku Thaypan) country downstream: stringybark and bloodwood woodland and a spring-fed sandy river that runs north-east from the Great Dividing Range, past the Peninsula Developmental Road, into Rinyirru (Lakefield) and the North Kennedy. Not Kuku Yalanji country: the Kuku Yalanji words on this page are the dictionary's, not the Hann's own languages. Place guide
On the Hann River the year has the same shape, a long wet and a longer dry, but this is Thaypan and Possum People's country, not Kuku Yalanji country, and its people read the year from their own country[29][30]. At Musgrave, the nearest long weather record, in Thaypan country north of the Hann, about 84 per cent of the year's 1174 mm falls from December to March and only about 4 per cent from May to October[31]. The Hann itself never stops: it is spring-fed, and its gauge has not recorded a day without flow since 1968, but by the late dry it is a low clear run between deep holes[32][33]. The Kuku Thaypan Elders' burning calendar is the fullest published record of reading the year in this country[34].
The Hann's year
The wet (December to March). Musgrave averages 182 mm of rain in December, 271 mm in January, 295 mm in February and 239 mm in March[31]. 'During the peak of the wet season (December to March), heavy rains cause the rivers to flood'[35]. The Hann runs highest in February and March, at a mean of about 20–22 cubic metres a second; its biggest day on record averaged about 430 m³/s, on 12 February 1974[32].
The rains ease (April and May). 'Around April heavy rains ease'[35]: 74 mm in April and 15 mm in May at Musgrave[31]. On Kuku Thaypan country the country is still green, and burning begins 'anywhere between April and July, depending on the strength (and length) of the wet season'[34].
The cool dry (June to August). Less than 10 mm of rain a month. July is the coldest month, with mean minimums of 13.7 °C[31]. 'For the next 6 months the floodplains and associated wetlands dry out'[35].
The late dry and the build-up (September to November). 3 mm in September and 14 mm in October; November is the hottest month, with mean maximums of 35.5 °C, and brings the first real rain, 59 mm[31]. 'By October the land is brown and parched'[35]. The Hann drops to its lowest, a mean of about 0.3–0.4 m³/s from September to November, but it keeps running: springs in the high sandstone feed it base flow[32][33]. The lowest daily flow on record, 0.037 m³/s, was in November 2010[32].
The Kuku Thaypan Elders' signs
Kuku Thaypan Elders Dr Tommy George and Dr George Musgrave, through their fire management research project, recorded the signs they read in country through the year (project records 2003–2017). These are their indicators, in their order; the Kuku Thaypan words are as the thesis spells them[34]:
- November to February, the wet: more lightning strikes and storms; monsoon rain; 'Rainbows'; the wetlands and rivers swell; more sugarbag bees, Arear.
- January to April, the lead-up to the burning season: flowers on grevillea, Calytrix and the large-leaf wattles; more butterflies, Nye yeliya; the wattle, Ku taeru or Ku enyarl, begins flowering; cockatoo grass has finished flowering and fruiting; 'Nye Koil Longneck Freshwater Turtle Fat', 'Fat Goanna', 'Healthy Possums'; new growth on the gum trees, Ku agawl.
- May to September, the cool: black spear grass seeding; strong wind gusts; 'Mornings start to get cooler', 'Nights get longer'; the south-east winds increase and the squally 'knock em down' rain, Nyo oilten, begins; giant spear grass begins to fall over; the wild rice, Che giuill, is ready; heavy dews and 'Ring around the moon'; the bloodwood, Ku Anarmagetta, flowering; 'Emu is nesting'; Eriachne and Themeda grasses setting seed; the messmate, Ku akalmba, flowering; then the gums flowering, the yams finished growing, lilies and orchids growing, the gums shedding bark, and the last of the squally showers.
- September and October, the build-up: temperatures rise and the eucalypts drop their leaves; 'Air is dry and hot temperatures are high and vegetation moisture is low'.
When country is burnt, and what is closed
The Elders' burning year. Burning follows the signs, not the calendar: 'Timing for systems is adjusted through the months according to indicators read in country'[34].
- The gum tree country 'is one of the first systems to burn, the darker the soil the earlier the burn, lighter soils are burnt later'[34].
- Boxwood country is ready early too: 'It is important to protect developing boxwood flowers through cool burns in the early dry season', because they feed possums, insects and birds[34].
- The knock em down rain carries much of the burning. 'This rain knocks down the grass seed heads providing moisture for re-generation', and showers around a burn bring the grass back quickly[34].
- The messmate's flowers are a clock. Gum tree country 'is ready for burning when the Ku akalmba Messmate is flowering', and 'The last of the light squally showers and the SE knock em down rain is an indicator for this system, when Eriachne sp is setting seed and bark has shed'. Mixed bloodwood country comes next: 'ready later than boxwood and gum but before tea-tree, in late July early August'[34].
- By spring the work is done: 'All systems are burnt through this time and start to slow down in spring'[34].
- Then the stop: 'No burning in October Hot and dry start of build up to the wet season'[34].
What is closed. The Hann runs to Princess Charlotte Bay on the east coast, so its barramundi closure is the east-coast one, 1 November to 31 January, not the Gulf's 7 October start[27]. Downstream in Rinyirru, the park roads close in the wet, 'usually December to May'[36].
How people kept the year here
Apart from the Elders' burning calendar, no seasonal food calendar has been published for the Hann's own people; the general sections above are Kuku Yalanji and coast records, not the Hann's. Roth heard, from the Koko-rarmul of the Princess Charlotte Bay hinterland, a story about the rain of the country the Hann runs through[37]. It belongs to its custodians: ask them, rather than this page.
On country today
The upper Hann is the Possum People's country, held by the Possum Aboriginal Corporation[30]. The middle and lower Hann are Thaypan country, held by the Awu-Laya Indigenous Corporation since the determination of 2 November 2023[29]. Burning on their country is their knowledge and their decision: ask them before lighting any fire there.
Upper Mitchell Western Yalanji
Western Yalanji country west of the Great Dividing Range: dry open woodland cut by the sandy, paperbark-lined upper Mitchell River, around Karma Waters and Mount Carbine. Place guide
At Karma Waters, 150 km inland from where those words were recorded, the rhythm is the same but harder: on the Mitchell only about four per cent of the year's rain falls between May and October, so the dry is drier, the pools shrink further and the hot season bites earlier[16][38].
A Western Yalanji calendar
No Western Yalanji seasonal calendar has been published that we could find; if your family counts the seasons differently at Karma Waters, add it below.
The year at Karma Waters
The weather figures here are Palmerville's, the nearest long record to Karma Waters, about 90 km north-west on the Palmer River, kept since 1889[38].
The wet (late December to March). The three big months. Palmerville averages 267 mm of rain in January, 260 mm in February and 178 mm in March, with nights that never drop below about 22 °C[38]. The river comes up and joins the pools into one brown flood that spreads onto its floodplain and feeds the whole system[16]. At Karma Waters the station's river camps are closed from 1 December to 1 April, to save the roads and to give the fish and prawns their spawning season[39].
The little rains (April to May). The rain eases: 48 mm in April, 15 mm in May at Palmerville, and the nights cool from 20 °C to 17 °C[38]. The station musters in May[40].
The cold (June to September). Rain is close to nothing, 11 mm in June, 5 mm in July, 3 mm in August, 8 mm in September; days are 30 °C and the July nights 14 °C, with mist on the river at dawn[38][2]. The pools are clearest now and the food base at its richest: algae on the sand banks, prawns on the algae, fish on the prawns[8][41]. The station musters again in September and the bulls go out[40].
The hot season (October to November). Palmerville's mean maximum reaches 35.6 °C in October and 36.2 °C in November, with only 21 mm and 61 mm of rain; bad fire-weather days run to about 36 °C with 18 per cent humidity[38][10]. The barramundi closed season starts on 7 October[27].
The storms (late November to mid December). The build-up breaks in storms; December brings 158 mm at Palmerville[38].
Signs to watch here
Other signs worth watching at Karma Waters, from the research on this guide's pages: the first cherabin running upstream after the wet; the finches breeding after the monsoon; the cockatoo flocks on a heavy bloodwood crop; crocodile slides on the sand banks from August; mist on the pools in the cold; and the honeyeaters' dawn chorus moving earlier as the days lengthen[8][21][23][9][2].
Inland, not coast
The Mitchell is different in degree: only about 4 per cent of the catchment's rain falls from May to October, against the Daintree coast's year-round showers, so at Karma Waters the little rains are smaller, the cold is colder at night, the pools shrink further and the hot season bites earlier[16][38]. Mareeba Airport, up on the tableland at 472 m, is a few degrees cooler again with the same pattern, 894 mm a year, mostly December to March[42].
Month by month, and what is closed
- January: wet; 267 mm; river up and brown; station closed; yams and wet-season fruit; green ants[38][39][25][2].
- February: wettest nights; finches start to breed; barramundi season closed until 31 January is over, so it reopens on 1 February[38][21][27].
- March: 178 mm; jidu ripe; junjun from now; cherabin larvae still going down[38][2][7].
- April: station camps reopen on 1 April; early burns while the grass is green; the cherabin run up; scrub turkeys down on the junjun[39][5][8][2].
- May: muster; the river settles into its pools; the last of the junjun; yams from mid-dry on[40][43][2].
- June: cold nights begin; crocodiles courting; honey season; zamia nearly ready[38][9][43][25].
- July: coldest, 14 °C nights, 5 mm; mist on the river; zamia and the Queensland nut[38][2][25].
- August: crocodiles laying; the fig and fruit calendar opens (kumin, mujarr, wada and the rest, to October)[9][2].
- September: muster, bulls out; days climbing to 34 °C; turtles start nesting; kookaburras nesting; turkey mounds filling; grass fully cured[40][38][13][15][14][10].
- October: 35.6 °C; barramundi closed from the 7th; the pools at their smallest; bee-dung time; storm burns after the first storms[38][27][11][43][10].
- November: hottest, 36.2 °C; thunder out west; crocodile hatchlings; cotton tree and flame tree flowering for the egg season; station closes on 1 December[38][2][9][39].
- December: storms, 158 mm; bark peels; banday ripe; green ants; cherabin hatching; the river rises[38][43][2][7].
What the law and the station close and open here:
Heat and cold here
The station's year
On Western Yalanji country the station's own year, closures, musters, burning and baiting, runs alongside the seasons[39][40][44].
Eastern coast Eastern Kuku Yalanji
Eastern Kuku Yalanji country: rainforest, beaches, mangroves, reef and the short steep rivers from the Daintree to the Bloomfield and the Annan.
The five seasons were named here, on the Bloomfield and Daintree coast, and the Wujal Wujal council publishes them as Eastern Kuku Yalanji knowledge[1]. Custodians use the calendar to describe caring for country, moving between sea and rainforest to let each rest[4].
The year at Bloomfield
The wet. On the Bloomfield the hairy yam was 'the main article of diet' from mid-February to mid-May[25]. At Bloomfield the wet-season camps were on the ridges between the creek gullies, above the floods[43].
The cold. This was the gathering season at Bloomfield: families moved out to 'branch' camps on the sandy creek beds for eelfish, turtles, wallabies and goannas, the wallaby drives with fire were held, sugarbag was 'an important and highly desired resource' throughout the dry, the zamia was fit to eat from July, and most tubers and yams came in from the mid dry to about November[43][25].
The hot season. In the woodland the late dry was the time to check the tree bases for bee dung[43].
The storms. Juan Walker counts the build-up his favourite part of the year, 'some amazing calm days when the ocean looks like a mirror', and the cicadas starting their call to signal the rain[4]. The first storms raise the sap: this is when the bark sheets for huts were cut and peeled[43].
The Bloomfield round
Anderson's Bloomfield round: fish and shellfish all year on the coast; wallaby, yams, tubers and honey from the ranges; eelfish and turtle from the creeks in the dry; nuts gathered and kept for the wet, when the creeks were up and people moved less[43].
The gathering calendar here
The gathering calendar from the sources on this guide, Bloomfield unless stated[2][43][25]:
- Wet (Dec–Mar): hairy yam from mid-February (roast, mash, wash); julbal, kawunjil, jidu fruit; green ants (nyirran) and their medicine; fish any time, but the river is high and the camps are up on the ridges.
- Little rains (Apr–May): junjun fruit and the scrub turkeys on it; scrub turkey eggs when the mountain locust calls; the cherabin run; the last soft ground for yams.
- Cold (Jun–Sep): the main season. Sugarbag; zamia from July (the long leaching process); the Queensland nut from July; tubers and yams through to November; eelfish, turtles, wallabies, goannas from the branch camps; wallaby drives with fire; figs and the August–October fruits; crocodile eggs from August 'whenever found'.
- Hot (Oct–Nov): the last fruit; turkey and scrub-hen eggs as the signs show; turtle eggs; the hunting of the crowded pools, with the barramundi closed.
- Storms (late Nov–Dec): bark for huts; banday; the first green ants; and then the river takes the country back.
Everywhere
The five seasons and their words
The five seasons. The Wujal Wujal council gives the Kuku Yalanji year as: Kab, the wet season, late December to March; Kabakababa, the winter rain season, April to May; Bulurij, the cold season, June to September; Wungariji, the hot season, October to November; and Jarramali, the stormy season, late November to the middle of December[1]. A Daintree source gives the same five with slightly different spellings and dates: Kambar (late December to March, rain), Kabakabada (April to May, cool, rain easing), Duluruiji (June to September, cooler and dry), Wungariji (October to November, hot and dry) and Jarramali (November to December, hot and stormy)[3]. Kuku Yalanji custodian Johnny Murison explains that Jarramali means thunder and is the storm season, late November to mid December, followed by Kaba, the rains, late December to March[4].
The dictionary's words match three of them directly: kambar 'wet season' (and 'white clay'), wangariji 'the hot season' and jarramali 'thunder, thunderstorm, thunderheads'[2]. kaba is 'rain', so Kab and Kabakababa are the rain and the little rains[2]. The cold season's name is not a dictionary headword in that spelling, but kiway is 'cold'[2]. The dictionary adds a season the council list does not name: kumurr, 'the autumn time of the year when so many flowers are in bloom'[2].
Weather words. jabulbina 'thunder out west, the start of all storms'; wadil 'weather, rain or cold, entering'; balbay 'lightning'; ngurrban 'cloud'; muyar 'wind'; kumbamu 'trade wind, fair wind'; jukar-warra 'whirlwind'; jirimali 'fine day, cloudless sky'; jalungkarr 'flood'; marral 'dry'; duna 'wet'; kurri-kurri 'storm bird'[2]. Sky. wungar 'sun'; kija 'moon'; dawar 'star'; kurrubijal 'morning star'. And kakarr, 'grass', is also the word for a year: kakarr jambul, 'two years', one grass season after another[2].
These are Eastern Kuku Yalanji words and season names from the Bloomfield and Daintree coast.
The year, season by season
Kab / kambar: the wet (late December to March)
The three big months, late December to March, the rain season[1]. 'The rain is heavy but has a sweet smell to it and the land drinks it in', Johnny Murison says of Kaba; 'it is a time when our country really comes alive'[4]. This is when the fish spawn and the fruit ripens: the julbal 'green apple' and the kawunjil black cherry ripen in the wet, the jidu fruit in March, and the junjun fruit from March to May[2]; the green ants that are eaten come in December and January[2].
Kabakababa: the little rains (April to May)
The rain eases and it cools[3]. The river drops back into its bed and the first burns go in while the grass is still green: the early dry-season burn 'may sometimes commence as early as March'[5], and at Kowanyama the early burn is 'after the wet when the grass is mostly still green'[6]. On the lower rivers the year's young cherabin run upstream in a six-week migration in April and May, with young barramundi and mullet[7][8]. The scrub turkeys come down from the high country to the junjun fruit[2].
Bulurij / kiway: the cold (June to September)
The dry proper. Cooler and dry[3], with mist rising from the river at dawn: the dictionary has a word for it, wurrbal[2]. The dictionary's fruit calendar is thick here: the Queensland nut barka from July to October; the figs kumin and mujarr, and murrkul, ngalkarran, wada, wanakan and mukukanka, all 'ripe in August to October'[2]. Freshwater crocodiles court from June and lay in August and September[9]. By September the woodland's fuel is cured and fires can run[10].
Wungariji / wangariji: the hot season (October to November)
The hardest months. Hot and dry[3]. The pools shrink, warm and crowd: fish biomass falls in isolated waterholes through the late dry, from short food and predation, and the deep holes hold the crocodiles with the fish[11][12]. Turtles are nesting from September to December, the brush-turkey mounds are at their fullest from September to December, the blue-winged kookaburras nest from September, and the first crocodile hatchlings come in November[13][14][15][9]. The mountain locust kalkamal 'tells when to collect turkey eggs', and names that time[2].
Jarramali / jarramali: the storms (late November to mid December)
'Thunder out west, the start of all storms' is jabulbina[2]. The build-up breaks in storms from late November into December[3]. Storm burns are lit after the first storm rains, between October and January[10]. The cotton tree wawuburra blooms with 'big red flowers' and 'signals the start of the scrub hen egg season', and the flame tree ngakun flowers for the same reason; a Daintree account puts it as turtle eggs ready when the flame tree flowers and the first storm comes[2][3]. The little gooseberry banday ripens in December[2]. Cherabin larvae hatch from December and must reach the sea within a week[7]. Lightning is the woodland's other fire-lighter.
The signs: the dictionary's almanac
The dictionary's own almanac, the living things that say what time of year it is[2]:
- wawuburra (cotton tree) 'When it blooms (big red flowers) it signals the start of the scrub hen egg season'. The scrub hen page has the rest.
- ngakun (flame tree): 'The flowering of this tree signals the time when the scrub hen eggs are in season'.
- junjun: fruit 'ripe in March – May. During the junjun season, the scrub turkey, which normally lives in the high country, will come down to feed on them'.
- kalkamal: 'a locust in the mountains which tells when to collect turkey eggs; the time to collect the eggs'.
- mura: a tree; 'when this is in bloom it is time for minya jalan', the sea-urchin meat.
- nyirran: 'the big green ant that is eaten, comes in December – January'.
- jumul-jumul: 'the grass seeds that get stuck in clothes, which come during the wet season'.
- junbirr: a small lizard 'common in leaves and grass before and during wet season'.
- biray and kamay: the grey and yellow March flies.
- kumurr: 'the autumn time of the year when so many flowers are in bloom'.
- kurri-kurri: the storm bird.
- The fruit calendar: jidu in March; julbal and kawunjil in the wet; barka from July to October; kumin, mujarr, murrkul, ngalkarran, wada, wanakan and mukukanka from August to October; banday in December.
Inland and coast
Inland and coast. The five seasons were named on the coast, where the wet is longer and the dry never quite dries. Inland the pattern is the same but harder: see each place below.
The river's year is on the waterhole page: flood, early-dry refilling, mid-dry clarity, late-dry contraction. The woodland's year is on the woodland page: blossom, seed, hollows and the burn cycle. The two hubs and this page are one calendar seen from three places.
What the seasons turn
The seasons are the hinge on which everything else on this guide turns.
- Water connects and disconnects. In the wet the river joins its floodplain and its pools, and the fish move and feed across the whole system; in the dry each pool becomes its own world and the animals in it depend on what that pool grows[16][17]. Big wet years make more and bigger barramundi[16].
- Spawning rides the flood. Sooty grunter spawn on rising water over 25 °C, black catfish migrate upstream at peak flood, barramundi spawn at the river mouths from September to March, cherabin larvae ride the December–March flows to the sea and the young ride the falling river back up in April and May[18][19][20][7].
- Blossom and seed set the birds' year. The woodland's finches breed after the monsoon from February, the rosellas from February to June in the north, the kookaburras from September to December; the cockatoo flocks follow the seed crops and the lorikeets and flying foxes the blossom[21][22][15][23][24].
- Eggs come with the heat. Crocodiles lay in August–September and hatch in November–December; turtles nest September to December; the mound-builders peak from September; and the dictionary's egg signs (cotton tree, flame tree, mountain locust) all fall in the storm season[9][13][14][2].
- Fire follows the grass. Early-dry burns while the grass is green and low; storm burns after the first rains; and in between, the late dry when a fire cannot be stopped[5][10][6].
- Food follows all of it. Roth summed up the north: honey in the dry, roots and fruits in the wet[25].
What is closed, and when
The month-by-month year for each place is below. Some rules are the same everywhere:
- Fire: permits for anything beyond a small cooking fire, and the regional-ecosystem guidelines above for when[26][5].
- Barramundi: closed in Queensland fresh waters every year, but the dates depend on which way the river runs. Rivers to the Gulf of Carpentaria close from 7 October to 31 January; all other fresh waters, the east-coast rivers, close from 1 November to 31 January[27].
The gathering calendar
The dictionary's own gathering signs are in the almanac above: the green ants nyirran in December and January, the junjun fruit and the scrub turkeys from March to May, turkey eggs at the mountain locust's call, scrub-hen eggs when the cotton tree flowers, and the fruit run from August to October[2]. Roth's rule for the north as a whole: 'emu, kangaroo, opossum, and fish are hunted at any time; lilies and honey in the dry season; roots and fruits in the wet season'[25]. Each place has its own gathering calendar: see below.
Each food's own page has the method: zamia, yam, native bees, scrub hen, scrub turkey, cherabin, freshwater turtle, fig.
Keeping the calendar
How to keep the calendar from the country, as the dictionary does:
- Pick your marker trees and visit them: a cotton tree, a flame tree, a bloodwood, a fig. Note the month each flowers and fruits in your first year; it will be close the next[2].
- Listen for the insects: the cicadas before the rain, the March flies, the mountain locust[4][2].
- Watch the river gauge you have: a rock bar or a snag at the pool you use most. When it goes under, the wet has started; when the riffle stops, the dry is on[16].
- Read the thunder: storms building out west in November are the season's turn[2].
- Keep a note on the page. The contribution box below is for exactly this: the dates things happened on your country this year. Over a few years that becomes a local calendar.
Safety by season
- Heat: October and November, wangariji, are the hot dry months[3]; walk early and late, carry water, know where shade and the river are.
- Lightning and storms from November: get off the ridges and out from under the tallest trees.
- Floods: a dry sand bed can be a river within hours of a storm upstream; camp above the high bank, not on the sand, from November.
- Fire: the late dry, September to the storms, is when fires cannot be controlled; the early dry is when they are lit on purpose[10][5].
- Crocodiles: nesting females on the sand banks from August; crowded pools in the hot season[9].
- Cold: the cold season is cold enough to have its own word, kiway-kiway 'cold'[2]; carry something warm for the nights.
On Country today
The five-season calendar is published by the Wujal Wujal council as the shared knowledge of Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, and custodians use it in their own words to describe caring for country[1][4]. Native title holders' seasonal hunting, fishing and gathering is protected by section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993; the barramundi closure and fire permits are the state rules that frame everyone else[28][27][26].
Language
Times of day belong with the seasons: muduwaju 'dawn'; wunkuwingku 'morning'; yilay-yilay 'late afternoon'; wujurr 'night'; kunarangkal 'middle of the night'; wurrbal 'fog, mist rising from the river'. Fire and grass: ngalku 'bush fire'; duli 'burnt patch of grass'; kakarr 'grass; year'. Staples by season: wukay, the hairy yam of the wet; marra, the zamia of the dry[2].
References
- Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council. Living Here: the five Kuku-Yalanji seasons (Kab, Kabakababa, Bulurij, Wungariji, Jarramali). www.wujalwujalcouncil.qld.gov.au/Living-Here
- Hershberger, H. D. & Hershberger, R. (1982). Kuku-Yalanji Dictionary. Work Papers of SIL-AAB, Series B, Volume 7. With Toby Bloomfield, Roy Friday, Billy Roberts, Hector and Doris Sykes, Joe Walker and others. www.sil.org/resources/archives/18038
- Heritage Lodge (Daintree). The seasons of the Daintree Rainforest: the Kuku Yalanji five-season calendar (Kambar, Kabakabada, Duluruiji, Wungariji, Jarramali). www.heritagelodge.net.au/the-seasons-of-the-daintree-rainforest/
- Tourism Tropical North Queensland. 'An Indigenous perspective of summer', with Kuku-Yalanji custodians Johnny Murison (Jarramali Rock Art Tours) and Juan Walker (Walkabout Cultural Adventures). tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au/articles/indigenous-perspective-of-summer/
- Queensland Herbarium, Regional Ecosystem 9.11.26 (Einasleigh Uplands): Eucalyptus leptophleba and/or E. cullenii and/or Corymbia clarksoniana +/- E. platyphylla woodland on undulating terrain to rolling hills. Fire management guidelines. Queensland Government Regional Ecosystem Description Database. apps.des.qld.gov.au/regional-ecosystems/details/?re=9.11.26
- Hasegawa, C. (21 March 2024). 'Kowanyama shares preserved fire knowledge at forum'. Cape York Weekly. capeyorkweekly.com.au/kowanyama-shares-preserved-fire-knowledge-at-forum/8636/
- Charles Darwin University. 'Wet season flows crucial to Cherabin survival' (news release on P. Novak's research on Macrobrachium spinipes in the Daly River, NT; accessed 5 October 2026). www.cdu.edu.au/news/news-archive/wet-season-flows-crucial-cherabin-survival
- Charles Darwin University. 'Graduate discovers "key to cherabin survival"' (news release on P. Novak's PhD research on Macrobrachium spinipes in the Daly River, NT; accessed 5 October 2026). www.cdu.edu.au/news/news-archive/graduate-discovers-%E2%80%98key-cherabin-survival%E2%80%99
- Australian Museum. Freshwater Crocodile, Crocodylus johnstoni (web page, accessed 5 October 2026). australian.museum/learn/animals/reptiles/freshwater-crocodile/
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (2013). Planned Burn Guidelines: Cape York Peninsula Bioregion of Queensland. Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing. — 'Fire in the monsoonal tropics of the Cape York Peninsula bioregion'; ch. 1–2 season guidance (storm burns) parks.desi.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/151480/pbg-cape-york.pdf
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