Skills & methods
Tracks, signs and scents: reading the ground
baral is 'road, path, track, trail', jina the foot, jinabu dungay 'to go by foot, to walk', balbi 'hunt for, search for', nyumal 'to smell or taste', and duburan 'directional sign, one placed in position, (not a motion), as a heap of stones or grass twisted to point the way'[1]. The old hunting was mostly reading: Roth's Palmer and Princess Charlotte Bay hunters speared kangaroos 'being tracked from the windward, these animals having a very sensitive appreciation of the aboriginal's scent', and used the scent as a tool, throwing 'a spare spear well over its head into the ground beyond. This spear, having been well smeared with the perspiration from under the arm-pits or crutch, is thus fully charged with the concentrated essence of humanity: the wind carries the scent and drives the kangaroo from apparent into real danger'[2]. Possums were found 'by sight, provided of course the moon is up, or by dogs: during the day-time, the freshly-made claw-marks are looked for on the tree-butts', or by 'the presence of mosquitoes flying in and out of a hole'; the quoll 'is tracked not only by its claw-marks, but also by its scent, which is as strong-smelling as a pole-cat's'; dingo pups by following 'the tracks of the pups'; and honey 'during the winter time by watching carefully for the minute pellets of dung lying on the ground around the butt; in the summer months by observing the bees going in and out of their nest'[2]. This page gathers the signs from every page of this encyclopedia into one walk: what the sand, the mud, the trees, the birds and the smells say at Karma Waters, and the dictionary's warning birds, kurrujuwa, the 'sentry bird which warns of crocodiles along the banks of the river', dabuy, the kingfisher that means company, and jukujuku, the bronzewing calling alone[1].
Nothing is written for the Eastern coast on this page yet. What follows is true across the country.
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
Roth's best record of hunting by wind and scent comes from this country: 'on the Palmer, Musgrave, and back of Princess Charlotte Bay generally' kangaroos were 'tracked from the windward', and a spear smeared with the hunter's sweat was thrown beyond them so the wind would drive them to him (see above)[2]. Kuku Thaypan Elders still read and mark their country with placed signs[24], and a Kuku Warra man gave the visitor's rule: 'The only thing you're allowed to leave is tracks'[25].
Reading country here
Roth's windward tracking was for wallabies too: 'Wallabies are similarly hunted in these same districts'[2].
Not every sign is a track. The anthropological evidence in the 2023 native title cases says that in their own country a person 'may receive intuitions and messages from the Old People', who 'will appear to them in the guise of animals that approach the camp to peer at them, signal, or otherwise behave in unusual ways'[26]. What those signs mean belongs to the people of the country.
Placed signs here
The Kuku Thaypan Elders' record describes the placed signs of this country, the same idea as the dictionary's duburan[24][1]:
- Marker sticks in termite mounds. 'Magnetic termite nests were used to place marker sticks pointing in direction for water bodies/land marks'; the termites build up over the stick and hold it in place.
- Bent trees. 'Trees were often bent to indicate locations in the landscape'.
- Bent grass and saplings. 'When walking through the forest it is also common practice to bend grass and saplings as you are walking so that you can navigate and others can locate you'. Someone who did not want to be found did not do it.
- Hidden fires. 'Fires were also lit inside termite mounds at night so that others could not see your fire'.
The Elders could also 'make tracks intertwining between trees where no track appeared to exist'[24].
Safety here
In Rinyirru, 'stay well back from any crocodile slide marks'[27]. A Thaypan man teaches his children first 'where they can and can't walk', 'to make sure they don't get sick': there are places 'where they can't go to the toilet or break a stick, where they can't disturb the land'[26]. Go with the Traditional Owners, not on your own.
On country today
The markers are at risk. They 'have the potential to be seriously impacted by fires that are too frequent and too hot and could be destroyed over time as contemporary land managers are largely unware of their existence'[24]. A bent tree or a stick in a termite mound may be a sign someone placed: leave it.
The Kuku Warra rule in full: 'The only thing you're allowed to leave is tracks. You aren't allowed to take anything from my country. That's really the belief on my country: do not take anything, do not leave anything'[25].
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
On the upper Mitchell the reading starts on the river sand at Karma Waters. Roth's Palmer records are from the next river north[2].
What the old hunters read here
The Palmer is the next river north of Karma Waters. Roth's kangaroo tracking 'on the Palmer, Musgrave, and back of Princess Charlotte Bay generally' is the nearest record[2].
On country today
The Karma Waters sand bars print the night's traffic every morning of the dry, and the station roads carry the dingo's and the pig's lines[2].
Everywhere
Names
baral 'road, path, track, trail'; jina 'foot'; jinabu dungay 'to go by foot, to walk'; balbi 'hunt for, search for'; mala-minya 'good hunter', jurru-walay 'expert, good shooter or hunter'; nyumal 'to smell or taste'; jila 'smell; sweat' (and 'beeswax'); jila-burra 'bad smell'; bikarr 'fishy smell or taste'; kabu 'rotten, bad or rotten smell'; yanja 'rustling noise, as the wind blowing through trees or grass'; ngingkirr a grunt, 'a pig coming'; duburan 'directional sign, one placed in position, (not a motion), as a heap of stones or grass twisted to point the way'; janku 'hole in the ground'; kanka 'hole'; duli 'burnt patch of grass'; jukar 'sand'[1]. The birds: kurrujuwa 'sentry bird which warns of crocodiles along the banks of the river'; dabuy the small brown kingfisher: 'when this bird starts singing you know you will get company, that someone is travelling'; jukujuku the bronzewing: 'if the jukujuku sings out alone the people know that a stranger is coming or that someone may have died'[1].
What the old hunters read
Wind and scent. 'On the Palmer, Musgrave, and back of Princess Charlotte Bay generally ... kangaroos are speared, being tracked from the windward, these animals having a very sensitive appreciation of the aboriginal's scent. Sometimes, in order to make the marsupial approach into closer quarters, or else to get it out of some brush-wood, etc., so as to make surer of his aim and yet not to run the risk of exposing his presence, the hunter will throw a spare spear well over its head into the ground beyond. This spear, having been well smeared with the perspiration from under the arm-pits or crutch, is thus fully charged with the concentrated essence of humanity: the wind carries the scent and drives the kangaroo from apparent into real danger. (Wallabies are similarly hunted in these same districts.)' On the Pennefather the lone hunter 'will paint himself completely over with yellow ochre (with this pigment or earth rubbed well into his arm-pits, etc., so as to kill the smell of his perspiration), and make himself resemble an ant-bed'[2].
Tracks and marks. Kangaroos 'may be tracked and sneaked upon during the extreme midday heat, and caught while resting in the shade'; wallabies' 'accustomed tracks' were where the traps and nets went; dingoes: 'the tracks of the pups are followed'; possums: 'during the day-time, the freshly-made claw-marks are looked for on the tree-butts in the hollow trunk or branch of which the animal is camping. In the Rockhampton district it would appear that in the absence of claw-marks, the presence of mosquitoes flying in and out of a hole is a very likely indication of an opossum or native bear in an otherwise unsuspected tree. The ring-tailed spotted opossum — black with white spots — is tracked not only by its claw-marks, but also by its scent, which is as strong-smelling as a pole-cat's'; goannas go 'into one of its burrow-holes' and the burrow's sign is read on the goanna page; bandicoots in burrows and logs were found with the beeswax-tipped prodder that 'picks up any opossum- or bandicoot-fur'[2][3].
Honey. 'To learn where the honey is, bees may be hunted by sight ... Its locality in the particular tree is tracked, during the winter time by watching carefully for the minute pellets of dung lying on the ground around the butt; in the summer months by observing the bees going in and out of their nest, and on occasion by putting the ear down to some natural orifice at the base of the tree and listening for the insects' hum and buzz. The trunk is often tapped lightly with the fingers, or with a stone, for indications of a hollow core — a likely situation for a nest. On the (middle) Palmer the insect may be caught in the open, when its body will be smeared with iguana or snake-fat, and some hawks', etc., feather-down stuck on: it is then let loose and followed home'[2]. See native bees.
Water animals. On the Cardwell coast 'very good indications of' dugong 'are the short lengths of grass, which have been bitten off by the dugong grazing below, floating on the water-surface'; see dugong[2]. The dictionary's kurrujuwa is the river's crocodile sentry[1].
The placed sign. The dictionary's duburan, 'a heap of stones or grass twisted to point the way', is the sign one person leaves for another, and the finding water page has Leichhardt's fenced water-hole and Roth's wells as the other kind of placed sign[1][2].
Tracks in the sand
The river sand at first light is the book. From the animal pages:
- Wallaby and wallaroo: two long hind feet side by side, a tail drag between in soft sand; a bounding gap between sets; see wallaby[4].
- Dingo: a dog's track with claws, in a straight line along the road or the sand; the pups' small tracks near the den; see dingo[5][2].
- Pig: cloven, blunt, the dew-claws showing, and the rooting and wallows beside; see pigs[6].
- Cattle: bigger cloven tracks and the dung; horse: the round shoe.
- Goanna: a wide-legged walk with a tail line between and claw marks; see goanna.
- Crocodile: a belly slide with the feet either side and the tail furrow, down a bank into the water; see Crocwise[7].
- Turtle: a short wide drag up a sandbank to a nest; see freshwater turtle.
- Echidna: a wandering line of small tracks with a tail drag, to a dug-out ant nest; see echidna[8].
- Bandicoot: small tracks ending in a conical dig with a snout hole; see quolls and bandicoots[9].
- Rakali: webbed hind prints and a tail line at the water's edge, and the shell heap on a rock[10].
- Birds: the bustard's big three-toed walk on the flat, the brolga's at the lagoon, the pigeons' and finches' little lines to the water in the evening; see bustard and pigeons[11].
- Snake: a smooth winding furrow with no feet, into a hole; see snakes[12].
- People: jina, the foot[1].
Signs on the trees, the ground and the water
- Claw-marks on a tree butt, fresh and pale: a possum's hollow above; mosquitoes at a hole: the same[2].
- Bee dung at a butt in winter, bees at a hole in summer, a hum at the base: honey; see native bees[2].
- Chewed hollow entrances and a head looking out: parrots or kookaburras nesting; see cockatoos.
- Split bloodwood fruit under a tree: black cockatoos; see bloodwood.
- Mud tubes up a trunk: termites; see termites and ant beds[13].
- A bower with white bones and glass: the bowerbird; see bush birds[14].
- A line of white gums across dry country: a creek; a green gully in the dry: a spring; see finding water[15].
- Rooted-up ground at the water: pigs; a neat deep hole: a goanna; a conical dig: a bandicoot; a torn-open ant bed: an echidna[6][8][9].
- Mussel shells and prawn claws on a rock: a rakali's table; shells under a perch: a kingfisher's[10][16].
- Silver fish dead on a pool: the water is failing; see the small fish[17].
- Bitten grass floating on the coast: dugong[2].
- Fresh scats: fur and bone on a rise, a dingo; white-spotted on a ledge, a quoll[18].
- Flood debris in the forks and a burnt patch, duli: the year's record[1].
Where to read
The river sand and the mud margins of the pools, where everything that drinks writes its name; the dust of the station roads; the ash of a burn, which takes a track like snow; the tree butts for the climbers; the flats for the bustard and the pigeons; the rock piles for the quoll and the wallaby[2][18]. Early morning, with the sun low across the sand, is the hour; by midday the light flattens the tracks and the animals are in the shade, which was Roth's hour to sneak up on them[2].
The birds as sentries
The woodland's birds watch for you: a kookaburra, magpie or butcherbird scolding one spot on the ground is a snake or a goanna; the kites circling low and fast are a fire, high and slow a carcass or a dying pool; the small birds going silent is a goshawk; the pigeons and finches flying straight and low at four o'clock are going to water; the dictionary's sentry bird calls at the crocodile; the sea eagle working a pool is working your fish[19][20][11][1][21]. At dusk the flying foxes skimming show open water and the blossom they came from; the frogs calling show wet ground; the dictionary's yanja, the rustle in the grass, is the thing you do not see[22][1].
Seasons
The dry is the tracking season: the sand bars are out, the animals are tied to the pools, and every night's traffic is written at the water by morning; the ash of the early-dry burns takes tracks like a page; the wet washes the book clean each night and brings the frilled lizard and the frogs onto the ground[2][23]. See the year on country.
Uses
- Hunting: reading where the game is, which way it went, how fresh, and coming at it from downwind[2].
- Safety: the crocodile slide, the snake's furrow, the pig mob's wallows, the dingo's line; knowing what is at the water before you go to it[7][12].
- Finding water, honey and fruit: the gums, the bees' dung, the cockatoos' split fruit, the flying foxes' blossom[15][2].
- Finding people: the placed sign, duburan, and the visitor birds[1].
- Teaching: the sand at the pool is the first lesson for a child on country.
A morning's reading at the pool
- Go early, with the sun behind you and low, so the tracks throw shadows; walk the sand along the water's edge, not through it[2].
- Read the water's edge first for the crocodile slide and the drag marks, and the mud for last night's drinkers; decide where you will and will not go in[7].
- Age the tracks: sharp edges and damp sand are hours old; crumbled edges, insect trails across them and leaves fallen in are days.
- Follow one track away from the water to its shade or its hole, from the windward side, as Roth's hunters did; a kangaroo's 'very sensitive appreciation' of scent means the wind decides[2].
- Look up the tree butts for fresh claw-marks and down at the butts for bee dung[2].
- Listen: the scolding bird, the grunt, the rustle; the dictionary has a word for each[1].
- Leave a sign for the next person if you go on: a twist of grass pointing the way, duburan[1].
- Write it down or photograph it: a tracks book of the station is the field guide this page cannot be.
Safety
- The track you most need to read is the crocodile's; see Crocwise and the saltwater crocodile[7].
- A hole with a smooth furrow into it is a snake's; do not put a hand in; see snakes[12].
- A sow's and piglets' tracks together mean a sow nearby; see pigs[6].
- Tracking at midday in the late dry is heat-stroke country; wawu-wulay is 'thirsty; exhausted, tired'[1].
On Country today
This page is the index to the signs on every other page. The Western Yalanji tracking words and the names of the warning birds here are for the contribution box below[1].
Language
baral 'track, trail'; jina 'foot'; jinabu dungay 'to walk'; balbi 'hunt for'; nyumal 'to smell'; jila 'smell, sweat'; jila-burra 'bad smell'; bikarr 'fishy smell'; kabu 'rotten smell'; yanja 'rustling'; ngingkirr 'grunt'; duburan 'placed direction sign'; kurrujuwa 'crocodile sentry bird'; dabuy the visitor kingfisher; jukujuku the warning bronzewing; minya 'meat, animal'[1].
References
- 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
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 3: Food — its search, capture, and preparation. Brisbane: Government Printer. Bloomfield River information from the Hislops. — Sect. 6 'Cooking'; plant list ('Castanospermum australe', 'Dioscorea sativa', 'Elettaria Scottiana', 'Nymphaea') archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1904). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 7: Domestic implements, arts, and manufactures. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Sect. 10 'Fire-tongs' archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Wikipedia. Antilopine kangaroo (antilopine wallaroo). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilopine_kangaroo
- Wikipedia. Dingo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo
- Queensland Government (Business Queensland). Feral pig: restricted invasive animal (accessed 10 October 2026). www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/farms-fishing-forestry/agriculture/biosecurity/animals/invasive/restricted/feral-pig
- Queensland Government. Be Crocwise top tips; Be Crocwise in Croc Country (web pages, accessed 5 October 2026). www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/animals/living-with/crocodiles/becrocwise/be-crocwise-top-tips
- Wikipedia. Short-beaked echidna. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-beaked_echidna
- Wikipedia. Northern brown bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_brown_bandicoot
- Wikipedia. Rakali, the water-rat (Hydromys chrysogaster). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakali
- Wikipedia. Common bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_bronzewing
- healthdirect Australia (Australian Government). Snake bites: symptoms, first aid and the pressure immobilisation bandage (accessed 10 October 2026). www.healthdirect.gov.au/snake-bites
- Wikipedia. Magnetic termite (Amitermes meridionalis). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitermes_meridionalis
- Wikipedia. Great bowerbird. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_bowerbird
- Wikipedia. Eucalyptus camaldulensis (river red gum). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_camaldulensis
- Wikipedia. Azure kingfisher (Ceyx azureus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_kingfisher
- Wikipedia. Bony bream (Nematalosa erebi). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bony_bream
- Wikipedia. Northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_quoll
- Wikipedia. Laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_kookaburra
- Wikipedia. Whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistling_kite
- Wikipedia. White-bellied sea eagle (Icthyophaga leucogaster). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-bellied_sea_eagle
- Wikipedia. Little red flying fox. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_red_flying_fox
- Wikipedia. Frilled lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frilled_lizard
- Standley, P.-M. (2019). The importance of campfires to effective conservation. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Records the fire and country knowledge of Kuku Thaypan Elders Dr Tommy George and Dr George Musgrave. researchonline.jcu.edu.au/64274/
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 19) (Kuku Warra determination) [2023] FCA 1314 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1314
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 20) (Thaypan determination) [2023] FCA 1315 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area and waters; prescribed body corporate (Awu-Laya Indigenous Corporation); affidavit evidence on hunting www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1315
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Visiting Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) safely (web page, last updated 1 June 2025; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/visiting-safely
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