The waterhole

Names

The dictionary gives yarru for a 'deep water hole'. The same word names a being in story, which is not a matter for this page; Traditional Owners speak about that^[1]. Around it sit the plain words for water country: bana 'water', wawubaja 'river', yilki 'creek', dajali 'deep water', yalkan 'shallow water', yaral 'fresh water', mabil and walngka 'swamp', jalungkarr 'flood' and marral 'dry'^[1].

For the parts of a pool: yikin 'bank', jalkar 'high bank', jukar 'sand', jalngarr 'flat rock', jinali 'smooth rock', walmba 'log', walngkal 'to float, as a log on the water', kababina 'fresh water lily' and wurrbal 'fog, mist rising from the river'^[1]. One word says a lot about how people used waterholes: wuwu-damaji, 'to go back all the time to the same place, as a good place to fish'^[1].

These are Eastern Kuku Yalanji words recorded at Bloomfield. The Western Yalanji words for the Mitchell River pools are not in the dictionary; if you know them, add them below.

The parts of a waterhole

A dry-season pool has a few distinct parts, and each has its own animals:

• The deep hole (dajali): the coolest, darkest water, where the big fish and the catfish spend the day and where the pool lasts longest into the dry^[4][9].
• The shallows (yalkan) and the algae-covered sand banks: the feeding ground at night for prawns and catfish, and the place small fish and tadpoles gather^[4][10].
• Rock bars and riffles: where the current still runs between pools; sooty grunter hold in fast shallow water over rock, day and night, and big male cherabin hole up under the rocks late in the dry^[11][10].
• Undercut banks, roots and snags: cover for juvenile prawns early in the dry, ambush posts for sleepy cod and barramundi, and the places turtles and catfish hide^[10][12].
• The edge and the sand: the crocodile's hunting ground and basking place, the mud where tracks are written, and where the kingfishers, herons and the stork work^[6][13].
• The air above: darters and cormorants drying their wings on snags, kites and the sea-eagle circling, swifts and bee-eaters over the water in the evening^[7].

Reading a pool: signs and tracks

You can read a pool before you see a single fish.

• Birds tell you what is in the water. Darters and cormorants sitting on snags with their wings out have been fishing; little pied cormorants on inland water are usually after crustaceans, little black cormorants after fish^[14][15][16]. An azure kingfisher on a low branch means small fish and shrimps in the shallows below it^[17]. A black-necked stork or egrets stalking the edge mean small fish, prawns and frogs in the shallows^[13]. The dictionary records a bird, kurrujuwa, as a 'sentry bird which warns of crocodiles along the banks of the river'^[1].
• Slides and tracks. A smooth slide down a sand bank into the water, with claw marks beside it, is a crocodile's; freshwater crocodiles bask on sand and rock bars and feed along the edge^[6]. Turtle tracks are paired flipper drags with a tail line between them.
• Eyes at night. A torch across the shallows picks up the eyeshine of prawns on the sand banks, where they feed after dark, and the red eyes of crocodiles at the surface^[18][19].
• Rises and swirls. Fish taking insects off the surface in the evening are saratoga, archerfish and rainbowfish; a heavy boil near a snag at dusk is a barramundi^[20][21][22].
• Shells and bones. Piles of opened freshwater mussel (mukirr) shells on a bank are left by birds and water rats; crayfish and prawn remains under a kingfisher's perch tell you what it has been catching^[1][17].
• Mist at dawn. wurrbal, the fog rising off the river, sits on the pools in the cold mornings of the mid dry^[1].

What feeds a waterhole

Research on the Mitchell has looked at exactly this kind of pool. In the dry season the river's food web rests on periphyton, the algae and biofilm growing on sand and rock in the sunlit shallows: that carbon, not leaf litter from the banks, is what supports the fish biomass in the waterholes^[8]. Snails, insect larvae and prawns graze it; the fish eat them. The same work found the Mitchell's fish are highly mobile, moving between pools, channel and floodplain whenever flows connect them, so the animals in a pool in October are not all the animals that were there in May^[3][23].

Who eats whom, and when

One day in the pool

Before dawn (kunarangkal, 'middle of the night', into pre-dawn). The night shift is still working. Hyrtl's catfish, which spends the day near the bottom in about two metres of water, forages at night in water as shallow as 30 cm, nosing the sand for snails, mussels, shrimps, insect larvae and detritus^[4]. Prawns are out on the sand banks grazing the algae; like other Macrobrachium, they shut down in bright light and come out in the dark, which is their main defence against being eaten^[18][10]. In the weed and roots at the edge, the mouth almighty, a nocturnal ambush predator, is taking small crustaceans, insects and small fish^[5]. The nankeen night heron, almost fully nocturnal and most active from dusk to dawn, is stalking the shallows^[24]. The crocodiles are at their least active, lying at the surface^[19].

Dawn (muduwaju) and morning (wunkuwingku). The light drives the prawns back into cover and the catfish into the deep water^[18][4]. Crocodile activity rises with the light: radio-tracked freshwater crocodiles dived most in the morning, and their activity followed daylight rather than body temperature^[19]. They hunt at the water's edge, taking mostly small aquatic animals, insects, fish and crustaceans, plus whatever lands on the bank^[6]. The darters and cormorants start fishing, the darter swimming with only its head and neck out and spearing fish underwater^[14]. Kingfishers take their perches^[17]. Sooty grunter are feeding around the rocks and snags and in the fast shallow water of the riffles; radio-tracking in the late dry found no difference between their day and night habitat^[25][11].

The middle of the day. This is the fishes' quiet time and the birds' working time. Turtles bask on logs and rock. Archerfish patrol under overhanging branches, knocking insects off the leaves with a jet of water; saratoga cruise just under the surface for insects, small fish and crustaceans^[21][20]. Whistling kites, black kites and the sea-eagle circle the pool for fish, carrion and anything dead on the banks^[26]. The crocodiles bask on the sand^[6].

Late afternoon (yilay-yilay) and dusk. The surface comes alive with insects, and the rainbowfish, saratoga and archerfish feed hard on them^[21][20]. Barramundi, which eat 'just about anything that lives in or around water', hunt the edges and snags; a big barramundi's diet is about 60 per cent fish and 40 per cent crustaceans, mostly prawns^[22]. The night heron leaves its roost shortly after sunset^[24]. The sleepy cod, which sits among snags and vegetation in slow water, and the mouth almighty come out to ambush^[12][5].

Night (wujurr). The prawns move out onto the sand banks, the catfish into the shallows after them, and the ambush fish wait where the two meet^[18][4][5]. Spangled perch spawn in the shallows at night over soft bottoms after rain^[27]. In April and May, on the lower rivers, the year's young cherabin run upstream by the hundreds of thousands a night, timed to the moon and the hour, with young barramundi and mullet moving with them^[28][10].

Who eats whom

Mitchell River diet studies put the prawn at the centre. Prawns 'featured prominently' in the diets of fish with big mouths or big bodies: mouth almighty, spangled perch, sooty grunter, Hyrtl's catfish, sleepy cod and barramundi^[3]. In the Daly, a sister river, the sooty grunter's diet was dominated by palaemonid prawns, with terrestrial insects a tiny fraction^[29].

• Algae and biofilm on sand and rock feed the snails, insect larvae, bony bream and prawns^[8].
• Prawns (cherabin and the smaller Macrobrachium) are eaten by catfish, sooty grunter, spangled perch, mouth almighty, sleepy cod and barramundi; by freshwater crocodiles, whose stomachs held shrimp in every size class; by little pied cormorants and azure kingfishers; and, if they are small enough, by black-necked storks and egrets^{[3][30][15][17][13]}.
• Snails, mussels and insect larvae are the catfish's main food, and part of the turtles'^[4][31].
• Small fish (rainbowfish, young grunter, bony bream) feed barramundi, saratoga, mouth almighty and sleepy cod, the darter, the cormorants, the kingfishers, the kites and the crocodiles^{[22][20][14][6]}.
• Big fish, turtles and snakes are taken by big crocodiles: as crocodiles grow, fish, turtles and snakes become a larger share of what they eat, and spiders, insects and frogs a smaller one^[30].
• Barramundi eat barramundi. When one year's young are numerous they eat the next year's recruits^[22].
• Turtles are omnivores: in clear water much of their food is bottom invertebrates; in muddy water, more algae and land insects that fall in; a related species switches to meat when plant food is scarce^[31][32].
• Carrion on the banks and floating fish go to the kites, the crocodiles and the turtles^[26][6].

One year in the pool

The wet (kambar). The flood (jalungkarr) joins the pools into one river and the river to its floodplain. This is when the fish spawn: sooty grunter on rising water above 25 °C, black catfish on upstream migrations at peak flood, spangled perch after rain^[25][33][27]. Barramundi spawn at the river mouths between September and March, and cherabin larvae hatched from December to March must reach salt water within seven days or die^[22][28]. On the floodplain, big fish such as barramundi and fork-tailed catfish feed mostly on floodplain food while the water is up^[23].

Early dry (April–June). The river drops back into its bed. Juvenile cherabin come back upstream in a six-week run and live along banks with cover: sticks, undercuts and roots^[10]. Fish that spread out in the wet are back in the pools. The river is cool; the fish are in good condition.

Mid dry (July–August). Algae and plants colonise the big sand banks, and the young prawns move onto them to feed^[10]. The pools are clearest now, the food base at its richest, and the catfish and grunter fat. Nights are cold and the morning mist sits on the water.

Late dry (wangariji, the hot season, September–November). The pools shrink, warm and concentrate everything. A Flinders River study tracking isolated waterholes through a dry season found fish biomass fell as the pools contracted, from limited food and from predation^[2]; a seven-year Northern Territory study found the river shrank to a single refuge pool, with the fish-eating fish a major and variable part of what was left^[34]. Water temperature in these refuge pools can approach what the fish can stand^[9]. By now the juvenile prawns 'had grown or been eaten', and the big breeding males hold the rock bars and undercut banks^[10]. Crocodiles gather in the deeper pools as the water drops^[6]. Freshwater crocodiles ate much more in the wet season than in the dry^[6]. The first storms break the pattern, and the year starts again.

Seasons

The fishing calendar follows the pool:

• Barramundi in Gulf fresh waters are closed from 7 October to 31 January^[35].
• Grunter, catfish, prawns and turtles are dry-season food: the pools are reachable, the fish concentrated, the water clear.
• The first storms muddy the pools and spread the fish; the wet is the season to leave the river alone.
• Cold nights (kiway 'cold') in June and July slow everything; the hot season (wangariji) is when the pools are at their most crowded and their most dangerous^[1][9].

What people take from a waterhole

A waterhole is a larder, a water supply and a camp. From it people took fish (catfish, black bream, barramundi, the smaller grunters and perches), cherabin, freshwater turtles, freshwater mussels, water lilies for their roots and seeds, frogs and grubs for bait, and in the old days freshwater crocodile and its eggs^[36][1][37]. The dictionary's fishing words belong here: kuyu 'fish', mandurr 'bait (any kind)', ngarruy 'shellbait', bikarrakal 'a kind of grub used for bait', badur 'hook and line', yinba 'fish spear', yirrmba 'many-pronged fish spear', makarr 'fish net' and warrur, the bark 'used to make fishnets, which were dragged through the water in the dry season when the water goes down'^[1]. How each is done is on the hooks and lines, nets, fish traps and fish poisoning pages.

Working a pool through a day

This is how to work a pool through a day, putting the animals' own timetable to use. The gear rules for fresh water are on the fish pages: hand-held lines, listed traps, no spears in fresh water, no cast nets or crab pots^[35].

1. Read the pool first (see Signs). Find the deep hole, the rock bar, the sand bank with algae on it, the undercut bank and the snags. Look for the crocodile slide before you choose where to stand.
2. Dawn and the first hour: fish the rock bar and the head of the pool for sooty grunter with a line and a prawn, grub or bit of meat; they hold in the fast shallow water over rock and feed around the rocks^[11][25]. A second line at the snags for barramundi where the river still has them^[22].
3. Daytime: the fish are quiet. This is the time to gather bait (grubs, shellfish, small prawns from under rocks), to collect lily roots and mussels, and to set any legal traps so they fish the night^[1][35].
4. Dusk: the surface feeders rise; the barramundi, sleepy cod and mouth almighty start to hunt the edges. Fish a line along the snags and undercut banks with a small live bait or prawn^[22][12][5].
5. After dark: the catfish are in the shallows, in water you could wade, feeding on the bottom; a bait on the sand in 30–60 cm of water, at the edge of the drop-off, is where they are^[4]. Prawns are on the sand banks; a torch finds their eyes, and a legal trap or scoop set on the algae banks in the early and mid dry catches the juveniles, while the big males are under the rock bars late in the dry^[18][10][35].
6. Never wade or stand at the edge at night without a light and a look, and never where there is a slide. The crocodiles are at the surface at night, and in the late dry they are concentrated in the same pools as the fish^[19][6].
7. Go back to the same place. The pools that fish well one year fish well the next, because the deep holes, rock bars and snags are the same; that is what the word wuwu-damaji records^[1].

Safety

• Crocodiles. Treat every pool as crocodile water, and read the crocodile pages and the place notes above. The animals concentrate in the deep pools late in the dry, exactly when the fishing is best^[6].
• Water. Late-dry pools get hot, low in oxygen and thick with algae; fish die-offs happen in them^[9][2]. Don't drink from a shrinking pool without boiling or treating it, and don't swim in water that smells.
• Cane toads. Their poison kills dogs that mouth them and the goannas, snakes and freshwater crocodiles that eat them^[38].
• Catfish spines and the stings and bites covered on each animal's page.
• Flash floods in the storm season turn a dry sand bed into a river in an hour; camp above the high bank, not on the sand.

On Country today

Native title holders do not need a licence to fish or gather for personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs (Native Title Act 1993, section 211), but Queensland's gear rules and the barramundi closed season still frame what everyone else may do^[39][35]. Anyone who is not a native title holder needs the Traditional Owners' permission. Whose country each river's pools are on is set out under each place above.

Language

Times of day in the dictionary: muduwaju 'dawn, daybreak, early morning'; wunkuwingku 'morning'; yilay-yilay 'late afternoon, when the sun is in the west'; wujurr 'darkness, night'; kunarangkal 'middle of the night'; kija 'moon'; kurrubijal 'morning star'. Seasons: kambar 'wet season'; wangariji 'the hot season'; kiway 'cold'. The fish and animals of the pool: kuyu 'fish'; julaji 'freshwater catfish'; barrbal 'black bream'; jarbir and kurriyala 'grunter'; wukuju 'freshwater prawn, the big one with long legs'; judi 'barramundi'; ngawurr-ngawun 'freshwater crocodile'; ngujay 'freshwater turtle'; mukirr 'mussel'. And karrbal 'to catch, grab'^[1].

References

1. 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
2. Australian Society for Fish Biology conference 2018, poster: fish biomass and condition in isolated perennial waterholes of the Flinders River catchment, Queensland, through a dry season. asfb-2018.p.asnevents.com.au/days/2018-10-10/abstract/53604
3. Jardine, T. D., Pettit, N. E., Warfe, D. M., Pusey, B. J., Ward, D. P., Douglas, M. M., Davies, P. M. & Bunn, S. E. (2012). Consumer–resource coupling in wet–dry tropical rivers. Journal of Animal Ecology 81: 310–322. Mitchell River sites sampled in the early dry season. doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01925.x
4. Pusey, B. J., Kennard, M. J. & Arthington, A. H. (2004). Freshwater Fishes of North-Eastern Australia. CSIRO Publishing. Hyrtl's catfish account, as summarised in the Wikipedia article 'Neosilurus hyrtlii'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neosilurus_hyrtlii
5. Wikipedia. Mouth almighty (Glossamia aprion). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouth_almighty
6. Webb, G. J. W., Manolis, S. C. & Buckworth, R. (1982). Crocodylus johnstoni in the McKinlay River area, N.T. I. Variation in the diet, and a new method of assessing the relative importance of prey. Australian Journal of Zoology 30: 877–899. doi.org/10.1071/ZO9820877
7. Atlas of Living Australia. Occurrence records within 30 km of the Karma Waters homestead (16.62°S, 144.60°E), queried 10 October 2026: river animals and waterbirds. biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=*:*&lat=-16.62&lon=144.60&radius=30
8. Jardine, T. D., Hunt, R. J., Faggotter, S. J., Valdez, D., Burford, M. A. & Bunn, S. E. (2013). Carbon from periphyton supports fish biomass in waterholes of a wet–dry tropical river. River Research and Applications 29: 560–573. Mitchell River. doi.org/10.1002/rra.2554
9. The temperature regimes of dry-season waterholes in tropical northern Australia: potential effects on fish refugia (Flinders and Gilbert catchments). Freshwater Science. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/681278
10. 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
11. Crook, D. A., Keller, K., Adair, B. J. et al. (2021). Use of radiotelemetry to quantify diel habitat preferences and minimum environmental flow requirements of a tropical riverine fish (Sooty grunter Hephaestus fuliginosus). Ecohydrology 14: e2290. doi.org/10.1002/eco.2290
12. Australia New Guinea Fishes Association. Oxyeleotris lineolata, sleepy cod (species profile). rainbowfish.angfa.org.au/gudgeons/oxyeleotris_lineolata.html
13. Australian Museum. Black-necked Stork: feeding and diet. australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/black-necked-stork/
14. Wikipedia. Australasian darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasian_darter
15. Australian Museum. Little Pied Cormorant: feeding and diet. australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/little-pied-cormorant/
16. Wikipedia. Little black cormorant (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris), citing Miller (1979), Wildlife Research 6: 79–95. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_black_cormorant
17. Wikipedia. Azure kingfisher (Ceyx azureus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_kingfisher
18. Lammers, J. H., Warburton, K. & Cribb, B. W. (2009). Anti-predator strategies in relation to diurnal refuge usage and exploration in the Australian freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium australiense. Journal of Crustacean Biology 29: 175–182. academic.oup.com/jcb/article/29/2/175/2547994
19. Seebacher, F., Franklin, C. E. & Read, M. (2005). Diving behaviour of a reptile (Crocodylus johnstoni) in the wild: interactions with heart rate and body temperature. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 78: 1–8. doi.org/10.1086/425192
20. Wikipedia. Gulf saratoga (Scleropages jardinii). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_saratoga
21. Australia New Guinea Fishes Association. Toxotes chatareus, seven-spot archerfish (species profile). rainbowfish.angfa.org.au/archerfishes/toxotes_chatareus.html
22. Northern Territory Government. Barramundi: what they eat, spawning and migration (fish species page). nt.gov.au/marine/recreational-fishing/types-of-fish/fish-species/barramundi
23. Jardine, T. D., Pusey, B. J., Hamilton, S. K., Pettit, N. E., Davies, P. M., Douglas, M. M., Sinnamon, V., Halliday, I. A. & Bunn, S. E. (2012). Fish mediate high food web connectivity in the lower reaches of a tropical floodplain river. Oecologia 168: 829–838. Mitchell River. doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2148-0
24. Wikipedia. Nankeen night heron (Nycticorax caledonicus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nankeen_night_heron
25. Australia New Guinea Fishes Association. Hephaestus fuliginosus, sooty grunter (species profile). rainbowfish.angfa.org.au/grunters/hephaestus_fuliginosus.html
26. Wikipedia. Whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistling_kite
27. Australia New Guinea Fishes Association. Leiopotherapon unicolor, spangled perch (species profile). rainbowfish.angfa.org.au/grunters/leiopotherapon_unicolor.html
28. 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
29. Davis, A. M., Pusey, B. J., Thorburn, D. C., Dowe, J. L., Morgan, D. L. & Burrows, D. (2010). Riparian contributions to the diet of terapontid grunters (Pisces: Terapontidae) in wet–dry tropical rivers. Journal of Fish Biology 76: 862–879. doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02541.x
30. Tucker, A. D., Limpus, C. J., McCallum, H. I. & McDonald, K. R. (1996). Ontogenetic dietary partitioning by Crocodylus johnstoni during the dry season. Copeia 1996(4): 978–988. 324 crocodiles stomach-flushed over three dry seasons in Queensland. doi.org/10.2307/1447669
31. Petrov, K. et al. The risk of inter-specific competition in Australian short-necked turtles (Emydura, Myuchelys): omnivory, benthic invertebrates in clear water, algae and terrestrial invertebrates in turbid water. researchers.westernsydney.edu.au/en/publications/the-risk-of-inter-specific-competition-in-australian-short-necked/
32. Georges, A. (1982). Diet of the Australian freshwater turtle Emydura krefftii (Chelonia: Chelidae), in an unproductive lentic environment. Copeia 1982(2): 331–336. doi.org/10.2307/1444611
33. Australia New Guinea Fishes Association. Neosilurus ater, black catfish (species profile). www.rainbowfish.angfa.org.au/eeltailed_catfishes/neosilurus_ater.html
34. Fish assemblage dynamics in an intermittent river of the northern Australian wet–dry tropics (Fergusson River, Daly catchment, seven-year study): contraction to a single refugial pool and the role of piscivorous fish. agris.fao.org/search/ar/records/65dea3fb4c5aef494fdcf454
35. Queensland Government. Fishing equipment rules: fresh waters (web page, last updated 26 March 2026, accessed 6 October 2026). www.qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/rules/equipment
36. Anderson, C. (1996). Traditional material culture of the Kuku-Yalanji of Bloomfield River, North Queensland. Records of the South Australian Museum 29(1): 63–83. Based on fieldwork at Wujal Wujal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. — Hunting (spears, spear-throwers, harpoons); fishing (stupefacients); manufacturing (gums and resins); post-contact bush component archive.org/details/RecordsSouthAus29Sout
37. 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'); sect. 15 (j) hollow logs (Princess Charlotte Bay hinterland, Musgrave, North Kennedy and lower Normanby) archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
38. Wikipedia. Cane toads in Australia: effects on native predators (goannas, snakes, freshwater crocodiles) and on dogs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_toads_in_Australia
39. Australian Law Reform Commission. Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (DP 82), ch. 8: Relevant provisions in the Native Title Act (s 211). www.alrc.gov.au/publication/review-of-the-native-title-act-1993-dp-82/8-the-nature-and-content-of-native-title/relevant-provisions-in-the-native-title-act/
40. Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online. Station 105001B, Hann River at Sandy Creek: daily and monthly mean discharge 1968–2026 (recent data provisional), retrieved 28 October 2026. No day of zero mean flow in 20,711 days of record; mean flow highest in February–March, lowest in September–November. www.bom.gov.au/waterdata/
41. Queensland Government, WetlandInfo. Normanby catchment story: physical features (springs and base flow). wetlandinfo.detsi.qld.gov.au/wetlands/ecology/processes-systems/water/catchment-stories/normanby/norm-physical.html
42. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Nature, culture and history: Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) (web page, last updated 1 July 2024; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/about/culture
43. Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 21) (Possum determination) [2023] FCA 1316 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area (upper Hann and Kennedy rivers); prescribed body corporate; affidavit evidence on hunting and fishing www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1316
44. 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
45. 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/
46. Atlas of Living Australia. Occurrence records in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann River, Laura and western Rinyirru (lat −15.6 to −14.8, long 143.5 to 144.3), queried 28 October 2026: ray-finned fishes 127 records (1960–2026; Melanotaenia splendida 48, Toxotes chatareus 6, Leiopotherapon unicolor 6, Anguilla reinhardtii 6, Glossamia aprion 5, Neosilurus hyrtlii 4, Lates calcarifer 2, Oxyeleotris lineolatus 2, Hephaestus fuliginosus 1); Anhinga novaehollandiae 632 (1976–2026); Nycticorax caledonicus 247 (1976–2026); Nelumbo nucifera 10 (1999–2024); Rhinella marina 27 (1970–2026). biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=class%3AActinopterygii
47. Russell, D. J. & Hales, P. W. (1993). A survey of the Princess Charlotte Bay recreational barramundi fishery. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, QI93049. era.dpi.qld.gov.au/id/eprint/6393/1/Survey%20of%20the%20Princess%20Charlotte%20Bay%20recreational%20barramundi%20fishery_QI93049_1993_russell.pdf
48. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (2013). Rinyirru (Lakefield) Aggregation Management Statement 2013. parks.desi.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/165771/rinyirru.pdf
49. Roth, W. E. (1910). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 14: Transport and trade. Records of the Australian Museum 8(1): 1–19. — Swimming and diving; crossing crocodile rivers on the lower Normanby (Princess Charlotte Bay) journals.australian.museum/roth-1910-rec-aust-mus-81-119/
50. 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
51. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Things to do: Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) (web page; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/things-to-do
52. Karma Waters Station. About: location, native title (web page, accessed 5 October 2026). www.karmawatersstation.com/about.html
53. Queensland Herbarium, Regional Ecosystem 9.3.14 (Einasleigh Uplands): Melaleuca fringing woodland on channels and levees. Fire management guidelines. Queensland Government Regional Ecosystem Description Database. apps.des.qld.gov.au/regional-ecosystems/details/?re=9.3.14
54. Western Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation & CRC for Developing Northern Australia (2020). Western Yalanji Land Use and Economic Diversification Plan. CC BY 4.0. — Native Title Determinations 1–4 (pp. 13–18); ‘Fire Management and Carbon Farming’ (pp. 32–33); ‘Pastoralists’ crcna.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/westernyalanjilanduseplan_nov2020.pdf

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