Kitabal (Githavul, Dijabal)

(map)

Dirrangun was an old woman with hair down to her knees. Some say she was a witch. A strong, handsome man was married to her two daughters.

The daughters argued and fought with their mother, and the man sided with his wives. They kept food from her, and the old woman became angry as well as hungry.

Their camp was at the source of the Clarance River. At that time, their water was contained in a pool called Dooloomi, in a hollow in the rock. One day when the son-in-law was hunting and his wives were out gathering food, Dirrangun drained all the water out of the pool and hid it in a coolamon. For two or three days, the man and his wives could find nothing to drink. Then the man found Dirrangun's hidden coolamon. (Some say his dogs found it, and he noticed the water dripping from their muzzles.)

The son-in-law angrily thrust his spear through the container, draining it. He made a heavy rain fall, and the Dooloomi pool began filling again. When the creek began rising above its banks, Dirrangun climbed into a fig tree next to the pool. But the water rose further and swept away the tree with her in it, leaving a hollow where there is a waterfall today.

The water continued to increase, and the son-in-law cursed it to make it unmanageable. Dirrangun sometimes would try to block the water with outstretched legs, but each time the water would rise and wash her further down.

There is a fig tree downstream from Grafton which old men say belongs to Dooloomi, and Dirrangun is still in that fig tree.

Jennifer Isaacs, Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History (Sydney: Lansdowne Press, 1984), 116-118; variant, p. 119.