Ken Jones family story of the Drowned Forest

Ngaranga Story of the Sea Level Rise

Before the Sea Came

Long time ago before the volcanoes erupted, out into where the sea is now, the land extended as far as the eye could see. The MacDonnell Bay was known as Ngaranga and around it was a beautiful evergreen forest of Gum trees, Banksias, Wattles and Moonahs. The golden wattles oozed a delicious edible sappy gum which was collected for Ngaram by his wives and family. A land of fruit and honey, muntries, lazy kangaroos and fat waterfowl.

A Thriving Landscape

Amongst the woodlands, wallabies, wombats and echidnas thrived, enjoying the flowering shrubs and rich moss. A rich carpet of yams, beautiful flowers and kangaroo grass covered the plains. Colourful parrots and lorikeets, honey eaters, magpies and flycatchers flitted from tree to tree. Possums, swamp rats, frogs, skinks and snakes lived among the bulrushes, alongside the freshwater creeks trickling out to the sea, far away South.

Life Among the Waters

In the freshwater ponds fed by springs and creeks, swans, ducks and geese thrived. The ancient gum trees were so large you could not reach your arms around them. With large branches, old enough to have big hollows and lush weeping foliage, spreading roots to hold against the chilled South West wind. Reeds and rushes were gathered to make baskets. Dryland teatree sighed along the hilltops and big Manna gums grew in the valleys.

The Watchful Giant

An angry giant called Ngaram owned this land and he did not allow anybody else to hunt or gather from his country. He watched who came to wander onto his lovely land and he tolerated no trespassers. Sheoaks swayed and whispered his love for this country. Caves and rock ledges display the artwork telling the stories of hunting and “Caring for Country”. The Willy wagtail and cackle of Spurwing Plover told him of strangers wandering around.

The Women and the Gum

One hot summer’s day he was walking through his country when he saw two women with their woven grass baskets full of his gum. In an angry rage he cried “Who is stealing my gum?” The two women confessed to taking the gum for their own use. They knew they were in trouble and begged for mercy. He could never forgive them and vowed to drown both of them. There were others he hadn’t seen also collecting the gum, including two of his wives.

The Call to the Ocean

Filled with rage, he sat on the grass with his right foot towards Kinneang (Cape Northumberland) and his left foot towards Green Point. He called upon the mighty Southern Ocean to come in and drown the women. The sky grew dark, rolling low clouds, charcoal blue with a windy southwesterly change. Rough cold green sea with windwash and breakers rushed in to drown the wicked women. That night, an enormous high tide and a full moon kept the forest flooded. Deep swirling salt water flooded the grassy woodland and drowned the country. Hills, cave art, creeks and billabongs, kangaroos and emus, sandhills and valleys… all drowned. With no reason to return, the sea stayed where it is to this day, submerging the old hunting grounds to the south (Wepa). On a starry night you can still see the sunken spirits dancing in the shallows.

The Sorrow of Ngaram

Ngaram was so very sad now. He had drowned two of his best wives, lost his grasslands and country to the south. He had drowned his beloved forest and ruined his best hunting grounds. Slowly over the following years, the old giant trees dropped hollow branches and fell over into deep water never to grow again or have children. They are now turned to stone, Flint and Limestone like sunken treasure chests. The colourful parrots (turt and pratpat) and lorikeets became the parrotfish and rock cod. Echidnas are now the crayfish (kela) hiding under limestone ledges. The wedge tailed Eagle is now the big black Stingray (Marma) forever searching for its eggs. The Octopuses are the pale liquid ghosts of his drowned people doomed to longtime lurking around the ledges, hiding from the blinding sun. Brown Snake now Conger Eel, fiercely defending its territory.

The Legacy in the Waters

Ngaram lived a long and lonely life, looking out to sea at his sunken forest of dreams, listening to his women calling for help in the cold green waters around the toppled tree trunks. His wives now the haunted sea lions swimming amongst the brown Kelp forests further out to sea, still gliding along the fallen branches. They are forever looking for wattle gum to please him, sneaking ashore occasionally to bask on a sunny beach to escape the freezing salt water. Bluetongue lizards now the sea mullet, sneaking in close to shore gobbling up the kelp fly maggots on only the highest of tides.

The Message from Ngaranga

Don’t steal from your boss or family; work honestly and share your harvest. Look after your family and keep an eye out for intruders. Jealousy and Rage can confuse our ability to make good decisions. Care for Our Country; love our trickling creeks and freshwater ponds. Salt water turns trees to stone, petrified and frozen for all time.

This sea level rise is now an accepted scientific fact, possibly about the time of the volcanic eruption of Mount Schank, Mount Gambier and the cut-off of Dry Creek.

Ken Jones