The name (or names) of these creatures are well known to the Aboriginal people, but they are hard names for other Australians to say.

Two of these creatures well known in this district are Ngnumadju and Kurditjela and both live in caves near water.

Noomadjoo is one of these dream time beings no more real than Dragons or Sirens but just as real as Pegasus and the Minotaur or the Centaur.

Our creature, I am assured, is Ngnumadju.

In case you are not an Aboriginal Australian, then it might just be easier for you to pronounce his or her name as ‘Noomadjoo’.

If Noomadjoo exists, it is because it is nice to have a genial monster around the place.

It is even nicer if he belongs to everyone.

If you haven’t really seen him, there is always plenty of evidence of his comings and goings.

To get back to the history of our monster, I’m told on good authority that he has always lived in Mount Isa.

He wasn’t always as big as he is now, (one of the reasons why he hadn’t been seen around by many people).

Anyhow, this is his story.

Noomadjoo originally lived in a cave in the valley near Stone Axe Creek.

As monsters go he was small, only being about four feet in length, fully stretched in front of his cave.

Of course, he loved the sun, and spent hours lapping it up, then in for a quick swim in the creek, and back again to dry out his scales in the sun.

He was an extremely good swimmer –  either completely submerged or with his head and several humps above the water.

His diet consisted mainly of fish and small Johnston River crocodiles, always topped off with succulent new green shoots from the abundant spinifex bushes.

Long adaptation to the local environment meant that he blended in well with his background of spinifex, the brown earth and the gidgee trees.

In appearance, he looked like any other monster, except that it had to be admitted that in colour he could only be described as drab.

By nature, he was easy going, prone to breaking into what he fondly believed to be song, (but which, in fact sounded like a couple of sheets of corrugated iron being dragged across each other).

At other times, he would, like the lyrebird, imitate the sounds of men, especially the dream time songs, of the aboriginal people.

Then, you could stand near Stone Axe Creek and hear the breeze blowing gently down the gullies and across the water.

It is believed that these night songs of the dream time were Noomadjoo’s expression of either loneliness or love, but we don’t know which.

If you listened carefully, you would know it wasn’t just the breeze but the ‘old man’ songs and the music sticks and the didgeridoos of men.

With the coming of the white man, Noomadjoo retreated right back into his cave, only daring to venture out when the men and their machines were not around, or else were too busy to notice him.

Noomadjoo didn’t know it, but a dam wall was soon to be built, which would not only enclose his favourite walkabout area, but would also seal off the lower entrance to his cave.

When the rains came, the valley filled and filled until now only the upper exit of Noomadjoo’s cave was above what is now the water level of Lake Moondarra.

This new circumstance had a terrific effect on Noomadjoo’s life!!

For a start, right at his door was this new and wonderful expanse of water, millions of fish (but a distinct shortage of crocodiles) lush new growth of spinifex and best (or worst) of all plenty of people to observe.

The men of the area had now been digging and mining all through the Mount Isa area for 50 years, and little by little, small concentrations of the minerals that men sought found their way into the lake

However, by nature shy, Noomadjoo kept very much to himself, eating his fill, watching the odd behaviour of people, growing accustomed to the boats and the noise; all of this time Noomadjoo was growing.

By now, he had grown to 10 times his original size and had taken on the colours of his new environment.

From the four foot long drab little fellow he had been, he now was over 40 feet long, as thick as a beer keg, and a mass of colour.

His eyes were now like polished copper with just the smallest flecks of gold, his scales ranged through red to blue and green like the copper ores and sulphates, his under-belly was like newly poured lead while his teeth were like silver, and the horn on his nose was striped in orange and white.

It is even said that he is sprouting wings but this may not be true.

It is true, however, that he had developed arms and paws just like a kangaroo’s fore-paws and his ears have grown large like a pair of offset umbrellas that can be swivelled around to shade his eyes when he watches the rising and setting of the sun.

We don’t really know if the early part of Noomadjoo’s history is true, but we do know that the rest is true.

I haven’t seen him myself but I know a bloke who has.

Maybe, if you go to Lake Moondarra on a moonlit night, you will hear Ngnumadju’s memories of the song men come down the gullies and across the water, then you, too, will know that he is real.

Researched by Kim-Maree Burton.  

www.kimmareeburton.com

Illustrations from the book Noomadjoo of Lake Moondarra, drawn by Des Moore and Rose Wright.

Character and story devised by Des Moore.

The history column is a weekly contribution to the North West Star by Mount Isa resident Kim-Maree Burton and can also be found online at www.northweststar.com.au in the community section of the website.