The old people tell the story, from many places, in different languages, of the hunter chasing a Murray Cod; the river formed by the fish slipping and weaving to safety across a brown landscape. A deep bodied fish flashing small eyes and a short concave profile. Clear water paints his sides in patterned greens. The riverbanks echo the pattern with intrepid greenery.
So many lives follow the river. Sulphur-crested cockatoos flock and swerve, looking for fruit and nuts.
The spoonbill pans for treasure in the silt. A slow moving wombat pockets her child and cuts across the road following a trail of tussocky grasses. Kangaroos move at dusk, finding water and food along the banks. A pelican sweeps across the water with wide wings and wider mouth.
The river still twists in muscular curves, like a snake moving uphill, but it is muddy
and bled and blocked. The ocean waits with a salty remedy by his thirsty mouth.
........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_river
The people of Lake Alexandrina say the Murray was created by the tracks of the Great Ancestor, Ngurunderi, as he pursued Pondi, the Murray Cod.
The Wotojobaluk people of Victoria tell of Totyerguil from the area now known as Swan Hill who ran out of spears while chasing Otchtout the cod.