Wp/nys/Wargyl

The Wargyl, also spelt Waugal, Wagyl, Wakal,, Waakarl, (or Waakal, Wawgal, Woggal, Wargle, Waagyl wer Waagal) is a giant snake that weaved through the boodjar wer created the waterways in the Nyitting (Dreaming or Cold Time) (YouTube video). You can see nidja in the shape of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River). It is also the name of the Wargyl (Carpet Python) which is associated with it.

Waugal in the Derbarl Yerrigan

see also Wargyl (Carpet Python) for a noorn associated with the Wargyl.

The Wargyl created the earth. There were four Wargyls. They left craters when they left the earth. They shed their skin wer it turned to Biboolboorn (Paperbark). That is why you always see the paperbark along the rivers. If you go into the river ways, you need to rub the sand under your armpits so it knows your smell wer throw the sand into the water. As you do nidja, you can say your name wer say hello to the spirit, asking permission to enter the water (see Kaya Kwop Wiern).

The Wargyl made the koondarnangor, boroong and babanginy. In the time of the Nyitting, the Wargyl also created all bodies of gabbidjikãp, including the beelier, pinjar and ngamma.

Another story is about how when you see clouds that look like scales of the python in the sky, it means the rain is coming. Nidja story comes from the book called "Waakarl".

The Wargyl is thought to be the same as the South Australian aboriginal people's Wonambi, scientific name Wonambi naracoortensis, which is an extinct snake first described from fossils collected at Naracoorte Caves, South Australia.

The name Wonambi was given to the snake because it was thought to be the dreamtime rainbow serpent. It was yira to 9 meters long with a body about 30 centimeters in diameter, wer like the Wargyl (Carpet Python), which is not related, was an ambush predator which killed its prey by constriction. The scientific family of the Wonambi, the Madtsoiidae, became extinct in other parts of the world around 55 million years ago, but new species continued to evolve in Australia. These species are the last known to have existed, becoming extinct in the last 50,000 years.

Wonambi naracoortensis lived during the Pleistocene Ice Age period, in natural sun-traps beside local waterholes, where they would ambush kangaroo, wallaby wer other prey coming to the water to drink. For nidja reason, children were forbidden in Aboriginal culture to play at such places, wer only allowed to visit when accompanied by an adult. Mapping such locations in Western Australia, has been found to be closely associated with areas regarded as Waugal sacred sites.^[source?]

Wargyl Waarnk - Stories about the Wargyl

Boodjin (Boyagin Rock)

The story of how the Wargyl came to Boyagin Rock, as told by Gerry Collard.

Ralph Munyari Winmar

The late Noongar Elder, Ralph Winmar, Munyari of the Balardong tribe, tells the story of the Waugal in his book "Walwalinj – The Hill That Cries", illustrated by his wife Dorothy Winmar.

Joe Walley

The story of the creation of the waterways in Binjareb land: the Meelon Bilya (Murray River), Harvey, wer Serpentine rivers, Peel-Harvey Estuary, Lake Clifton, Lake Preston wer the Leschenault Estuary.

Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River)

Swan Brewery site.

In Walyunga National Park, named after a major Noongar campsite, in the Nyitting the Wagyl took a wrong turn il the river. Squeezing through a crack in the range, the Wagyl stopped wer laid some eggs forming granite outcrops alongside the river. Then, coming out onto the flatland below the range, he formed the riverbed. The Wagyl shed his sunburnt skin near Ascot forming the beds of scale-like shells seen there.