Yondock

Yondock is the great ancestral crocodile of Whadjuk Noongar tradition. In the Nyitting, the cold-time Dreaming, Yondock travelled down from the north country, disturbing and flooding the land: its passage let salt water into the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River) and shaped Derbal Nara (Cockburn Sound), Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) and Ngooloormayup (Carnac Island). The Waugal, guardian of the fresh waters, smelled the salt, came down the river, fought and killed Yondock, cutting off its tail and setting it as the limestone bar at the river mouth at Walyalup (Fremantle) to divide salt water from fresh. The story, recorded from Whadjuk custodians including Trevor Walley and Teresa Walley, remains central to the cultural significance of the Fremantle area.

Domains

• saltwater and estuaries

Powers

• to flood rivers and country with salt water
• to shape islands and the seabed by its movements

Sources

• Yondock is the ancestral saltwater crocodile of Whadjuk Noongar Dreaming narrative who flooded the Swan River with salt water and was killed by the Waugal, its body becoming islands and the river-mouth bar.: Walley, Trevor, 'Origin of Derbal Nara', Derbal Nara / Cockburn Sound Nyungar heritage project (derbalnara.org.au), 2013 (secondary); City of Fremantle, 'Statements of Significance for the Fremantle Area — Whadjuk Nyoongar', City of Fremantle heritage report, 2016 (secondary); Collard, Leonard M., 'Nyungar Dream Time Messengers', Westerly, vol. 54, no. 2, 2009 (secondary)