page_title: Australian folklore
section_title: Australian Aboriginal mythology
hierarchical_section_title: Australian folklore / Australian Aboriginal mythology
caption_attribution_description: 1 painting of a bunyip&#160;: watercolour, b&amp;w&#160;; image 15.4 x 28 cm
context_page_description: Australian folklore refers to the folklore and urban legends that have evolved in Australia from Aboriginal Australian myths to colonial and contemporary folklore including people, places and events, that have played part in shaping the culture, image and traditions that are seen in contemporary Old Australia.
context_section_description: Baijini - Unknown race mentioned in Yolngu folklore.
  Bora - Sacred Aboriginal initiation ceremony. Many sites still exist throughout Australia.
  Bunyip – According to legend, they are said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes.
  Dreamtime - The Dreamtime to Aboriginal Australians is the beginning of time, the creation of knowledge from which their culture began more than 60,000 years ago.
  Kata Tjuta - Many Dreamtime stories are told by the Pitjantjatjara people, including a mythical creature that lurks the summit.
  Lake Mungo remains - Human skeletons found in 1969, believed to have lived between 40,000 and 68,000 years ago are the oldest human remains found in Australia.
  Rainbow Serpent – It is the sometimes unpredictable Rainbow Serpent, who vies with the ever-reliable Sun, that replenishes the stores of water, forming gullies and deep channels as he slithered across the landscape, allowing for the collection and distribution of water.
  Yara-ma-yha-who - According to Myth, the creature resembles a red frog-like creature that hides in trees waiting for an unsuspecting victim to consume.
caption: Bunyip (1935), artist unknown, from the National Library of Australia
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