The Wingen Maiden
There is a story from the Dreamtime handed down through the generations by the Wannarua people of the Upper Hunter Valley that tells how one of the strangest natural phenomena in Australia came about. This is how it is re-told on a sign at the base of Burning Mountain, near the little town of Wingen.
“One day, the Gummaroi (or Kamilaroi) people to the north sent a raiding party to Broke to steal Wonnarua women for wives. The Wiradjuri to the west, who were friends of the Wonnarua, told them of the Gummaroi plans.
The Wonnarua gathered all of their warriors and sent them to do battle with the Gummaroi.
The wives of the Wonnarua warriors waited for their husbands to return. All came back, except one. The wife of that one started to worry. She went up high and sat on top of a rock cliff overlooking the valley to the south to wait for her husband. She waited and waited, but when he did not return she knew that he had died during the battle. She cried until she could cry no more. She could not live without her husband, so she asked Baayami, the great sky god, to kill her.
Baayami could not kill her so he turned her to stone. As she was turning to stone she wept tears of fire which rolled down the hillside and set the mountain alight.”
The Wingen Maiden
There is a story from the Dreamtime handed down through the generations by the Wannarua people of the Upper Hunter Valley that tells how one of the strangest natural phenomena in Australia came about. This is how it is re-told on a sign at the base of Burning Mountain, near the little town of Wingen.
“One day, the Gummaroi (or Kamilaroi) people to the north sent a raiding party to Broke to steal Wonnarua women for wives. The Wiradjuri to the west, who were friends of the Wonnarua, told them of the Gummaroi plans.
The Wonnarua gathered all of their warriors and sent them to do battle with the Gummaroi.
The wives of the Wonnarua warriors waited for their husbands to return. All came back, except one. The wife of that one started to worry. She went up high and sat on top of a rock cliff overlooking the valley to the south to wait for her husband. She waited and waited, but when he did not return she knew that he had died during the battle. She cried until she could cry no more. She could not live without her husband, so she asked Baayami, the great sky god, to kill her.
Baayami could not kill her so he turned her to stone. As she was turning to stone she wept tears of fire which rolled down the hillside and set the mountain alight.”