The Australian Museum and Stockland Shellharbour have unveiled the FrogID Touring Exhibition, a new initiative dedicated to raising awareness of frogs and their vital role in the environment. Featuring interactive elements such as frog calls, soundscapes and a First Nations story of how the frog got his call, the FrogID Touring Exhibition aims to allow the museum to connect with new audiences and raise awareness about the local frog populations, such as the Green and Golden Bell frog in Shellharbour, which is facing numerous threats.

Thanks to the Australian Museum for sharing this story from the First Nations community.

The Lyrebird and the Frog – Dreamtime story

Joolah – the lyrebird                          

Bunaan – Corroboree of dancing and sports

Budjans – birds

Booroo – the kangaroo

Goomera the possum                                          

Bungadung the wombat                                      

Budalleema the wallaby                                     

Mooreeya – the emu                                           

Goorgaty – the frog

Boogalee – the marsupial mouse

Long ago, way back in the Dreamtime,  the animals had regular competitions to see who was the most skilled at all sorts of things.

One day they all got together for a big Bunaan, (Corroboree), of dancing and sports.

First, they had a big dance off. The Budjans, (feathered animals/birds), competed with the furred animals. There was one exception amongst the Budjans, Joolah the lyrebird, who was too shy to compete.

Booroo the kangaroo, Goomera the possum, Bundalung the wombat, and Budaleema the wallaby were all ready.

First up were Booroo and Mooreeya the emu.

Booroo started jumping so Mooreeya started stomping on the ground with his strong, agile feet making dust fly up everywhere.

Booroo responded by jumping higher and higher making a bigger swirling cloud of dust. He was judged the winner!

Mooreeya, who was a very good dancer too, had been beaten, so now he waited for his next competition in the races.

When all the other dancing events for Booroos and Budjans were finished it was time for the singing and sports.

All the time, Joolah the lyrebird, had been standing a little way away up on a rock watching everything below.

Joolah was timid. He didn’t join in the dancing because he thought his feathers were grey and dull and were always hanging down behind him. He wasn’t confident to dance like the other birds and nor did he have a voice.

When Booroo and Mooreeya were getting ready for their next event, they didn’t notice Goorgaty the frog sitting under a tree.

Now back in those days, Goorgaty had the most beautiful voice in all the land. You could hear him singing day and night. He could talk to the budjans and all the animals too.

He could change his own voice to sound like all the other animals who he heard or knew.

So he said to Mooreeya, in Booroo’s voice,

“Mooreeya, you think you’re so great being the biggest and fastest Budjan in all the land, but you can’t even fly! You can only run! Djirrit-Djirrit the little willy wagtail can fly higher than you.”

Mooreeya spun around and said to Booroo, “What did you say?”

But Booroo didn’t say anything, because it was Goorgaty who had spoken before.

Goorgaty waited for Booroo to turn away, and said to him in Mooreeya’s voice,

“Booroo, you think you are so great being the biggest animal in the land but you can’t even fly. Boogalee, the little marsupial mouse, can run better than you!”

Booroo quickly spun around to catch Mooreeya, but saw that he was busy getting ready for the races.

He said to Mooreeya, “What did you say?”

Mooreeya and Booroo were becoming angry with each other and ended up having a fight.

Now, because Mooreeya and Booroo were the biggest animals on the land, they were the leaders of all the other animals and birds. When they started fighting all the other birds and animals joined in too.

All the time Goorgaty was sitting under the tree, laughing at all the trouble he had caused. He thought it was great fun to see the feathers and fur flying around and the dust going everywhere.

After a while the Budjans and Booroos and dust, all settled down.

The Creator was watching the whole thing from the sky and came down to see what all the fuss was about. He gathered all the animals around him and asked why they were all fighting each other.

But no-one could explain.

The Creator looked around and saw Joolah standing up on the rock and asked him to come down and explain what had started everyone fighting. But Joolah could not talk. So the Creator touched Joolah’s throat and straight away he had a voice. It wasn’t the most beautiful voice, but it would do.

Joolah said, “Goorgaty had been sitting under the tree when he started talking in Booroo’s voice to Mooreeya, saying he couldn’t fly and that Djirrit-Djirrit could fly higher than him. Then he said in Mooreeya’s voice to Booroo, that Boogalee could run better than he could.

Joolah said that it was Goorgaty who had used his voices to pretend to be Mooreeya and Booroo. He had tricked them into thinking the each had said unkind things about the other, when all along it was Goorgaty!

That’s what started it all off!”

The Creator was very upset with Goorgaty and punished him by taking away his beautiful voice and gave it to Joolah.

Joolah was also given a beautiful set of tail feathers that he can pull up over his head and show off when he sings and dances in the bush.

Now, Goorgaty can be heard croaking because he misused his special gift that had been given to him by The Creator.

If you are lucky, you just might see Joolah singing and dancing in the bush, imitating all the sounds he hears around him. He can still talk to all the animals in their languages today.

Joolah was given the gift of song and dance and is the keeper of all of the languages.

Thanks to the Australian Museum for sharing this Dreamtime story as part of the FrogID touring exhibition, which will be at Stockland Shellharbour until May 4