Wirrigan, the Rainmaker, provided rain for the people during a time of drought when no food was growing and the people were starving.
Once upon a time in the Dreamtime, the country was having a long drought. The plants and animals were dying and the rivers were drying up. Without water, no food could grow and the people were starving. The people grumbled to Wirrigan, the rainmaker.
Wirrigan went to the waterhole in the creek each day and poked a stick in it, but still no rain fell. On the third day, he left his stick in the water hole. Near the waterhole was a large open shelter called a bough shed. Its roof and sides were made of branches.
The next day, he asked the people to use bark and material from the termite mounds to make huts raised above the ground. He took the people to the waterhole and he jumped in. Then he asked the people to jump in too. The young men laughed because they did not believe he could make rain. They threw him in the waterhole three times until he was very cold. Everyone left the creek.
That night when everyone was asleep in the bough shed, Wirrigan and the old people walked around it many times, carrying their belongings. Soon, a large, black cloud appeared.
Wirrigan woke everyone up and told them to take shelter in the raised bark huts. The rain began to fall and lasted for several days. When the rain stopped, the land was green again and food had begun to grow. The people celebrated by holding a corroboree, but Wirrigan was not happy because he knew that many of the people had doubted him.
To demonstrate his power, he took everyone to a very dry plain. He made a huge torrent of rainfall. It filled the whole plain with water. However, it did not rain anywhere else.
He told the young men to fish in the water, but they still did not believe in his power. How could there be fish in the water when it was just rainwater? Finally, they threw their nets into the water and pulled out many different kinds of fish. No-one doubted Wirrigan again. And the great plain filled with water became known as Corcoran Lake.
John McNamara, OUR founder & managing director
John McNamara
Founder / Managing Director – of The Wirrigan Group of companies
John is a Wiradjuri man from Western NSW with over 40 years’ experience in Aboriginal employment and economic development overseeing Aboriginal employment initiatives in both the private and public sector. John has developed and implemented Aboriginal employment strategies with many of Australia’s leading companies, both privately owned and publicly listed.
John has established ‘Wirrigan Business Services’ to support a greater purpose. One that supports programs that help Indigenous Women overcome social, mental and physical barriers to employment.
John is a Wiradjuri man from Western NSW with over 40 years’ experience in Aboriginal employment and economic development overseeing Aboriginal…
Real Futures: Second Chance Hub
The Women’s Business: Second Chance (WBSC) hub – launched in August, 2020. Its aim is to ensure that women who are at risk of being left behind have access to participate in and achieve quality learning, entrepreneurship, and employment outcomes through educational and vocational training.
Real Futures – initially partnered with UN Women to deliver the first program of its kind in a developed country. The WBSC hub, since its inception, has expanded to Northern NSW and WA. But it started in Western Sydney, a region that has the highest concentration of Aboriginal people of any single part of Australia.