Among the changing aspects that one notices in the sky, none are more striking than the regular cycle of changes or phases of the Moon and the eclipses of the Sun or the Moon.

The Moon usually takes a little more than 29 days to complete one cycle from new Moon to full Moon and back again to new Moon. It is interesting that if you visit the national parks or Aboriginal heritage sites (Ngaut Nguat in north Adelaide, Royal National Park, Blue Mountains National Park, etc) you will see engraved in the rock, holes, dots, straight lines and curved lines that some people have said are representations of the Moon cycle while the curved lines which form a closed figure are representations of the crescent Moon.

However, there are other interpretation to these markings. They could also be interpreted as the holes that were made when the Aboriginal people ground their tools. The straight line markings served as messages just like the lines you see on message sticks. The closed curved line shapes are boomerangs. Most of these dots and markings are found in areas where increase ceremonies took place and are associated with food and hunting.

The Moon is linked to fertility and young girls are warned not to look at the Moon unless they wish to become pregnant.

According to the Aboriginal people the Sun is in love with the Moon and pursues him across the sky. Sometimes she eclipses him but he manages to escape her advances. In other stories the Moon is said to be despondent because he is unable to find a wife to accompany him on his nightly journeys across the sky. He is seen as fat and slow and not attractive to girls. For some Aboriginal groups an eclipse of the Sun is taken as an indication that the Moon man is making love to the Sun woman.

The Aboriginal people explain the waxing and waning of the Moon as being connected to the tides. According to them when it is high tide the water runs into the Moon and you see a full Moon. When the tide is low the water runs out of the Moon and you see a thin crescent Moon. However, there are times when there is no correlation between these two happenings. One needs to resort to modern astronomy and physics to explain the phases of the Moon.

The origin of the Moon is explained thus. During the period of creation the Moon man lived at the mouth of the Liverpool River in north Australia. He had two wives who each bore him a son. To punish his sons who had lied about having eaten a whistling duck without sharing it with him he tied them in a carrying bag and dumped them into the sea where they drowned. On finding out what happened the wives burnt the hut he was sleeping in. As they watched the fire they saw his dead body rise and change itself into a thin crescent shape. Then it grew into a large silvery sphere like the Moon we see in the sky. From high above in the sky he decreed, “that from this time onwards the whole of creation will die, and once dead, will never live again. I alone, except for three days, will live forever”. And that is how the Moon came into being and how death came to the inhabitants on Earth.

Note: Dr Ragbir Bhathal is carrying out a national project on Aboriginal astronomy. The project involves looking through archival sources, oral history and visual records, investigating Aboriginal heritage sites and interviewing Aboriginal people.