Feature by Carolyn Beasley

As the first major rains of the year splash into the Swan River (Derbarl Yerrigan), Noongar man Nick Abraham stands on the bank, gazing from the Optus Stadium precinct on the Burswood Peninsula towards East Perth. For millennia, this has been an important site for Nick’s ancestors and other Noongar groups, and the season of Makuru, which coincides with June-July, has always been a welcome time of renewal. 

_{Nick Abraham from Warrang Bridil, Perth}

Nick is the owner of tour company Warrang-Bridil, and explains the season of Makuru is the coldest and wettest of the Noongar seasons around Perth (Boorloo).

“It’s always a refreshing time because we’ve had so long without rain,” Nick says. “So when the rain starts coming back in Makuru it’s that refresh of growth and fertility.”

In pre-colonisation days, Noongar people crossed the river here, wading through knee-deep water.

“People would only cut across when they were invited because it was a different group, the Mooro, on the north side and on the south side of the river was the Beeloo people,” Nick explains.

^{Nick Abraham from Warrang Bridil, Matagarup Bridge}

Today, the Matagarup Bridge provides a different pedestrian linkage. Nick’s tours guide visitors around bridge, which represents the Waugyl or rainbow serpent, the dreamtime creator of the Swan River. There’s a second meaning in the bridge’s colour scheme, too.

“The black and white represents the variations of the people here and how people are still hoping that we would have that better coming together,” Nick says.

In the old days, with ample water around, Makuru would usually see Noongar people journey inland for hunting.

“The kangaroos would be out feeding, so they would have a bit more meat on them,” Nick says.

Makuru is also the season of fertility, and the elegant black swans are getting friendly with their lifelong mates. 

_{Nick Abraham from Warrang Bridil, Perth}

“You’ll see them pairing off as part of their fertility and mating process, getting ready for the next stage of life,” Nick says. “You can also slowly see the regeneration of the plants in the rains.”

Regeneration is especially important here, as it was once an industrial wasteland.

“Then it was a golf course, which means lots of people were excluded,” Nick says. “Now we’re seeing this little precinct of Noongar country being regenerated, and the people are coming back. Even though they’re coming for sports or entertainment, it’s also an opportunity to stop and look at the bush and that land that was always providing food for us.”

Traditional foods are also a hot topic for Kerry-Ann Winmar, owner of Nyungar Tours in Perth, as she leads guests through culturally significant sites in Kings Park (Mooro Katta Gar-Up) and the South Perth Foreshore. 

_{Kerry- Ann from Nyungar Tours, Kings Park}

Kerry-Ann explains that the South Perth Foreshore is now a very altered landscape, but in the past, one of the things to eat here would have been wallabies, perhaps even quokkas.

“Although they’re mostly out at Rottnest Island now, I did hear my old people say there were quokkas here,” Kerry-Ann says. “They would also get fish, they had a fish trap and they would collect river mullet.”

The Makuru rainy season would see local food plants reinvigorated. These foods included the seeds of Macrozamia palms and bell nuts (a kind of gum nut). Later in the year, the Acacia (wattle) would yield pods containing delicious seeds to be eaten sweet and green, or crushed.

Kerry-Ann’s South Perth (Mindeerup) tours, with sweeping views across the Swan River to Elizabeth Quay (Goomup) and the city skyline, incorporate the Scented Gardens in Sir James Mitchell Park. During Makuru, visitors will notice the wetland areas brimming with water, and fresh scents of nature wafting on the breezes.

“There’ll be Melaleuca and peppermint gums with their new leaves coming out, that’s where the medicine is that can help with congestion,” Kerry-Ann says. “There’s a eucalyptus aroma in the air. We also see tortoise, and the eggs of certain birds like the swamp fowls.”

_{Kerry- Ann from Nyungar Tours, Kings Park}

For Kerry-Ann personally, Makuru is a time to cherish family memories.

“With my Mum, we would go and collect these things called Boorn, a bloodroot plant,” Kerry-Ann recalls. “It’s just a little scrawny sprout, but you can dig into it and when you pull it up, it’s like the size of a yam. I love doing that, and that was around about Makuru.”

Published April 2024.