Welcome To K’gari

Galangoor djali! Galangoor.
Butchulla bilam, midiru K’gari galangoor nyin djaa.
Ngalmu galangoor Biral and Biralgan bula nyin djali!
Wanya nyin yangu, wanai djinang djaa.

These are the welcoming words of the Butchulla. The traditional landowners of Fraser Island, known to them as K’gari. You’ll see these words upon arriving on the island. The meaning roughly translates to – “Good day. Welcome! Butchulla people, Traditional Owners of K’gari, welcome you to country. May all our good spirits be around you throughout the day. Wherever you go leave only footprints.”

Cared for and inhabited for thousands of years by the Butchulla Tribe, they hope that all who come to K’gari’s shores will treat it with the deep respect it deserves as K’gari is in fact royalty amongst their spirit world.

In Butchulla legend, K’gari was a beautiful white spirit called Princess K’gari. Beiral – a great god that lived in the sky – the god responsible for the creation of mankind. However once Beiral had made all the people he realised they had no land, so alongside the help of Yendingie – his messenger – Yendingie came down to earth with Princess K’gari to what is now called Hervey Bay.

Here, they made the beaches and the mountains, the lakes and the rivers. In fact Princess K’gari enjoyed what she was doing so much that she worked extremely hard. Yendingie ordered her to have a rest so she went to sleep on some rocks. Upon awakening she said to Yendingie “I think this is the most beautiful place we have ever made. Please Yendingie, I would like to stay here forever.” Yendingie replied saying, “Oh no, I could not allow you to do that. You are a spirit and your place is with me”. The princess begged and pleaded with him and at last he relented on the condition that he would have to change her as she couldn’t live on earth as a spirit. She agreed and the beautiful white spirit princess was turned into a stunning paradise island.

Yendingie did not want K’gari to get lonesome however, so he also gave her some trees and flowers. The babbling brooks became her voice and the lakes were made to mirror so that she could look up to the skies and keep watch over Yendingie.

Yendingie also gave K’gari birds, animals and people to keep her company – and he even taught the people about procreation so their children could always make sure she was never lonely.

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