Due to the sacredness of the Aboriginal Dreaming, the following stories have been left in their original form.

HOW THE EMU GOT SHORT WINGS                                                                               

A long time ago, the emu bird lived in the sky. His nest was on the clouds. Every evening from his nest he used to watch the brolgas dancing by the lake and he loved their dance. That emu was wondering to himself if he could come down and dance like them.                                                                                                

So one day he flew down from his nest to where the brolgas were dancing. Then he went among them and asked the brolgas to teach him their dance.                        

One of the brolgas said to him “spread your wings out like this.” And then another one of the brolgas said to the emu, “come on, dance like this, the way we brolgas dance”. So he tried but his wings were so big they got in the way. That brolga got angry and stopped the emu, and shouted “spread your wings !”  

(‘Roughtail” Gracie Greene / Joe Tramacchi / Lucille Gill)