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This natural landscape feature depicts the dreaming being Tiddalik the Frog. Tiddalik is the key character in one of the most widely related dreaming stories on the eastern seaboard of Australia.

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Located on the side of a narrow valley near the township of Wollombi, Tiddalik is looking up Slacks Creek which flows to join the Wollombi Brook. An extraordinary rock formation, this site never fails to inspire awe in those who see it.

Tiddalik was a greedy frog who drank all the water in the land, draining the rivers and billabongs, until the other animals were forced to try to get Tiddalik to give up the water. The wombat suggested that they make Tiddalik laugh and then the waters would be released. A number of animals tried but none could move him to mirth until the eel stepped forward. The eel did a dance which made Tiddalik laugh and his great mouth opened releasing the water back into the land. Tiddalik shrank to his present size and, ashamed, became a shy creature that hides in the reeds and mud.

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To this day Slacks Creek only supports eels no other large fish live in those waters.

The Tiddalik site is connected to a number of other sites on the same ridge including the Teaching Cave, the Menstruation Cave the Birthing Cave and, remarkably, two other rock formations resembling frogs. These sites also relate to the various sacred sites within nearby Yengo National Park, in particular the rock engravings at Finchley and the mythological mountain sites of Big and Little Yengo.

While Tiddalik the Frog at Wollombi is a spectacular natural rendition of a frog in sandstone, natural features of the landscape or mythological sites are very common across Australia. Natural features such as mountains, rock outcrops, rivers, creeks and waterholes form the physical parts of stories about the journeys and adventures of the ancestral beings. These sites give substance to the Dreamtime. Often the stories are used to teach the lore of the tribe and the proper ways of behaving. Such stories often include the changing of lore breakers into a natural feature of the landscape.

Natural features may also mark a significant ceremonial area like the pagoda formations at Hands on Rock at Ulan.

The importance of mythological sites cannot be underestimated for most are available to us only through the knowledge of Aboriginal people. The stories of these places are passed from generation to generation and form one of the strongest bonds within the Aboriginal community.

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Information courtesy National Parks and Wildlife Service NSW; Tiddalick – The Frog Who Caused a Flood by Robert Roennfeldt, Penguin Books Australia 1980; thanks to Glen Morris.