Bahloo

Bahloo (also rendered in modern Indigenous orthography as Baalu) is the prominent male anthropomorphic personification of the Moon in the oral traditions of the Euahlayi and Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) peoples across the Barwon and Narran river catchments of north-western New South Wales, Australia. While European mythologies typically attribute a feminine persona to the moon, Australian Aboriginal cosmology almost universally portrays the night luminary as male—depicted variously as a wise ancestral healer (wirreenun), a nocturnal wanderer, or a formidable judge. In foundational narratives transcribed by Catherine Langloh Parker in the late nineteenth century from Narran elders, Bahloo is centrally responsible for two profound existential conditions of human life: the introduction of inescapable physical mortality (after the first men refused to carry his pet venomous snakes across a stream) and the spiritual fashioning of baby girls. Furthermore, Aboriginal cultural astronomy links Bahloo's erratic sky journeys to his perpetual evasion of the amorous Sun-woman Yhi, while the optical halo encircling the moon is understood as a celestial shelter built against cold and deluge.

6 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research

The moon, the serpents, the night and the river of the sky

Primary sources

• Parker, K. Langloh, Australian Legendary Tales: Folk-lore of the Noongahburrahs as told to the Piccaninnies. translation: London: David Nutt; Melbourne: Melville, Mullen & Slade, 1896. read
• Parker, K. Langloh, The Euahlayi Tribe: A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia. translation: London: Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. read
• Parker, K. Langloh, More Australian Legendary Tales. translation: London: David Nutt; Melbourne: Melville, Mullen & Slade, 1898. read

Studies

• Norris, Ray P., Dawes Review 5: Australian Aboriginal Astronomy and Navigation. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 33, e039, 2016. open
• Hamacher, Duane W. & Norris, Ray P., Eclipses in Australian Aboriginal Astronomy. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 14(2), pp. 103–114, 2011. open
• Fuller, Robert S., Norris, Ray P. & Trudgett, Michelle, The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Peoples and their Neighbours. Australian Aboriginal Studies / arXiv:1311.0076, 2014. open
• Reed, A. W., Aboriginal Stories of Australia. Sydney: A.H. & A.W. Reed / New Holland Publishers, 1965. open