Baiame

The Creator of the Dreamtime

Domain: Creation, Law & Initiation
Alignment: Lawful Good
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Sky Quartz Crystals

Speak with Baiame

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5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Aboriginal Australians

Region

Australia

Period

65,000 years ago – present

The ancestral beings of the Dreamtime are revered by Aboriginal Australians, possibly the oldest continuous culture on Earth. These beings are believed to have created the landscape, the laws, and life during the Dreaming. Their stories are kept in rock paintings, songs, and rituals passed down over tens of millennia.

At corroborees, songs and body-painted dances re-enact the journeys of the Dreaming ancestors. The songlines, singing tracks, map the sacred land from memory, and places like Uluru remain living sanctuaries under the care of their traditional custodians.

At a glance

Baiame (also recorded as Byamee, Baiami, or Baime) is the supreme sky deity and foundational lawgiver of the Dreaming across Aboriginal nations of south-eastern Australia, most notably the Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi), Wiradjuri, and Yuwaalaraay (Euahlayi) peoples of New South Wales. Regarded as an ancestral creator and 'All Father', Baiame descended to the earth to shape waterways, establish totemic marriage classifications, construct vital communal infrastructure, and inaugurate sacred male initiation ceremonies (the Bora or Burbung). Among the enduring physical manifestations of his activity is the monumental dry-stone fish trap network on the Barwan River (known as Baiame's Ngunnhu at Brewarrina), engineered during an ancient drought to supply shared sustenance under strict inter-tribal peace protocols. Baiame dwells in the celestial paradise of Bullimah alongside his primary consort Birrahgnooloo ('Mother of All'). His personal name was sacred and withheld from women and the uninitiated, who invoked him reverently as Boyjerh ('Father'). Initiated medicine men (wirreenun) derived their spiritual potency and healing power from sacred quartz crystals (maban) gifted by Baiame.

7 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The quartz, the stone axe, the stars and the rock paintings

Family

Baiame

Unions

Birrahgnooloo (Birra-ngulu, primary wife revered as Mother of All, possessing a totem for each part of her body and associated with floods and rains)Cunnumbeillee (second wife of Baiame, responsible for provisioning and daily domestic duties, possessing a single totem)

Children

Ghindahindahmoee and Boomahoomahnowee (sons in the cycle of narratives collected by K. Langloh Parker among the Noongahburrah / Euahlayi)Daramulun (Dharramulan, subordinate figure or mythic son in Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi traditions, associated with the sound of the bullroarer and initiation rites)

Genealogy according to K. Langloh Parker, The Euahlayi Tribe (1905, cap. 2 e 9); K. Langloh Parker, Australian Legendary Tales (1896, 'The Borah of Byamee'); Alfred William Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904, cap. 9); Robert Hamilton Mathews, 'The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribe' (1895)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Parker, K. Langloh (Katie Langloh), The Euahlayi Tribe: A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia. translation: London: Archibald Constable and Company, Ltd., 1905. read
Parker, K. Langloh (Katie Langloh), Australian Legendary Tales: Folk-lore of the Noongahburrahs as told to the Piccaninnies. translation: London: David Nutt / Melbourne: Melville, Mullen & Slade, 1896. read
Howitt, Alfred William, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. translation: London: Macmillan and Co., 1904. read
Mathews, Robert Hamilton, The Bora, or Initiation Ceremonies of the Kamilaroi Tribe. translation: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 24, pp. 411–427, 1895. read

Studies

Heritage NSW / NSW Government, Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps / Baiame's Ngunnhu. State Heritage Register (Item ID 5051305), 2014. open
Heritage NSW / NSW Government, Baiame Cave, Milbrodale. State Heritage Register (Item ID 5061940), 2017. open
Lang, Andrew, Magic and Religion. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901. open

Name and epithets

The theonym Baiame (transcribed phonetically as Byamee by K. Langloh Parker and Piame by early observer John Henderson in 1829-1830) has been the subject of notable linguistic and ethnological analysis.

In the ancient sources

The Euahlayi Tribe: A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia, 1905. K. Langloh Parker preserves primary ethnographic accounts obtained from elder Yudtha Dulleebah and healer Bootha concerning Byamee's laws and heavenly c…

The myths

The Founding of the Great Bora and the Sacred Laws. As recorded in oral tradition by K. Langloh Parker, Baiame assembled the tribal groups at the site of Googoorewon to establish unalterable codes of social conduct and…

Worship and archaeology

Religious life centered on Baiame did not involve permanent temple structures or formal sacrificial offerings, but focused upon absolute compliance with ancestral statutes disclosed during the Bora initiation ceremonies…

How the god was depicted

The most significant figurative representation of Baiame is preserved at Baiame Cave, a sandstone rock shelter at Milbrodale in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.

What scholars debate

The E. B. Tylor vs. Andrew Lang Debate on the 'High God'. In the 1890s, pioneer anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor argued that the concept of Baiame was a modern syncretic artifact created through the influence of Chri…

After antiquity

In contemporary Australia, Baiame is recognized by Indigenous communities in western New South Wales as an enduring symbol of spiritual heritage, sovereignty, and ecological guardianship.

Did you know?

Baiame's Ngunnhu at Brewarrina on the Barwan River is recognized by archaeologists as one of the oldest surviving human-made stone fish trapping networks in the world.

Codex relic

Sky Quartz Crystals. The sacred crystals of power with which he seals his rituals and marks the initiated as bearers of wisdom.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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