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.
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.
01
At a glance
Bunjil (also rendered in nineteenth-century historical literature as Bundjil, Pundjel, or Punjel) is the supreme ancestral creator spirit, cultural hero, and founding father in the cosmological traditions of the Kulin nation across south-eastern Australia (modern-day Victoria). Revered by the Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri), Boonwurrung, Wathaurong (Wadawurrung), Taungurung, and Dja Dja Wurrung clans, Bunjil is inextricably identified with the wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax), the paramount bird of prey in the Australian continent. According to oral traditions preserved through historical Wurundjeri clan leader William Barak, Bunjil fashioned the first two men out of alluvial river clay using his stone knife, animating them by blowing life into their mouths, nostrils, and navels, while his brother or primordial companion Pallyan (the bat) drew forth the first women by churning the muddy waters of the creek beds with a long pole. Bunjil instituted the foundational social architecture of the Kulin world by creating two strictly exogamous moieties: Bunjil (the eaglehawk) and Waa (the raven/crow), decreeing that marriage must strictly unite individuals belonging to opposite moieties. Furthermore, Bunjil instructed mankind in hunting techniques, the crafting of spears, spearthrowers, and boomerangs, enacted codes of ecological stewardship, and established sacred male initiation ceremonies. Upon fulfilling his earthly mission, Bunjil summoned Bellin-bellin (the musk-crow), who released the winds from a kangaroo-skin bag, generating a colossal whirlwind that carried Bunjil, his black swan wives, and his totemic retinue into the heavens, where he shines perpetually as the star Altair.
7 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research
02
Sacred symbols
The wedge-tailed eagle, the molded clay, the wind and the star
03
Family
Siblings
Pallyan (Pallian, the bat, primordial brother or companion responsible for creating the first women from muddy waters)Waang (Waa, the crow/raven, culture hero and leader of the opposing exogamous moiety, depicted as brother or rival in cosmological narratives)
Bunjil
Unions
Ganaivarra (Ganawarra, two black swan wives who accompany him in the celestial vault beside the star Altair)
Children
Binbeal (the rainbow, eldest son and executor of Bunjil's decrees)Yukope (the green parakeet), Thara (the quail), Djiurt-djiurt (the nankeen kestrel), among other totemic young warriors who ascended to the sky with the creator
Genealogy according to A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of SE Australia (1904, pp. 488-492); R. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria (1878, vol. 1, pp. 423-428); Gary Presland, First People (2010)
04
Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Howitt, Alfred William, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. translation: London: Macmillan and Co., 1904. read
Smyth, Robert Brough, The Aborigines of Victoria: with notes relating to the habits of the natives of other parts of Australia and Tasmania (Vol. 1). translation: Melbourne: John Ferres, Government Printer, 1878. read
Dawson, James, Australian Aborigines: The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. translation: Melbourne: George Robertson, 1881. read
Studies
Parks Victoria / Victorian Government, Bunjils Cave Heritage Site (Black Range Scenic Reserve). Parks Victoria, 2020. open
Museums Victoria, About us | Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre. Museums Victoria, 2024. open
Name and epithets
The Indigenous theonym Bunjil (rendered in modern standardized Kulin orthography as Bundjil or Bun-jil) is a noun denoting both the paramount ancestral creator and the wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax).
In the ancient sources
The Aborigines of Victoria: with notes relating to the habits of the natives, 1878. Robert Brough Smyth transcribes first-hand oral accounts from Coranderrk elders and William Barak regarding Pundjel's creation of men a…
The myths
The Creation of the First Men from River Clay. As recorded by government ethnologist Robert Brough Smyth from the narratives of Wurundjeri leader William Barak, Bunjil brought forth human life upon Kulin territory in th…
Worship and archaeology
Traditional religious life regarding Bunjil did not feature built sanctuaries or sacrificial altars, but centered on rigorous adherence to the sacred customary laws, moral codes, and ceremonies handed down from the Drea…
How the god was depicted
The most significant archaeological and cultural depiction of Bunjil is preserved at Bunjil's Shelter (also known as Bunjil's Cave) within the sandstone outcrops of the Black Range Scenic Reserve near Stawell in western…
What scholars debate
The E. B. Tylor vs. Andrew Lang and A. W. Howitt 'All-Father' Controversy. At the turn of the twentieth century, British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor asserted that Australian Aboriginal accounts of supreme beings…
After antiquity
In contemporary Victoria, Bunjil is honored by Traditional Owners as an enduring symbol of cultural resilience, spiritual continuity, and land guardianship.
Did you know?
Bunjil's Shelter in the Black Range near Stawell is celebrated by archaeologists as the only recorded prehistoric rock art depiction of the creator spirit Bunjil across south-eastern Australia.
Codex relic
Wings of the Wedge-Tailed Eagle. The great wings with which he ascends to the heavens and becomes a star, watching from there over the land he shaped.
The rest of this scroll is sealed
The legends, the myth, the cult and relics are part of the full Codex. You can open 1 full entry for free every day; to open all 500 deities with no limits and no ads, subscribe to Codex PRO.
