Gawarrgay, the Emu in the Sky

An emu made of darkness

Gawarrgay is traced in the dark dust lanes of the Milky Way, its head in the Coalsack.

Gamilaraay astrophysicist Karlie Noon, in a film made with the Powerhouse museum in Sydney (opens in a new tab), describes Gawarrgay as a dark constellation emerging from the dust lanes of the Milky Way. It takes form in the Coalsack, beside the Southern Cross, and its body stretches across most of the sky.

A 2014 study (opens in a new tab) written with Euahlayi Law Man Michael Anderson confirms Gawarrgay, or Gawarghoo, as the name of the Emu in the Sky, and dhinawan as the name of the emu bird. It notes that the Kamilaroi languages are described as Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay, and that Euahlayi is a related but different language.

Sources for this section Powerhouse, Celestial Emu (film with Karlie Noon and Daniel Mateo) (opens in a new tab) · ; Robert S. Fuller, Michael G. Anderson, Ray P. Norris and Michelle Trudgett, The Emu Sky Knowledge of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Peoples, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 17(2), 2014 (opens in a new tab)

A calendar on Country

When Gawarrgay runs in April, the emus are laying; when it sits, the eggs must be left.

In Karlie Noon's account (opens in a new tab), Gawarrgay appears around April, running with its neck out. When the old people saw this they knew the emus on the ground, the dhinawan, were breeding and laying, and that eggs were ready to collect and eat.

By the end of June the shape has changed: the emu is a male sitting on his nest (opens in a new tab), and the chicks are forming in the eggs, so it is time to stop taking them. She notes it is an important story for Gamilaraay men, about the father's role.

The 2014 study (opens in a new tab) traces the rest of the year, as seen around 9 p.m.: the neck fades and the body looks like an egg as the chicks hatch; later the Emu sits in a waterhole, low on the horizon, when the waterholes are believed to be full; in summer it is almost gone.

Sources for this section Powerhouse, Celestial Emu (film with Karlie Noon and Daniel Mateo) (opens in a new tab) · ; Robert S. Fuller, Michael G. Anderson, Ray P. Norris and Michelle Trudgett, The Emu Sky Knowledge of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Peoples, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 17(2), 2014 (opens in a new tab)

What is up there is down here

What is seen in the sky is also on the ground: the Emu above is tied to the emus on Country.

A theme of the project, the 2014 study (opens in a new tab) reports, is “what's up there is down here”: several participants spoke of a belief that the sky and everything in it was once down here, and down here was in the sky, so that what is seen above is also below.

In that account the Emu's changing views are closely connected to the emu bird (opens in a new tab), an important resource, and, through the waterholes, to looking after Country; the paper leaves the ceremonial side of the story aside.

Sources for this section Robert S. Fuller, Michael G. Anderson, Ray P. Norris and Michelle Trudgett, The Emu Sky Knowledge of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Peoples, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 17(2), 2014 (opens in a new tab)

Many emus, many tellings

Emus in the sky are reported across Australia, each with its own details.

The authors of the 2014 study (opens in a new tab) found reports of an Emu in the Sky across many Aboriginal language groups. The earliest written record, from 1857, has the Boorong people of Victoria placing an emu in the dark patch under the Southern Cross; in 1873 King Rory, probably Euahlayi, showed the writer William Ridley an emu in “the dark space under the tree”.

Stories like this carry several levels of meaning, and the study (opens in a new tab) deliberately leaves the ceremonial level aside, as does this page.

Keep in mind This is Gamilaraay and Euahlayi knowledge as these sources give it. It is not the view of every Aboriginal community, and the dark cloud it is drawn on is not one of the IAU's 88 constellations.

Sources for this section Robert S. Fuller, Michael G. Anderson, Ray P. Norris and Michelle Trudgett, The Emu Sky Knowledge of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Peoples, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 17(2), 2014 (opens in a new tab)

In the sky today

You need a dark Southern Hemisphere sky to see the Milky Way's dust lanes at all.

Gawarrgay's head is the Coalsack (opens in a new tab), a dark nebula of dust about 600 light-years away that blocks the light of the stars behind it, easy to see as a dark patch beside the Southern Cross on a clear night.

The rest of the Emu needs a sky dark enough to show the Milky Way, which the Night Sky Network (opens in a new tab) warns takes clear, dark skies and dark-adapted eyes; Powerhouse gives April to August or September as the season to look.

Sources for this section NASA Hubble, Caldwell 99 (the Coalsack Nebula) (opens in a new tab) · ; Kat Troche (Astronomical Society of the Pacific), The Great Rift, NASA Night Sky Network (2025) (opens in a new tab)