A long, long time ago, the earth was in complete darkness. There was no sun, only the moon and some stars. This was before people, when giant animals roamed¹ the earth. They were much bigger than animals today. Dinewan the Emu and Bralagah the Brolga were two such animals.

 

One day, they were arguing and fighting over some silly little thing. Bralagah got angry and grabbed² one of Dinewan's large eggs and hurled³ it into the sky. It landed on a pile of firewood⁴ where the yellow yolk⁵ burst⁶ into flames. The flames were so bright, that the world was lit up.

 

One of the good spirits who lived in the sky was watching this and saw how bright and beautiful the world looked. Maybe if a fire was lit everyday, there would always be light.

 

So the good spirit collected wood every night. When the pile was big enough, his friend, the morning star, would come out to let everyone know that the fire was about to start. But what about anyone sleeping? How would they know that the fire was lit? The good spirit thought about this. Then, somewhere in the distance, came a loud laugh.

 

Gugurrgaagaa, gugurrgaagaa

 

The sound of the cackling kookaburra rang out across the earth.

 

'That's it, that's the noise I want,' The good spirit was jumping up and down with excitement. At last he had found a way to wake the world.

 

So now, every morning, just as the dawn is breaking, the laugh of Gugurrgaagaa the Kookaburra can be heard all across Australia, bringing in the new day.

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