Author(s): Anita Heiss

Indigenous Stories

Powerful and moving, Bidhi Galing (Big Rain) celebrates the Wiradyuri heroes of the Great Flood of Gundagai in 1852, told through the eyes of a young girl who is rescued from the raging floodwaters by her father.

Wagadhaany grew up near the Marrambidya Bila. She loved dancing in the rain and listening to her father, Yarri, tell her stories about life on Wiradyuri ngurambang.

When white people started building on the floodplains, Yarri was worried. He knew the power of the bila and tried to warn the strangers, but they would not listen. Years later, when the big rains came, Yarri and his brother, Jacky Jacky, jumped into their bark canoes and paddled through raging floodwaters, risking their lives to save countless others.  

Anita Heiss's powerful text, accompanied by Samantha Campbell's evocative illustrations, is a gift of Wiradyuri culture, knowledge and language, sharing a resonant message for our times.