The Southern Cross
Spirit Ark - navigation by stars - Artist Arone Meeks
‘The Aborigines knowledge of the ‘crowded’ Southern Sky was probably the most comprehensive possible for people dependent on the naked eye. They made accurate observations not only of first and second order stars, but even of more inconspicuous fourth-magnitude stars, and in so doing devised a complex seasonal calendar based on the position of the constellations in the sky.’ (Explorers of the Southern Sky ; A History of Australian Astronomy - Cambridge University Press 1996)
Aboriginal astronomy focuses on the Milky Way and often incorporates the dark patches between stars.
The Emu in the Sky, a story common to many Aboriginal groups, is an example of this — its body is made up of the dark patches in the Milky Way. The Boorong people saw the same dark patches as the smoke from the fires of Nurrumbunguttias, the old spirits. The Kaurna people saw the Milky Way — called Wodliparri or hut river — as a large river where a Yura (monster) lives in the dark patches.
To the Ngarrindjeri people, the dark shape formed by the Southern Cross is the stingray Nunganari and the pointers are Ngarakani, or sharks.
From 1899 Melbourne and Sydney Observatories took part in the compilation of the first atlas of the whole sky, The astrographic cataðlogue. The part completed at Sydney took over 70 years, from 1899 to 1971 The process of photographing and defining positions of one and a half million stars required a dedicated workforce. For such detailed, tedious work of measurement and collation – teams of young women were employed, calculating side by side in the Main Observatory. A new name was invented, these women were called ‘computers’.
‘ In answer to your application as a computer at this observatory, your salary would be 75 pounds per annum. Hours of work from 9 till 5 with one hour for lunch, Saturdays from 9 – 12 ‘ Letter written by Joseph Baldwin Third Government Astronomer, Victoria
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