Baiame

In Dreaming narratives recorded across multiple south‑eastern Aboriginal groups, Baiame came down from the sky and created rivers, mountains, forests and other landscape features, gave people their laws, songs and cultural traditions, and established the first initiation site (bora). After completing creation he returned or ascended back to the sky; some local accounts describe geographic traces of his departure (for example Mount Yengo is said to have been flattened where he jumped back to the spirit world). Some traditions name familial figures associated with him—Dharramalan (described variously as son or brother) and wives such as Ganhanbili and Birrangulu—though genealogical details vary between accounts.

Rock‑art and site traditions depict Baiame as a large anthropomorphic human figure shown in frontal view, often with a large headdress or distinctive hairstyle and with internal body decorations (waistbands, vertical lines, bands and dots). Footstep motifs are sometimes painted nearby. Local large rock figures (for example in Milbrodale's Baiame Cave) are identified with him. Sources note that Dharramalan is typically depicted in profile while Baiame is shown frontally.

Mythic creative power: narratives attribute to Baiame the founding shaping of landscape (mountains, lakes, rivers, caves) and the institution of social order—laws, songs, cultural traditions and initiation practices. He functions as a Sky Father or All Father figure who moves between sky and land in the primordial creation epoch. Baiame is also embedded in sacred geography and material culture: his presence is asserted through named places, rock art and initiation sites which anchor his continuing significance. Some secondary compilations attribute additional roles (e.g., rain, death) but these claims are not corroborated in the more detailed community‑oriented sources provided.