War Rock, Did a "war" really take place here?, Near Morawa, Western Australia

The granite rock, named War Rock by Europeans, is approx 15 kms north of Morawa. The story goes that two Yamatji tribes fought at this location and Europeans assumed it was a war. It was mid spring, wildflower season and the rock was surrounded by a beautiful carpet of everlastings, mainly white with some yellow and pink. From a distance you could be forgiven for thinking it was surrounded by snow. One view from the drone shows the left hand side of War Rock "looking" a little like Western Australia, in our opinion. What do you think?

Like most granite rocks, they were and are a good source of fresh water which collects in gnammas on the surface. Any overflow and runoff from rainfall could also be captured and used as a water source. And this is what the European settlers, who were always in need of water, did in 1936 when they built a dam approx 500 mts away and named it Pintharuka Dam. This was to service the nearby Pintharuka town water supply. To feed the dam, low diversion walls were built on War Rock to channel rainwater to Pintharuka Dam.

As has happened for thousands of years though, after rains some of the gnammas still fill up and tadpoles/frogs and other aquatic life, can be found in some of the gnammas. Local wildlife also drink from these gnammas and we were fortunate enough to see an Australian Shelduck having a drink.

Today, there are information signs telling the story of the "war" from the Yamatji perspective and how it wasn't really a war, rather dispute over the breaking of Yamatji tribal law and payback. The concept of "war" was not known to Aboriginals in the sense Europeans think of war. That said if an altercation took place here between two Yamatji tribes (Gullewa and Irwin Tribes) perhaps the granite rock should have been named Binyarri which is fight in Wajarri. The signs also provide information about the dam. Pintharuka dam is no longer in use but the diversion walls are still in place.

War Rock is on the traditional lands of the Southern Yamatji People in the Mid West region of Western Australia.

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This video was filmed in 4K with a Mavic 3 Pro

Chapter
0:26 - Does this look like Western Australia
1:10 - Australian Shelduck
2:06 - Gnamma