The skin of bäru the ancestral crocodile carries the scars of being burnt by the ancestral fire when it crossed the beach from Garranali and entered the salt water. After his burns were soothed, bäru decided he would stay in these waters. His sacred powers, and those of fire, imbue the water there today.

Garranali has been a sacred place since time began. It is the ancient home of bäru, the ancestral crocodile – a primal force which created both human and crocodile form and whose descendants, the Madarrpa clan, have always lived on the shores of Blue Mud Bay. Garranali is revered by the Madarrpa as their ancestral birthplace and they call themselves ‘saltwater peoples of the crocodile’.