There is so much truth to this even in our own country, the animals may be different, but there are indicators out there, one just needs to look for them... 
The Weather, Aboriginal Style
Science - Reuters
Mon Mar 17, 9:52 AM ET
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - When the bearded
dragon lizard sits upright and points its head
to the sky, it is going to rain the next day.
If a flock of currawongs flies overhead, you
have four hours to get the washing off the line.
If the queen wattle blooms heavily, bull ants
abandon their tree nests for mounds of dirt, or
meat ants cover nests with tiny, heat-reflecting
quartz stones, then bushfires are coming.
Sounds like mumbo-jumbo?
Not to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, which
hopes to tap into the tens of thousands of years
of Aboriginal weather knowledge to help it expand
its understanding of the island continent's harsh
climate.
Aboriginal ideas about the weather can be starkly
different.
Unlike the conventional European notion of four
seasons -- summer, autumn, winter and spring --
Aborigines in different parts of Australia count
as little as two or as many as six, each intimately
linked to subtle changes in the local environment.
"The bureau comes from a purely Western scientific
meteorology perspective. It is something entirely
new for a weather bureau to recognize the importance
of this other weather knowledge," said bureau forecaster
John O'Brien.
"Our concepts of meteorological science have a time
span of several hundred years, whereas Aboriginal
culture based on weather, flora, fauna and climate
is tens of thousands of years old," O'Brien told
Reuters.
The Bureau of Meteorology has launched an "Indigenous
Weather" Web site (www.bom.gov.au/iwk) mapping
Aboriginal weather knowledge and plans to keep
on updating it as it documents new indigenous
weather calendars.
Aboriginal culture is dominated by a creation
time called the "Dreaming," which links past
and present in a continuum. In it, the weather,
land, plants, animals, people, previous generations
and supernatural forces are all inter-related.
Aboriginal culture is passed down from generation
to generation in oral form, using stories and legends,
but this generation is the first to start recording
weather knowledge.
Frances Bodkin, a descendant of Sydney's D'harawal
Aborigines, said indigenous weather patterns were
signposted by plants, animals and the stars and were
as accurate as any modern-day meteorological forecast.
"Present-day scientists do their studies by measurements
and experiments. Aboriginal people are just as good
scientists, but they use observation and experience,"
Bodkin, a botanist at Sydney's Mount Annan Botanical
gardens, told Reuters.
In 1788, when English settlers first arrived in Sydney,
they imposed the four European seasons on their new
home without any real knowledge of local weather patterns,
yet the local Aborigines lived according to an annual
six-season calendar.
For longer-range weather forecasting they used an 11-12 year
cycle and a massive 8,000-10,000-year cycle, said Bodkin,
who is entrusted with D'harawal weather knowledge.
The bushfires which burned through Sydney in the past
two "European summers" came as no surprise to Aborigines
as Sydney's queen wattle trees bloomed heavily for the
past two years, a sign bushfires were coming, said Bodkin.
"When it has a very heavy bloom the D'harawal people knew
they had 18 months to burn off before massive fires went
through," explained Bodkin. "That gave them two really
good seasons to burn off before the fires appeared."
Bodkin warned the queen wattle had a massive number of
buds this year and would again flower heavily -- a portent
of more fires to come.
SYDNEY'S SIX SEASONS
Sydney's six-season Aboriginal calendar is based on the
flowering of various native plants.
-- Murrai'yunggoray, when the red waratah flower blooms,
is the first season. Spanning September and October, it
is a time when temperatures rise.
-- Goraymurrai, when the two-veined hickory wattle flowers,
occurs around November to December. It is a time of warm,
wet weather and historically Aborigines would not camp
near rivers for fear of flooding.
-- Gadalung marool, when the single-veined hickory wattle
flowers, is hot and dry. It occurs from January to February
and Aborigines only ate fruit and seeds as the heat meant
stored meat would spoil quickly.
-- Banamurrai'yung, when the lillipilli tree produces tiny
sour berries, is around March to May and is a time of wet,
cooling temperatures, a signal to make cloaks to keep warm.
-- Tugarah'tuli, when the forest red gum flowers around
June to July, is a cold time. Aborigines would traditionally
journey to the coast where food was more abundant.
-- Tugarah'gunyamarra, when the gossamer wattle flowers
around August, is the end of the annual weather calendar.
It is a cold and windy season, a time to build shelters
facing the rising sun. It was also a time for Aborigines
to return to Sydney's western highland, following fish
upstream.
The weather phenomenon El Nino has been blamed for
Australia's worst drought in 100 years -- a dry spell
which has seen bushfires blaze along the eastern seaboard,
ringing Sydney and razing hundreds of homes in the national
capital, Canberra.
But according to the D'harawal Aborigines, El Nino is not
to blame, but the rare meteorological convergence of three
ancient climate cycles -- the annual hot and dry Gadalung
marool, the hot season of the 11-year Djurali cycle and
the 8,000-10,000 Talara'gandi, which means ice and fire.
The 11-year cycle started in 2001 with the appearance of
the Aurora Australis, the luminous pale green and pink
phenomenon that occurs in the upper atmosphere above the
South Pole, said Bodkin. The Aurora Australis is caused
by the interaction of electrons and protons from outside
the atmosphere.
The Talara'gandi, or ice and fire, had in the past been
responsible for Ice Ages and desertification, said Bodkin
and it started when the sea began rising. Aborigines tell
stories that the ocean was once a three-day walk east of
Sydney's coastline.
"We are in a period of absolute extremes, where we should
be getting very cold, dry winters and very hot, dry
summers," said Bodkin. "If you superimpose the 10,000-year
cycle on top, I think it may last for 2,000 years."
The Weather, Aboriginal Style
Science - Reuters
Mon Mar 17, 9:52 AM ET
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - When the bearded
dragon lizard sits upright and points its head
to the sky, it is going to rain the next day.
If a flock of currawongs flies overhead, you
have four hours to get the washing off the line.
If the queen wattle blooms heavily, bull ants
abandon their tree nests for mounds of dirt, or
meat ants cover nests with tiny, heat-reflecting
quartz stones, then bushfires are coming.
Sounds like mumbo-jumbo?
Not to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, which
hopes to tap into the tens of thousands of years
of Aboriginal weather knowledge to help it expand
its understanding of the island continent's harsh
climate.
Aboriginal ideas about the weather can be starkly
different.
Unlike the conventional European notion of four
seasons -- summer, autumn, winter and spring --
Aborigines in different parts of Australia count
as little as two or as many as six, each intimately
linked to subtle changes in the local environment.
"The bureau comes from a purely Western scientific
meteorology perspective. It is something entirely
new for a weather bureau to recognize the importance
of this other weather knowledge," said bureau forecaster
John O'Brien.
"Our concepts of meteorological science have a time
span of several hundred years, whereas Aboriginal
culture based on weather, flora, fauna and climate
is tens of thousands of years old," O'Brien told
Reuters.
The Bureau of Meteorology has launched an "Indigenous
Weather" Web site (www.bom.gov.au/iwk) mapping
Aboriginal weather knowledge and plans to keep
on updating it as it documents new indigenous
weather calendars.
Aboriginal culture is dominated by a creation
time called the "Dreaming," which links past
and present in a continuum. In it, the weather,
land, plants, animals, people, previous generations
and supernatural forces are all inter-related.
Aboriginal culture is passed down from generation
to generation in oral form, using stories and legends,
but this generation is the first to start recording
weather knowledge.
Frances Bodkin, a descendant of Sydney's D'harawal
Aborigines, said indigenous weather patterns were
signposted by plants, animals and the stars and were
as accurate as any modern-day meteorological forecast.
"Present-day scientists do their studies by measurements
and experiments. Aboriginal people are just as good
scientists, but they use observation and experience,"
Bodkin, a botanist at Sydney's Mount Annan Botanical
gardens, told Reuters.
In 1788, when English settlers first arrived in Sydney,
they imposed the four European seasons on their new
home without any real knowledge of local weather patterns,
yet the local Aborigines lived according to an annual
six-season calendar.
For longer-range weather forecasting they used an 11-12 year
cycle and a massive 8,000-10,000-year cycle, said Bodkin,
who is entrusted with D'harawal weather knowledge.
The bushfires which burned through Sydney in the past
two "European summers" came as no surprise to Aborigines
as Sydney's queen wattle trees bloomed heavily for the
past two years, a sign bushfires were coming, said Bodkin.
"When it has a very heavy bloom the D'harawal people knew
they had 18 months to burn off before massive fires went
through," explained Bodkin. "That gave them two really
good seasons to burn off before the fires appeared."
Bodkin warned the queen wattle had a massive number of
buds this year and would again flower heavily -- a portent
of more fires to come.
SYDNEY'S SIX SEASONS
Sydney's six-season Aboriginal calendar is based on the
flowering of various native plants.
-- Murrai'yunggoray, when the red waratah flower blooms,
is the first season. Spanning September and October, it
is a time when temperatures rise.
-- Goraymurrai, when the two-veined hickory wattle flowers,
occurs around November to December. It is a time of warm,
wet weather and historically Aborigines would not camp
near rivers for fear of flooding.
-- Gadalung marool, when the single-veined hickory wattle
flowers, is hot and dry. It occurs from January to February
and Aborigines only ate fruit and seeds as the heat meant
stored meat would spoil quickly.
-- Banamurrai'yung, when the lillipilli tree produces tiny
sour berries, is around March to May and is a time of wet,
cooling temperatures, a signal to make cloaks to keep warm.
-- Tugarah'tuli, when the forest red gum flowers around
June to July, is a cold time. Aborigines would traditionally
journey to the coast where food was more abundant.
-- Tugarah'gunyamarra, when the gossamer wattle flowers
around August, is the end of the annual weather calendar.
It is a cold and windy season, a time to build shelters
facing the rising sun. It was also a time for Aborigines
to return to Sydney's western highland, following fish
upstream.
The weather phenomenon El Nino has been blamed for
Australia's worst drought in 100 years -- a dry spell
which has seen bushfires blaze along the eastern seaboard,
ringing Sydney and razing hundreds of homes in the national
capital, Canberra.
But according to the D'harawal Aborigines, El Nino is not
to blame, but the rare meteorological convergence of three
ancient climate cycles -- the annual hot and dry Gadalung
marool, the hot season of the 11-year Djurali cycle and
the 8,000-10,000 Talara'gandi, which means ice and fire.
The 11-year cycle started in 2001 with the appearance of
the Aurora Australis, the luminous pale green and pink
phenomenon that occurs in the upper atmosphere above the
South Pole, said Bodkin. The Aurora Australis is caused
by the interaction of electrons and protons from outside
the atmosphere.
The Talara'gandi, or ice and fire, had in the past been
responsible for Ice Ages and desertification, said Bodkin
and it started when the sea began rising. Aborigines tell
stories that the ocean was once a three-day walk east of
Sydney's coastline.
"We are in a period of absolute extremes, where we should
be getting very cold, dry winters and very hot, dry
summers," said Bodkin. "If you superimpose the 10,000-year
cycle on top, I think it may last for 2,000 years."
