This traditional story was told to me by women of the Warba Mirrdawaji painting group (pronounced “wobba mid a wodgie”) at Roeburn in The Pilbara in the far north of Western Australia.  “Long ago when the earth was new, a great sea serpent came in a fury, searching for two young novices who ate his 28 parrot-like birds.  He came storming toward the Tableland, breaking the ground which created  the Fortescue River, and formed permanent pools of water along the way to Millstream (a lush oasis in the desert).  At Millstream, the great serpent finally caught up with the 2 young novices and swallowed them up, together with the people who were camping there.  The serpent created this final pool of water which is called Millstream, and where his spirit remains as the guardian of the pool.