Devil's Pool, Australia

Devil's Pool near Babinda in Far North Queensland is known in Aboriginal legend as a cursed place. The dangers are held to be geographical, but local tribespeople and Babinda locals generally believe and recount the legend of an Aboriginal woman's curse on the waterhole.

In 2005, the Australia TV program Message Stick gave an account of the Pool through interviews and testimonies of witnesses to investigate the prevalence of deaths to young male travellers over the years. The pools have taken 16 lives since 1959. The local council urges visitors to stay within a designated swimming area to be safe.

Origins

The legend arises from the story of a woman who married a respected tribal elder but ran away with a beautiful young man visiting for the event. When they were captured she threw herself into the waters to escape, calling for her lover to follow her. The legend goes that her spirit guards the boulders and that her calls for her lover can still be heard.

One local, Annie Wonga, gave this account:

Incidents

A sign warns of the dangers of swimming there because the water is deep and fast flowing through channels and over underwater rocks but deaths still occur – some by swimming, others by falling in unexpectedly, many being wedged in a rock "chute".

Local Aboriginal people believe that when people disrespect the site, the site "disrespects" them in return. One account given was a man who was warned, but kicked the plaque, slipped into the hole and drowned where a body had just been recovered. Another tells of a drowned man whose father photographed the site in memoriam. When the photograph was developed the son's face appeared on the rocks:

The Aboriginal people, among them Rainforest people, feel they are protected and anyone who goes there with them as friends are also protected.

References