What is the Noongar name for the Rainbow Serpent?

The Noongar name for the Rainbow Serpent is Wagyl.

Wagyl is the Noongar manifestation of the Rainbow Serpent in the southwest of Western Australia. Noongar traditions describe this powerful ancestral serpent as shaping the landscape and creating waterways, including the Swan and Canning rivers around present-day Perth. Its stories connect water, landforms, fertility, life and responsibilities to Country.

The name has several spellings and regional forms, including Waugal and Waagal. These variations reflect the diversity of Noongar dialects rather than separate creatures. In some traditions, the Wagyl lives in or travels through waterways, and disturbing places associated with it can have serious cultural consequences.

The Wagyl is one regional expression of a widespread Aboriginal Rainbow Serpent motif, but the stories are not identical across Australia. For example, Ngalyod is a Rainbow Serpent name associated with Kunwinjku-speaking people in western Arnhem Land. Kurrea and Yurlungur likewise belong to other cultural and language contexts. Calling every Rainbow Serpent by one name would erase these important regional distinctions.

The Wagyl also appears in modern Western Australian public imagery, including the design symbolism associated with Perth’s Matagarup Bridge and the Bibbulmun Track.