Chinnup – winter – season of cockatoos

Late May to end of July

Chinnup is depicted by cockatoos, fungi as well as clothes and totems.
Return of Aquila constellation (Bunjil).

The lifestyle for the Gariwerd communities during chinnup:

Bands moved to rock shelters in the hills for refuge.

Long cloaks were made from possum skins.

Old people and pregnant women rubbed emu fat into the skin for protection from the cold.

For ornamentation people wore kangaroo teeth necklaces, hat mats and nose piercings.

For the woodland areas of Gariwerd, chinnup brings the following:

Plants

Fungi appear including:
 coral fungus on mossy ground
 boletus fungi in wet litter
First of the winter orchids including:
 tall greenhood and early nancy lilly in flower
 first nodding greenhoods and helmet orchids flower
 first flowering chocolate lilies
Many early wattles flowering:
 long leafed wattle in flower
 golden wattle and prickly moses in flower
 cranberry heath in flower
Fire damaged trees show epicormics shoots.
Yellow box flowering.

Mammal

Possums have young in pouch during chinnup.
Sugar gliders give birth.
Echidnas are searching for mates.

Birds

Several bird species nesting including:
 brown thornbill building first nests
 scrub wrens
 jacky winter flycatcher returning to nesting sites
 dive bombing magpies and lapwings
Many birds active and on the move:
 shrike tits tear bark off manna gums
 yellow tailed cockatoos on the move
 first calls can be heard of fantailed cuckoos
 flocks of sittellas pass through
 yellow tailed cockatoos seek new feeding grounds
 newly flowering eucalypts attract honeyeaters
 noisy miners call loudly at dawn
 satin bowerbirds on the move
 little ravens flocking
 powerful owls laying eggs

For the wetlands areas of Gariwerd, chinnup means the following:

Birds

Large flocks of pink eared ducks seen on lakes.
Swans and coot graze on lake shores.
Rising waters cause ducks to seek new feeding and nesting areas.
Lapwings are nesting on eggs.

Reptiles/ Amphibians

Frogs actively calling during chinnup.

Insects

Ponds full of little water creatures.