Bora (Australian)

[1] The word Bora was originally taken from the Gamilaraay language spoken by the Kamilaroi people who lived in the region north of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales to southern Queensland.

[3] Many other terms exist across Australia[1] to denote similar initiatory rites on a ceremonial ground, such as burbung (Wiradjuri), and kuringal (Yuin).

In other areas of south-east Australia, a Bora site might consist of two circles of stones, and the boys would start the ceremony in the larger, public, one, and end it in the other, smaller, one, to which only initiated men are admitted.

One very fine example of a two ring bora ceremonial site used to exist in Alberton, Queensland till it was destroyed, and made way for a pineapple plantation in the late 1950s.

While most are confined to south-east Queensland and eastern New South Wales, five earth rings have been recorded near the Victorian town of Sunbury, although Aboriginal use has not been documented.