The Wattun Goori are the hairy people that lived amongst humans according to the Dharawal people of south-eastern Australia.
There were two types of Wattun Goori: the Kuritjahs and the Dooligahs. The Kuritjahs were very small hairy men the only a foot or so high. the Dooligahs were enormous hairy men, the size of trees.
The Wattun Goori feature in a legendary tale that tells about the two trees that grow near each other, the Dooligah tree and the Kuritjah tree. The tales tells how the Wattun Goori and the humans, the Dharawals, all lived in harmony with each other, chatting celebrating and exchanging gifts with each other. However all this changed when a drought came and the groups were put under pressure. The Dooligahs, suffered the most as they were the largest and needed the most food. As a result they degraded themselves to killing and eating the children of the Dharawals. This brought the Dharawals to the brink of war with the Dooligahs. The compassionate Kuritjahs devised a plan to avert war fearing that many innocent people would die.
The Kuirtjahs persuaded that the Dooligahs should seek out the tall trees that were hollow inside and would still have plenty of water for them to drink. Also, once the trees were drained of water, the Kuritjahs suggested that the Dooligahs should hide in the trees away from the war brandishing Dharawals. However the Dooligahs were tricked as when they slept in the hollows of the trees at night, the Kuritjahs sealed the trees imprisoning the Dolligahs. Fearing that the Dooligahs may break free because the wind may blow the trees over, or that lightning would strike and open a tree, the Kuritjahs live in the branches of the Kuritjah trees and watch over the Dolligahs in their Dooligah tree. They still do this even to this very day.