Considering the rarity of snow and snowfall within Australia I was curious as to the Indigenous populations' attitude towards it prior to western colonisation. Are there any stories about it? Considering their attachment to nature, was it considered sacred or spiritual in any sense? How did they cope living in such a hot country and experiencing snowfall when it happened?
I haven't read anything specifically about their attitude to snow, but its worth noting that in the areas that it snows regularly - the mountain range between Victoria and NSW, its not overly hot... Maybe only a few days above 35 a year... You're probably more likely to get snow on some of those mountains than a day above 35, and water is abundant...
Also, in southern Victoria, and through into southern NSW, there were mud huts, and possum skin coats - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possum-skin_cloak - of which the museum of Victoria has one of the last surviving examples... So the life lived by the nations in these areas was quite different to the life often depicted in the Northern Territory...