Tjilbruke (also Tjirbruki, Tjilbruki, Tjirbruke, Tjirbuk or Tjirbuki,) is an important creation ancestor for the Kaurna of the Adelaide plains in the Australian state of South Australia. Tjilbruke was a Kaurna man, who appeared in Kaurna Dreaming dating back about 11,000 years. The Tjilbruke Dreaming Track or Tjilbruke Dreaming Trail is a major Dreaming trail, which connects sites from within metropolitan Adelaide southwards as far as Cape Jervis, some of which are Aboriginal sacred sites of great significance. Man and creator-being The Tjilbruke Dreaming pre-dates European contact, probably arising when the "Adelaide plains tribe", the Kaurna, settled the area at least 2,000 years BP (as evidenced by archaeological finds at Hallett Cove, where Kaurna campsites succeeded those of the Kartan people of Kangaroo Island, who had been there tens of thousands of years earlier). Kaurna Yerta Parngkarra (Kaurna tribal country) stretches from Cape Jervis in the south, to Crystal Brook in the north, west to the Mount Lofty Ranges, across to Gulf Saint Vincent, including the plains and city of Adelaide. The Tjilbruke story became part of the southern Kaurna Dreaming. It is more than a creation story; it assumes the status of a religion for some, sets standards and rules for living, and provides spiritual meaning. It is both lore and law. The lore tells of a time when all their lived in accord with peaceful trading laws which governed all their lives. The law was brought to the land, and "Old Tjirbruki", who lived as an ordinary man, a keeper of the law which came from the south, after the water covered the land (when Wongga Yerlo, or Gulf St Vincent, was created.). Tjilbruke was renowned as a "great hunter and firemaker", and a hero of the Kaurna. He also played a role in helping to protect the animals and the territory of the Kaurna, while at the same time having respect towards neighbouring peoples. It was part of his and Kaurna way of life to value all life, whether animal or human. Variant spellings and versions In about 1840, anthropologist Ronald Berndt recorded the spellings "Tjirbuk" or "Tjirbuki" from Ngarrindjeri man Albert Karlowan, as the name of a small wetland. Anthropologist Norman Tindale of the South Australian Museum recorded the spelling as Tjirbruki, but Tjilbruke is the commonly used spelling today. Since the early 1980s the Williams family, of the Mullawirra and Mulla mai/Kudnarto clans, have been