The corroboree was overwhelmingly a nocturnal event. Anthony Trollope, William Landsborough, May Vivienne, Lady Barker, and Roderick J. Flanagan all specifically mention that it was held at night. The dramatic effect was heightened by firelight; Flanagan noted that “the effect of such scenes by moonlight, or by the glare of bush fires, is said to be striking in the extreme.” R.N. Richard Sadleir also described the “fires lighting up the night.”
However, The Narrinyeri account mentions a mythical corroboree held by ancestors “in the daytime.”