Bunyips

Long before European settlers came to Australia, the native aborigines told tales of a large amphibious man-eating beast called the “bunyip.” Though many different aborigine groups across the continent professed their belief in the existence of this beast, their stories presented varying descriptions of what it looked like... perhaps because almost everyone who had supposedly seen a bunyip was eaten by it.

Bunyips are said to inhabit lagoons, water holes, and billabongs (watery pools left when rivers run dry)... they are not found in running waters, like rivers or creeks. The only evidence that a bunyip might be in the area was either a bunyip attack, or strange noises and bloodcurdling cries that could sometimes be heard coming from these watery habitats. Aborigines would avoid areas where these sounds came from, on the assumption that a bunyip had caught a victim to eat.

The bunyip might have remained a curious creature in Aboriginal stories except that the Europeans who later moved into the country believed that the Aboriginal stories of bunyips must have been based on actual animals... so they started to look for them. One of the first Europeans to claim to see a bunyip was William Buckley, an escaped convict that lived with the Aborigines from 1803 to 1835. All he ever saw of the creatures were their backs in waterways, which he described as “covered with feathers of a dusky-grey colour.” Buckley estimated that all of the different bunyips he saw were about the size of a full-grown calf. When alone, he made several attempts to spear one; but he knew his Aborigine friends would likely kill him if they found out he’d tried.

Physical Evidence?

In 1847, a strange skull was found on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales; and Aborigines identified it as a bunyip skull. At first it was believed to belong to an unknown species of animal, so it was put on display in the Australian Museum for two days as a “bunyip skull”... but it was soon determined that the skull was actually that of a deformed foal, and, therefore, not evidence of an unknown species. By then, however, the stories of 'bunyips' had caught the attention of the Australian public.

For the rest of the 19th century, many people wrote to Australian newspapers claiming to have seen a bunyip... and the descriptions given were almost always different. The problem was that with no set description of the bunyip to begin with, any strange thing in or near water was being labeled as a “bunyip.”

From the various reports, however, two particular descriptions were repeated more than any others; and many people now believe that these two “bunyips” are actually unknown animals. One is described as a black shaggy beast with a bulldog-like head. The other is described as hairy, the size of a calf, with a long neck with a mane of hair running down it, a pointed head, and two long ears that prick up when surprised. Some people feel these “bunyip” reports are simply confused sightings of emus, kangaroos, and crocodiles (among other creatures). Another theory is that people are seeing an unknown type of black shaggy seal that occasionally swims far inland, sometimes getting trapped in land-locked ponds and billabongs as waterways dry up.

Strange noises in waterways are still associated with bunyips, though the creatures are now considered more of a tall tale; and mothers have been known to use stories of a child-eating bunyip to scare little ones away from playing in the wilds. So, despite the lack of physical evidence, the bunyip has become a well-known monster. It’s not surprising then that the Australian phrase “why chase the bunyip?” has become a pro0verb meaning “why pursue an impossible task?”