The Weird, Wild, Wacky World of Cryptozoology:A Monster Down Under, Mate

When the European white devil first landed upon the pristine shores of Australia, they were shocked to discover that not only was the large island populated with an indigenous race of people that looked very much like the folks who populated Africa, but they were surprised to find an entire new world of strange species of animals that went far beyond their wildest dreams. Never in all their days had they encountered animals that carried their young in pouches attached to their bodies or a large animal that hopped around moving faster than the wind. However one animal in particular scared these colonists so bad that they stayed away from the many virginal inland lakes and rivers for fear of being made a snack by this nightmarish creature.

When the explorers met with the aboriginal tribes, the tribesmen described the creature as being a large fur bearing semi aquatic animal with a horse like tale and long sharp tusks that the beast used to run it’s prey through before it made it’s kill. The tribesmen called the creature a Bunyip, which plainly meant “Devil” and this Bunyip was the enemy of all mankind.

Naturally the newcomers were terrified by such stories especially after being showed representations of the beast painted on the walls of caves and hearing the bizarre calls in the middle of the night that the tribesmen told the explorers was the call a Bunyip made before it made a kill. Upon hearing these horrific tales the colonists decided it would be a wise idea to take the council of their native friends and stay far away from the many inland lakes and swamps that dotted the landscape of the land down under.

For many years many researchers regarded the tale of the Bunyip as just another monster tale told by the natives to keep the otherwise unwanted colonists in line or away from their sacred sites that is until 1846 when a shocking discovery was made which seemed to prove the existence of this otherwise impossible animal. While prospectors were mining for gold in the Murrumbidgee river in New South Wales, one of the men discovered a large strange skull half buried under the mud of the river. Believing he may have found something that could make him a rich man he dug the skull up and was shocked by what he saw. The skull was as large as bull and sported two large sharp tusks that protruded from the mouth cavity. The prospector rushed the skull to the Australian Museum in Sydney where scientists declared the skull to be that of the fabled Bunyip, the creature that so terrified the early settlers of the new land.

The alleged Bunyip Skull was put on display in the museum’s main hall and the entire population of Sydney and the surrounding area came to witness the final remains of the fierce beast that had come to be known as Australia’s bogeyman. The display of the fabled creature prompted many to come forward with their own stories of their encounters with the bunyip. Many told their story of coming across the creature while taking an innocent swim in a lake or river or hearing the creature as it let out it’s blood curdling cry of death as the moon came up at night. However, the frenzy was short lived when the skull was stolen never to be seen again. After the dissapearance of the skull the Bunyip went back to being just a legend.

Today the Aboriginal tribes of Australia still believe in the Bunyip and take great pains to avoid the fierce monster. Scientists and other researchers believe the Bunyip may be a racial memory of the mega fauna that once inhabited the island but were hunted to extinction as late as ten thousand years ago. The most likely suspect for the bunyip is believed to be the Diprotodon, the largest semi-aquatic land marsupial to ever walk the earth. The fossils that have been discovered of the Diprotodon seem to match the description of the Bunyip and historians now believe that the skull put on display in 1846, belonged to the ancient marsupial. Or perhaps the Bunyip is another one of the creatures that inhabit the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is that mystical experience when the ancients created the world and gave life to the aborigines and the all the animals of the earth. Anthropologists tell us that the tribesmen make no distinction between reality and the Dreamtime and they believed that the strange creatures that lived in one world was able to live in another. Perhaps.

Rick E. Hale
t_seeker@hotmail.com