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The bunyip or kianpraty is a large mythical creature from Aboriginal mythology, said to
lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds,
and waterholes. The origin of the
word bunyip has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia language of Aboriginal
people of South-Eastern Australia.However, the
bunyip appears to have formed part of traditional Aboriginal beliefs and stories
throughout Australia, although its name varied according to tribal nomenclatureThe word bunyip is usually translated by Aboriginal Australians today as
"devil" or " evil spirit". However, this
translation may not accurately represent the role of the bunyip in Aboriginal mythology or its possible
origins before written accounts were made. Some modern sources allude to a
linguistic connection between the bunyip and Bunjil, "a mythic 'Great Man' who made the mountains and
rivers and man and all the animals." The word
bunyip may not have appeared in print in English until the mid 1840s.
By the 1850s, bunyip had also become a "synonym for imposter, pretender,
humbug and the like" in the broader Australian community. The term
bunyip
aristocracy was first coined in 1853 to describe Australians aspiring to
be aristocrats. In the early 1990s it was famously used by Prime Minister Paul Keating to describe
members of the conservative Liberal Party of Australia
opposition.
The word bunyip can be still found in a number of Australian contexts
including placenames such as the Bunyip River (which flows into Westernport Bay in
southern Victoria) and the town of Bunyip, Victoria. Descriptions of bunyips vary widely. George French Angus may have collected a
description of a bunyip in his account of a "water spirit" from the Moorundi
people of the Murray River
before 1847, stating it is "much dreaded by them… It inhabits the Murray;
but…they have some difficulty describing it. Its most usual form…is said to be
that of an enormous starfish" Robert Brough
Smyth’s Aborigines of Victoria of 1878 devoted ten pages to the bunyip,
but concluded "in truth little is known among the blacks respecting its form,
covering or habits; they appear to have been in such dread of it as to have been
unable to take note of its characteristics." However, common features in many nineteenth century newspaper accounts include a
dog-like face, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers, and walrus-like tusks or horns or a duck like bill.
The "Challicum bunyip", an outline image of a bunyip carved by Aborigines
into the bank of Fiery Creek, near Ararat, Victoria, was first recorded by The
Australasian newspaper in 1851. According to the report, the bunyip had been
speared after killing an Aboriginal man. Antiquarian Reynell Johns claimed that
until the mid-1850s, Aboriginal people made a "habit of visiting the place
annually and retracing the outlines of the figure [of the bunyip] which is about
11 paces long and 4 paces in extreme breadth."
During the early settlement of Australia by Europeans the notion that the
bunyip was an actual unknown animal that awaited discovery became common. Early
European settlers, unfamiliar with the sights and sounds of the island
continent's peculiar fauna, regarded the bunyip as one more strange Australian
animal and sometimes attributed unfamiliar animal calls or cries to it. It has
also been suggested that nineteenth century bunyip-lore was reinforced by
imported European memories, such as that of the Irish Púca.
A large number of bunyip sightings occurred between 1840s and 1850s,
particularly in the southeastern colonies of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, as European settlers
extended their reach. The following is not an exhaustive list of accounts:
One of the earliest accounts relating to a large unknown freshwater animal
was in 1818 when Hamilton Hume and James
Meehan found some large bones at Lake Bathurst in New South Wales. They did not call the animal a
bunyip, but described the remains indicating the creature as very much like a hippopotamus or manatee. The Philosophical
Society of Australasia later offered to reimburse Hume for any costs
incurred in recovering a specimen of the unknown animal, but for various reasons
Hume did not return to the lake.
More significant was the discovery of fossilised bones of "some quadruped
much larger than the ox or buffalo" in the Wellington Caves in
mid 1830 by bushman George Rankin and later, Thomas Mitchell. Sydney's Reverend
John Dunmore
Lang announced the find as "convincing proof of the deluge." However, it was
British anatomist Sir Richard Owen who identified the fossils as
the gigantic marsupials Nototherium and Diprotodon. At the same time, some settlers observed
"all natives throughout these... districts have a tradition (of) a very large
animal having at one time existed in the large creeks and rivers and by many it
is said that such animals now exist."
Fossils found near Geelong were revealed by The Geelong Advertiser
in July 1845, under the headline Wonderful Discovery of a new Animal. It
continued "On the bone being shown to an intelligent black (sic), he at once
recognised it as belonging to the bunyip, which he declared he had seen. On
being requested to make a drawing of it, he did so without hesitation." The
account noted a story of an Aboriginal woman being killed by a bunyip, and the
"most direct evidence of all," which was that of a man named Mumbowran, "who
showed several deep wounds on his breast made by the claws of the animal." The
account provided this description of the creature
| “ |
The Bunyip, then, is represented as uniting the characteristics of a
bird and of an alligator. It has a head resembling an emu, with a long bill, at
the extremity of which is a transverse projection on each side, with serrated
edges like the bone of the stingray. Its body and legs partake of the nature of
the alligator. The hind legs are remarkably thick and strong, and the fore legs
are much longer, but still of great strength. The extremities are furnished with
long claws, but the blacks say its usual method of killing its prey is by
hugging it to death. When in the water it swims like a frog, and when on shore
it walks on its hind legs with its head erect, in which position it measures
twelve or thirteen feet in height. |
” |
Shortly after this account appeared, it was repeated in other Australian
newspapers. However it appears to be the first use of the word bunyip in a
written publication.
In January 1846, a peculiar skull was taken from the banks of Murrumbidgee
River near Balranald, New South Wales. Initial
reports suggested that it was the skull of something unknown to science. The
squatter who found it remarked "all the natives to whom it was shown called [it
] a bunyip" By July 1847
several experts had identified the skull as the deformed foetal skull of a foal
or calf. At the same time
however, the so-called bunyip skull was put on display in the Australian Museum
(Sydney) for two days. Visitors flocked to see it and The
Sydney Morning Herald said that it prompted many people to speak out
about their 'bunyip sightings.'
Another early written account is attributed to escaped convict William
Buckley in his 1852 biography of 30 years living with the Wathaurong people. His 1852 account
records "in... Lake Moodewarri [now Lake Modewarre] as well as in most of the
others inland...is a...very extraordinary amphibious animal, which the natives
call Bunyip." Buckley's account suggests he saw such a creature on several
occasions. He adds "I could never see any part, except the back, which appeared
to be covered with feathers of a dusky grey colour. It seemed to be about the
size of a full grown calf... I could never learn from any of the natives that
they had seen either the head or tail." Buckley also
claimed the creature was common in the Barwon River and cites an example he
heard of an Aboriginal woman being killed by one. He emphasized the Bunyip was
believed to have supernatural powers.
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