10 Facts About Bunyip

Bunyip is a creature from the aboriginal mythology of southeastern Australia, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes.

Bunyip is part of traditional Aboriginal beliefs and stories throughout Australia, while its name varies according to tribal nomenclature.

Bunyip has been described as amphibious, almost entirely aquatic, inhabiting lakes, rivers, swamps, lagoons, billabongs, creeks, waterholes, sometimes "particular waterholes in the riverbeds".

Bunyip appears in Ngarrindjeri dreaming as a water spirit called the Mulyawonk, which would get anyone who took more than their fair share of fish from the waterways, or take children if they got too close to the water.

Bunyip provided examples of seals found as far inland as Overland Corner, Loxton, and Conargo and reminded readers that "the smooth fur, prominent 'apricot' eyes, and the bellowing cry are characteristic of the seal", especially southern elephant seals and leopard seals.

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Bunyip, then, is represented as uniting the characteristics of a bird and of an alligator.

Bunyip emphasized the bunyip was believed to have supernatural powers.

Mr Stocqueler informs us that the Bunyip is a large freshwater seal, having two small padules or fins attached to the shoulders, a long swan like neck, a head like a dog, and a curious bag hanging under the jaw, resembling the pouch of the pelican.

Description varied across newspaper accounts: 'The great Bunyip question seems likely to be brought to a close, as a Mr Stocqueler, an artist and gentleman, who has come up the Murray in a small boat, states that he saw one, and was enabled to take a drawing of this "vexed question, " but could not succeed in catching him.

Bunyip went on to write that all would be revealed in his diorama as an 'almost life size portrait of the beast' would be included.