BUNYIP: a dragon type creature, rooted in Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime lore, thought to inhabit deep water holes, billabongs, swamps, creeks and river bends.
The Bunyip has the body of a cow, the tail of a whale and horns that protrude from its bulldog head. Considered one of the largest dragons, the Bunyip is believed to have created the first black swans from a human tribe.
When white men first arrived in Australia, Aborigines warned about the Bunyip: a horrible nocturnal creature which would eat people or animals who camped in the vicinity nearby. Many early settlers believed the story and never pitched tents near a Bunyip hole, they took care not to disturb the waters when filling their billy-cans.
As time passed and the Bunyip hadn't appeared, settlers forgot their precautions, but it was thought this widespread Aboriginal myth might contain elements of truth. Cryptozoologists were spurred into research and may still be searching for these creatures.
Difficulty in locating Bunyips resulted since Aboriginal tribes gave different visual descriptions of the creature. Some say it looks like a huge snake with a beard and mane; it may have fur, feathers, fishy scales or a shiny brown coat. Half man, half animal, it is tall with a long neck, a round bird like head, big eyes, long ears and a long tail. Gaining knowledge about the legendary Bunyip, researchers discovered that different descriptions existed in various regions of the country.
Central Australian tribes claim the wanambi, another form of Bunyip, is a highly coloured and immense snake often hundreds of meters long. It has a mane, beard, lives in all permanent water holes, and attacks any creatures living near its home.
South Australian Aborigines in Coorong believed the Bunyip to be a huge man-eating creature who utters a blood curdling cry when approached that can be heard for miles around. It had a long neck, a head like a bird, and an elongated fur covered body that was part animal and part human.The Bunyip laid enormous eggs and lived near water. Bunyips have frightened Aborigines to the point where they would not approach any water source where they believed a Bunyip might be waiting to devour them.
Bunyip sightings were recorded in 1821; Hamilton Hume reported a hippopotamus like animal in Lake Bathurst, NSW. The Philosophical Society decided to reimburse Hume for expenses incurred in obtaining a specimen. In a letter to the Sydney Gazette of 27th March 1823, E.S Hall of Lake Bathurst stated that in November 1821 he heard noises suggesting a porpoise and saw a strange monster which had a head like a bulldog.
Bunyip sightings were at their height during the Great Depression, itinerant workers, swaggies and those wishing to escape the law, or the arms of wives and children, rolled a few belongings in a swag and hit the road. Travelling the byways, backblocks and remote bush far away from civilisation, they became familiar with the remote natural springs and water holes essential to Bunyip existence. Sightings have become less frequent, perhaps encroaching civilisation is threatening Bunyip extinction. Most Australians now consider the existence of the Bunyip to be mythical. Some scientists believe the Bunyip was a real animal, the diprotodon, extinct for some 20,000 years, which terrified the earliest settlers of Australia. Perhaps the legendary Bunyip is a Dreamtime memory of the great dinosaurs or other prehistoric creatures whose bones have been found in Australia.
One Bunyip legend tells of youths who wandered from camp while playing with boomerangs. They arrived at a pool with bulrushes and since bulrush roots are tasty, rather like onions they set about weaving bulrush leaves into a basket to take some roots home. Quickly tiring of the task, they decided the job was "better left for women" and chose to fish instead. One youth baited his hook with raw meat and with help managed to land a Bunyip cub, a cross between a calf and a seal with a long tail. The mother Bunyip wailed from across the pool, flashing horrible yellow eyes.
Ignoring the mother Bunyip's cries of distress, the youths decided to take the cub home. Upon leaving, they were horrified to discover the pool's water level quickly rising. The spot where they fished was covered. Scared, they ran to a high peak, looking back they saw only tree tops above the water. Running, they tossed the Bunyip in the midst, but still the rising water chased them.
Trying to escape, they tried to climb trees but found their feet turning into bird's claws. As water rose around the captor's waist, he saw his reflection in the image of a black swan, they had all transformed into a flock of black swans. They never became men again, different from other swans, at night, they talk in a different language from white swans.
Once the little Bunyip had been carried home by its mother, the water returned to normal levels. The pool is shunned by everyone... People say that beneath the black waters is a lair filed with beautiful things, such as mortals of the earth have never dreamt of... but no one knows when the Bunyip will show her head and draw them into her mighty jaws.
RAINBOW SERPENT: is found in ancient and contemporary Australian Aboriginal art which depicts her as a sacred symbol of creation and destruction. Possessing the generative ability to renew her life by shedding her skin and emerging anew, she is associated with rain, monsoon seasons and the colours seen in Rainbows which arc across the sky like a giant serpent, although her characteristics vary with different tribes and also depend on the site.
Cosmology of the Australian Aborigines states that Dreamtime ancestors shaped the earth, its continents, mountains, oceans, rivers, lodestones, its veins of crystals, minerals and metals. The electromagnetic energy fields that resonate from the earth and all life processes resonate as a spectrum of colours, frequencies, or vibrations and are referred to as the Rainbow Serpent.
As part of the oldest continuous documented religious theme in the world, serpent dream images are recorded in cave paintings that go back more than 20,000 years. Rainbow Serpent mythology is most prevalent in the sinuous river country of northern Australia, but is also found throughout the Australian continent.
The scientific journal "Nature", reported on University of NSW analysis of archaeological remains of two species of primitive Australian snakes, the wonambi. Ranging in length from 3m to 5m with a cross-section the size of a large dinner plate, the wonambi, was a link between lizards and snakes, but the article debunks scientific theory that snakes evolved from lizards. The wonambi, "could have overlapped with human history in Australia", fuelling speculation that it might have inspired ancient Aborigines to create the myth of the giant serpent. Michael Lee from the Department of Zoology at the University of Queensland, feels that "It's very possible wonambi weren't extinct at the time the first Aborigines arrived." Dr. Paul Tacon, archaeologist and cultural anthropologist from the Australian Museum states, "It seems wonambi would be able to swallow extremely large creatures so it's quite possible this impressed as an aspect of the rainbow serpent belief system." Mike Archer, director of The Australian Museum feels "The relationship to the rainbow serpent, while fun, is probably a bit tenuous." The findings will revive debate about whether ancient Aboriginal rock art was symbolic or depicted real creatures.
