The Bunyip

The word *bunyip* comes from the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia languages spoken by Aboriginal people in Victoria, southeastern Australia. Today, Aboriginal Australians often translate it as "devil" or "evil spirit," but this meaning may not reflect the creature's role in pre-contact mythology. The term first appeared in print in the *Sydney Gazette* in 1812, when James Ives used it to describe "a large black animal like a seal, with a terrible voice which creates terror among the blacks."

The bunyip belongs to the traditional beliefs of Aboriginal peoples across Australia, though its name changes from one tribal language to another. In 2001, researcher Robert Holden listed at least nine regional variations of the creature.

Described as amphibious and almost entirely aquatic, the bunyip is said to inhabit lakes, rivers, swamps, lagoons, billabongs, creeks, and waterholes—sometimes specific ones in riverbeds. No reports place it on land. Physical descriptions vary widely. Before 1847, George French Angus recorded a "water spirit" from the Moorundi people of the Murray River, which they dreaded but struggled to describe; its most common form was said to be "that of an enormous starfish." Near Ararat, Victoria, an outline of a bunyip carved into the bank of Fiery Creek—known as the Challicum bunyip—was first noted by *The Australasian* in 1851. According to the report, the creature had been speared after killing an Aboriginal man. Antiquarian Reynell Johns claimed that until the mid-1850s, Aboriginal people annually revisited the site to retrace the figure, which measured about 11 paces long and 4 paces wide. That outline no longer exists. In his 1878 book *Aborigines of Victoria*, Robert Brough Smyth devoted ten pages to the bunyip but concluded that "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." Eugénie Louise McNeil recalled from her 1890s childhood that the bunyip supposedly had a snout like an owl (a "Mopoke") and was likely nocturnal.

Based on witness accounts, most bunyip sightings fall into two categories: about 60% resemble seals or swimming dogs, and about 20% are long-necked creatures with small heads; the rest are too vague to classify. The seal-dog type is usually described as 4 to 6 feet long, with a shaggy black or brown coat, a round head like a bulldog, prominent ears, no tail, and whiskers like a seal or otter. The long-necked variety is said to be 5 to 15 feet long, with black or brown fur, large ears, small tusks, a head like a horse or emu, an elongated maned neck about three feet long with many skin folds, and a horse-like tail. Aboriginal mythology portrays the bunyip as amphibious, nocturnal, and reclusive, inhabiting lakes, rivers, and swamps. It can swim swiftly using fins or flippers, has a loud roaring call, and feeds on crayfish—though some legends depict it as a bloodthirsty predator of humans, especially women and children. Consequently, Aboriginal people deliberately avoided unfamiliar bodies of water for fear of bunyips. Bunyip eggs are allegedly laid in platypus nests, making them brood parasites.

In Ngarrindjeri dreaming, the bunyip appears as a water spirit called the Mulyawonk, which would take anyone who took more than their fair share of fish from waterways, or children who came too close to the water. These stories taught practical lessons about long-term survival and care for country and people.

Over the past 150 years, various explanations for the bunyip's origins have been proposed. In 1933, Charles Fenner suggested that the myth likely arose from seals occasionally making their way up the Murray and Darling Rivers. He cited examples of seals found as far inland as Overland Corner, Loxton, and Conargo, noting that "the smooth fur, prominent 'apricot' eyes, and the bellowing cry are characteristic of the seal," especially southern elephant seals and leopard seals. Another idea is that the bunyip is a folk memory of extinct Australian marsupials like *Diprotodon*, *Zygomaturus*, *Nototherium*, *Palorchestes*, or *Thylacoleo*. Dr. George Bennett of the Australian Museum first made this connection in 1871. In the early 1990s, palaeontologist Pat Vickers-Rich and geologist Neil Archbold cautiously suggested that Aboriginal legends "perhaps had stemmed from an acquaintance with prehistoric bones or even living prehistoric animals themselves," noting that when shown remains of extinct marsupials, Aboriginal people would often identify them as the bunyip. They also mention legends about the *mihirung paringmal* of western Victoria.