Bunyip in the Billabongs

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G’day mates! The Bunyip in the Billabongs of the wild from Australia is a mythical creature rumored to be living in the lakes and swamps in the untamed Australian wilderness. What was the swamp creature that scared them all? Or rather, what is it?

As the white settlers started to take land in the 1840 and 1850 in Australia, they started to observe something they didn’t think they would. Particularly near the southeast colonies like Victoria, New South Wales they heard unknown cries in the night, found strange bones and started taking notes of the new surroundings. But what was this newly discovered animal? This is something modern day cryptozoologists still debates, even to this day and age.’

Read Also: Check out all of the ghost stories from Australia on the Moonmausoleum.

Most written down sightings we know of from the creature comes from 1840 and 1850, when there were a collective hysteria almost and hunt for this strange creature in this strange country. Perhaps this strange creature that the white settlers saw wasn’t as “newly discovered” as the settlers claimed it to be as there were many local stories from the native Aboriginal Australians.

**Proof** **of the Monster**: The much debated skull from the alleged Bunyip that is said to roam in the Australian swamps or Billabongs. Back in the early days of European settlement, the creature was thought of a native animal of Australia. Photo: Henry Dowling, John Murray January 1847 /wikimedia

As the European settlers found skulls they didn’t know the origin off and displayed them in museums for people to behold the strange creatures of the new world, writing sensationalist news articles about the animal and the dangers it posed for humans wandering in the wild, the native aboriginals had a different story to tell about the Bunyip that had haunted the Billabongs long before any Europeans set foot on the ground.

The Evil Spirit in Aboriginal Mythology

The creature is part of traditional Aboriginal beliefs and stories throughout Australia, while its name varies according to tribal nomenclature, it sometimes comes up in their mythology and stories.

The mere word, Bunyip, is today most often translated as devil or evil spirit in the “Down Under”. The stories of the Bunyip varies widely from region to region. The tales of this strange and mythical swamp creature was told before the white settlers came, but what happened to the mythology and folklore of the native aboriginals is an atrocity, and they got their whole culture and way of life wiped away for centuries, at some times, forever.

So who really knows the true origins of the Bunyip today? When the white settlers came they mixed their own folklore into the mix, especially of the Irish mythological monster, Púca. Still, the ones keeping the tales of the Bunyip alive today is the local legends that have been passed down for a long time.

***A monster from the lakes:*** Drawing of the Australian Bunyip coming up from the swamps, rivers and lakes in hunt for food. The creature has been a part of the aboriginal mythology long before the European settlers arrived in the country. The illustration is from 1935/Wikimedia.

One of the origin stories of the legend claims that the monster was once a man whose name was Bunyip. He was banished by the good spirit Biami. This is what drove the man to become an evil spirit that lured his fellow tribesmen into the waters to eat them.

Other stories of the creatures think that it is the remembrance of some sort of extinct animal that used to live on the land, but now only exists in myths and legends. Perhaps it could even be seals that lost their way and ended up in the inland rivers. There are many theories today, but no one has really managed to claimed to have cracked the code.

The Roaring Screams of the Bunyip from the Billabongs

Most of the accounts describes the creature like a sea spirit, river monster or something of a dog or a seal. However, descriptions varies and it also described with feathers, or like a starfish.

What most agree on though is its amphibious traits, swimming in lakes, billabongs, rivers and other forms of inland waters. The creature it is described as highly dangerous if a human gets in its way. While most aboriginal myths claims they are a nocturnal being, feeding on crayfish, there are also so many legends, claiming it to pray on humans as well, especially small children and women.

Read Also: check out the story about The Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens New Jersey or The Legend of the Mothman for more haunting stories about monsters in the wild.

Although sightings of the creature are said to be rare, the sound of the monster is the most told about legend and how many have claimed to recognize its existence. The Bunyip supposedly makes a booming and roaring scream from the billabongs and swamps, sending shivers to everyone that are unfortunate enough to hear it. Children was told to never go swimming so not to be taken by the Bunyip and the creature has now become a part of the cautionary tale for them.

The Case of the Burrawang Bunyip

It is not like the tales of the Bunyip disappeared as the aboriginal myths were silenced and the white settlers got a better understanding for the wild and foreign country they found themselves in. So far up to modern times, accounts of the Bunyip has been reported across the country. Even in the 1960s, there was tales about the swamp monster, lurking in the deep south murky swamps.

***A Hunger for Humans:*** *In many on the reconts of the creature, the monster can be dangerous for humans. Macfarlane, J. 1 October 1890/wikimedia*

This is the case of Burrawang, a highland village south-west from Sydney in the southern highland in New South Wales. With a permanent population of around 300 today, Burrawang is truly a quaint Aussie village from an older time. A number of the cottages and churches in the area date back to colonial times and hints at how it would had been back when the European settlers first arrived.

Below the village of Burrawang there is a large swamp that is the home of many rare creatures, and locals claim they’ve heard the sounds from the Bunyip.

There are also a tale of railway workers running away from the monstrous sounds coming from the swamps when they were working there in the 1930s, breathing new life into the legend.

The Burrawang locals heard the roaring sounds from their local Bunyip, all up until they built a dam in 1974, and the sounds disappeared. Why? Did they push the wildlife away and in that, the Bunyip as well? Perhaps it was only something else making the sounds. But what? That is something the modern world perhaps is too late to figure out.

Even today, the monster enthusiast comes to Burrawang in search for the strange creature no one really know exists, but many claims to have heard, bellowing from the depths of the swamps.