Case file · Cryptid
Bunyip
A creature of Aboriginal traditions of south-eastern Australia said to lurk in swamps, billabongs and waterholes.
1851 CE · -37.28, 142.93 · status: legend
The account
The word comes from the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia languages of Victoria and first appeared in print as 'bahnyip' in 1812. The Challicum bunyip, an outline carved by Aboriginal people into a creek bank near Ararat, was recorded in 1851.
The sceptical view
It belongs to Aboriginal belief, and the modern translation 'devil' may not reflect its original role before colonial accounts were written.
Connections in the atlas
- Yarra River bunyip
- Bunyip
- Stocqueler's six bunyips
- Drop bear
- 'Bahnyip' in the Sydney Gazette
- The Murrumbidgee bunyip skull
- Geelong 'wonderful discovery'
- Taniwha
- Yowie