Descriptions are many and varied yet they all have a common theme in that they described animals that "had shining, baleful eyes and a bellowing voice".
Their terrifying bellowing cries and shrieks, heard only at night, frightened Aborigines to the point where they would not approach any water source where a Bunyip might be waiting to devour them.
A Scientific Explanation?
In 1830, the discovery of fossilized bones, unearthed in the Wellington Caves in New South Wales, changed the way scientists understood ancient fauna forever.
British anatomist Sir Richard Owen identified some of the fossils as the gigantic marsupial mega fauna, Diprotodon. It is sometimes known as the Giant Wombat or the Rhinoceros Wombat and was the largest known marsupial ever to have lived.
These giant marsupials lived in Australia up until around 25,000 to 50,000 years ago so it is very possible that they co-existed with early Aborigines for many thousands of years. Bones of butchered animals have been unearthed from early human settlements and identified as being the Diprotodon.
Also in the 1830s settlers observed that “all natives throughout these districts have a tradition of a very large animal having at one time existed in the large creeks and rivers and by many it is said that such animals do exist - as the Bunyip.”
Diprotodon - the mythical bunyip??
Various written accounts of Bunyips were made by Europeans in the early and mid-19th century, as settlement spread across the country, but none of these were scientifically verified. Australians now consider the existence of the Bunyip to be mythical.
The word bunyip can still be found in a number of Australian contexts, including place names such as the Bunyip River and the town of Bunyip, both in Victoria. And here not too far south of Capel is Bunyip Road.
Fact or fantasy?
One thing is certain, bunyip stories will continue to be told around campfires on the banks of rivers or at lonely billabongs out in the bush. What is your bunyip story?
NOTE: The Bunyip Arts Crafts and Restaurant is closed and no longer trading. We asked the property owners before placing the cache in the cul de sac at the end of the road. They didn't want to encourage visitors near their gate so it ended up here.
History
Bunyip Road is the oldest unsealed road built by convicts in the district.