Down Under in Australia's capital, Canberra, politicians have authorised the creation of a cryptozoological statue! And what creature will they be immortalising in bronze? Why, the bunyip, of course! The bunyip has a special significance for Canberra, as the nation's capital was the setting for Michael Salmon's iconic children's book The Monster That Ate Canberra (pictured above at left).The book's key character was a disgruntled bunyip forced from his billabong home by man-made pollution. Angry, the bunyip seeks revenge by 'eating' Canberra, taking bites out of monuments. It was probably the first book with a 'crypto' theme that this writer ever picked up to read, and holds a cherished place on library shelves throughout Australia.
The bunyip statue is by no means the first crypto creation of its kind, but it may be the first government-funded one!
There is a yowie statue at Kilcoy, in Queensland, and the giant crocodile at Wyndham, also in Queensland, that we featured on this blog a few weeks back.
There are also a few Thylacine statues in Launceston, Tasmania and in Nannup, Western Australia
There are doubtless a couple more we are unaware of - if you know of any in Oz, send them in!
No comments:
Post a Comment