Bunyip billabong retains air of mystery

The legend of the bunyip has lived long in Australian history.

Elders and long-time cattlemen have told of bubbling water, disappearing cattle and eerie sensations throughout the generations.

Several communities claim the mythical creature lurks in their local rivers, but residents in one small Queensland township insist they have the waterhole where the bunyip resides.

The Bunyip Hole at Mulgildie in the upper North Burnett is unsettling.

It's a still pool blanketed with green slime, silent except for the occasional buzz of birds and flies.

Known to bubble and gurgle, some Aboriginal elders believe the hole is connected to a network of underground waterways.

Joan Farrell is the president of the local Bunyip Committee, and says the bunyip has a strong presence in the community.

"I came here in 1975 and I kept hearing about the bunyip at the Bunyip Hole," she said.

"Now, you don't go out there especially on dark and don't swim in it, because you can get dragged down never to be seen again."

She said it was always her aim to see the Bunyip Hole become an attraction.

"It was our 80th year in CWA and money became available, so we decided we would do it," she said.

"Because I've been fascinated; I've had this thing with the bunyip all the time, that I would like to see it become like it is."

On the side of the highway coming into Mulgilde stands a tall statue of the famed bunyip.

He looks like a cross between a crocodile and a small dinosaur, and he's the creation of Brett Benecke.

"We began with a bit of a design and nobody knew what a bunyip looked like so we made something up."

The bunyip statue, which holds a cow's skull in one arm and a lungfish in the other, is made of 6mm plate mild steel and took 18 months to construct.

The tiny 49-house township held its annual bunyip festival on the weekend, which attracted about 250 visitors.

The day was complete with a bunyip pie competition.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-21/bunyip-legend/5108398

What does a Bunyip look like?

The folk over at The Bunyip Movie are busy creating the monster of the title, and have come up with the concept above - which to our way of thinking smacks a little of the repulsive reptilians of Alien fame!

So we thought it was worth pondering on the blog: what do Bunyips look like? 

Escaped convict William Buckley, in his 1852 biography of 30 years living with the Wathaurong people, recounts "in... Lake Moodewarri [now Lake Modewarre] as well as in most of the others inland...is a...very extraordinary amphibious animal, which the natives call Bunyip. I could never see any part, except the back, which appeared to be covered with feathers of a dusky grey colour. It seemed to be about the size of a full grown calf... I could never learn from any of the natives that they had seen either the head or tail."

Naturalist George French Angas collected a description of a bunyip as a "water spirit" from the Moorundi people of the Murray River before 1847, stating it was "much dreaded by them… It inhabits the Murray; but…they have some difficulty describing it. Its most usual form…is said to be that of an enormous starfish."Robert Brough Smyth's Aborigines of Victoria of 1878 devoted 10 pages to the bunyip, but concluded "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."

In many 19th-century newspaper accounts the bunyip was variously attributed a dog-like face, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers, and walrus-like tusks or horns or a duck-like bill.

Many modern-day researchers now believe the descriptions may have referred to seals or walruses, or even a 'cultural memory of megafauna such as the diprotodon.

Quite a few artists have had a crack at the water-dwelling beastie said to terrorise early colonial Australians and prey on Aborigines - based occasionally on witness testimony and more often springing from their own imagination.

Meet the Mulgildie Bunyip

A likeness of the Australian version of the Yeti hulks over a highway between Monto and Eidsvold, about 10km from where the horror was born, The Gladstone Observer reports.

The Bunyip may have disturbed the dreams of the Aborigines of that area in days gone and still scares some folk today but, according to resident Joan Farrell, that's no reason not to celebrate this monster from the deep.

Joan is the spokeswoman for the Mulgildie Bunyip Committee.

She admitted that the resurrecting of the genuine Aussie monster was inspired by mercenary considerations.

"We saw the tourist potential in this," she said.

"I mean, no one has heard of Mulgildie, have they? But now nearby shopkeepers tell me people are pulling up to take pictures of the Bunyip."

The Bunyip statue was made by self-taught metal sculptor and resident Brett Benecke who is a descendant of the area's pioneering family.

Joan said he was reluctant to take on the task at first, but soon become enthusiastic.

"He collected umpteen descriptions, then drew up his design and used it to make the sculpture."

Joan said many locals, including members of her own family, avoid the waterhole said to be the Bunyip's home, particularly at night.

"Locals have claimed mysterious gurgling noises emerge from the waterhole and stockmen have told tales of cattle being pulled under while fording the stream.