Bunyip immortalised in bronze

Wow! It's been about 30 years since one CFZer read Michael Salmon's children's book, The Monster that Ate Canberra, which introduced the iconic Alexander Bunyip!

And now the famous cryptid has been immortalised by sculptor Anne Ross in 500kg of bronze in her 'A is for Alexander, B is for Bunyip, C is for Canberra' creation. The 2.2m sculpture has been erected out the front of the new Gungahlin Library.

The $175,000 artwork was commissioned by the ACT Government for Gungahlin's $3.8million town park. It includes miniature versions of the National Library, the Shine Dome and Telstra Tower some of the buildings eaten by the Bunyip throughout The Monster that Ate Canberra.

When author Michael Salmon sat by Lake Burley Griffin as a student in 1970, he envisaged a King Kong-type character munching its way through Canberra's cultural institutions.

"Alexander Bunyip has always been Canberra's bunyip from the moment I conceived him in book form,'' he said. "To actually see him here almost 40 years later is brilliant."

Crypto statue for Canberra!

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!