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Bunyip Sightings

3 documented sightings across Rivers, lakes, and wetlands across southeastern Australia.

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  1. Brungle Creek, near Tumut, New South Wales, Australia

    Henry Wilkinson discovered the headless trunk of a strange animal on the banks of Brungle Creek, approximately 30 km from Tumut. The body was covered in short, strong hair with a porcine overall appearance; a terminal appendage curled inward 'like the tail of a huge lobster.' Where the head and feet should have been, the flesh was exposed and described as resembling 'dried ling fish,' as if consumed by scavengers. The Tumut and Brungle region had long been described by locals as the 'favourite haunt' of the Bunyip. The Nepean Times declared: 'It's certainly a remarkable fact that though numberless authenticated stories have been told about the bunyip, one has never yet been captured.'

    Source: The Nepean Times, 15 September 1883; https://regionriverina.com.au/riverina-rewind-the-mysterious-brungle-bunyip-of-1883/86350/

  2. Barwon River near Geelong (Djillong), Victoria, Australia

    The Geelong Advertiser and Squatters' Advocate reported the discovery of a large fossil bone near Djillong. When shown separately to multiple Aboriginal people who had no opportunity to confer, each immediately identified the bone as belonging to the Bunyip. One man, Mumbowran, displayed deep claw wounds on his chest he attributed to a creature attack. An Aboriginal woman's death by Bunyip at the Barwon Lakes was recounted, and another woman was said to have been killed 'on the very spot where the punt crosses the Barwon, at South Geelong.' The bone and a drawing of the Bunyip made by an Aboriginal witness were placed on public display in Melbourne, where crowds gathered to view them.

    Source: The Geelong Advertiser and Squatters' Advocate, 2 July 1845; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip

  3. Lake Modewarre (Moodewarri), Victoria, Australia

    Escaped English convict William Buckley, who lived for 32 years among the Wathaurong people before his return to colonial society, documented repeated encounters with a creature the Aboriginal people called the Bunyip in Lake Moodewarri. He wrote: '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.' He noted he could never get any of the Aboriginal people to tell him whether they had seen its head or tail. Buckley's accounts, published in 1852, are among the earliest European-authored descriptions of Bunyip sightings informed directly by decades of Aboriginal oral tradition.

    Source: John Morgan, 'The Life and Adventures of William Buckley' (1852); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip