Bunyip: Difference between revisions
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==In Popular Culture and Fiction== |
==In Popular Culture and Fiction== |
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* A song about the bunyip is featured in one of the animated Dot feature films. |
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⚫ | * In the 2004 romance thriller movie "Fascination" Scott Doherty ([[Adam Garcia]]) tells his step sister ([[Alice Evans]]) the legend of how one can be healed if they have the strength to swim out to his father's ([[James Naughtn]]) private island. He claims that those waters saved his life because of the magic of the Bunyips who inhabit it. another example is a picture book entitled "the bunyip of burkleys creek" telling the story of a bunyip that rises from a creek and does not know what it is. the facts are somewhat distorted as the bunyip has never been portrayed as harmless, confused or a wearer of clothes as it is in the book. |
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Numerous tales of the bunyip in written literature appeared in the 19th and early 20th century. These included a story in [[Andrew Lang]]'s ''[[Andrew Lang's Fairy Books#Brown Fairy Book (1904)|The Brown Fairy Book]]'' (1904). ''The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek'' <ref>''The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek'', Jenny Wagner ISBN 0-14-050126-6</ref> is a contemporary Australian children's picture book about a bunyip. Another recent depiction of the bunyip appears in the 1989 illustrated children's book ''A Kangaroo Court'' <ref>''A Kangaroo Court'' ISBN 0-333-45032-9, Mary O'Toole, illustrated by Keith McEwan</ref>. |
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* The [[Bunyip River]] flows into Westernport Bay in southern [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] and the town of [[Bunyip, Victoria]] is named for the legendary creature. |
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⚫ | * ''The Bunyip'' is the banner of a local weekly newspaper published in the town of [[Gawler, South Australia|Gawler]], [[South Australia]]. First published as a pamphlet by the Gawler Humbug Society in 1863, the name was chosen because, "the Bunyip is the true type of Australian Humbug!" <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.bunyippress.com.au/fixed/history.html | title = ''The Bunyip'' | accessdate = 2007-05-26 | author = | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | date= 2000-06-07-06-07 | format = | work = Home Page | publisher = ''The Bunyip'', (Gawler's Weekly Newspaper) | pages = | language = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | quote = Beneath the nineteenth-century dignity of colonial Gawler ran an undercurrent of excitement. Somewhere in the mildness of the spring afternoon an antiquated press clacked out a monotonous rhythm with a purpose never before known in the town. Then the undercurrent burst in a wave of jubilation - Gawler's first newspaper, "''The Bunyip''", was on the streets. }}</ref> |
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Since [[World War II]] the bunyip has undergone some cultural crossover from Australia to the United States and beyond; as it now appears as a character in several role-playing and computer games such as; [[Garou_Tribes_(Werewolf:_The_Apocalypse)]] and as the name of a summoned creature in the popular [[MMORPG]] game, [[RuneScape]]. The bunyip is also a monster in ''[[AdventureQuest]]''. This version is a magical, heavily built creature of the night that is part jackrabbit, part wolf, and part giant. |
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* There is a coin operated Bunyip in [[Murray Bridge, South Australia]] at Sturt Reserve on the town's river front. <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.adhills.com.au/tourism/towns/murraybridge/attractions.html | title = What to See & Do in Murray Bridge | accessdate = 2007-05-26 | author = | authorlink = | coauthors = | date = | format = | work =Murray Bridge Tourism Information | publisher = Adelaide Hills On-Line | pages = | language = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | quote = When a coin is inserted in the machine the Bunyip raises from the depths of its cave, booming forth its loud ferocious roar. }}</ref> |
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⚫ | In the 2004 romance thriller movie "Fascination |
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* ''The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek'' <ref>''The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek'', Jenny Wagner ISBN 0-14-050126-6</ref> is a Australian children's picture book about a bunyip. |
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* The title inspired the ''House of the Gentle Bunyip'', <ref>''House of the Gentle Bunyip'', Hodgkinson St, [[Clifton Hill, Victoria]] (next to the Baptist Church) The house was finally saved by Ecumenical Housing (now Melbourne Affordable Housing) and redeveloped as a home for low income people. The campaign and [[Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal|VCAT]] hearings set many precedents for planning in Victoria.</ref> was a community house established in the 1970s |
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⚫ | |||
* A tale of a bunyip is included in [[Andrew Lang]]'s ''[[Andrew Lang's Fairy Books#Brown Fairy Book (1904)|The Brown Fairy Book]]'' (1904). |
|||
⚫ | |||
* Another depiction of a bunyip in the 1989 illustrated children's book ''A Kangaroo Court'' <ref>''A Kangaroo Court'' ISBN 0-333-45032-9, Mary O'Toole, illustrated by Keith McEwan</ref>. |
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* The bunyip (bunyap) is the symbol of the U.S. Air Force's [[7th Fighter Squadron]], based at [[Holloman AFB]], New Mexico. |
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* A bunyip is the name of a summoned creature in the popular [[MMORPG]] game, [[RuneScape]]. |
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* Between 1956 and 1966, local TV stations in Philadelphia, Pa, USA, aired a children's television show called "Bertie the Bunyip" hosted by Australian Lee Dexter. |
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* The Bunyip is a monster in ''[[AdventureQuest]]''. This version is a magical, heavily built creature of the night that is part jackrabbit, part wolf, and part giant. |
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* The Bunyips appear in ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'' episode "Into the Mouth of Darkness" with their vocal effects provided by [[Dee Bradley Baker]]. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
Revision as of 18:34, 9 December 2009
Country | Australia |
---|---|
Region | Throughout Australia |
Habitat | Water |
The bunyip or kianpraty. The origin of the word bunyip has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba language of Aboriginal people of South-Eastern Australia.[2][3] However, the bunyip appears to have formed part of traditional Aboriginal beliefs and stories throughout Australia, although its name varied according to tribal nomenclature.[4] [5] Various written accounts of bunyips were made by Europeans in the early and mid nineteenth century, as settlement spread across Australia.
Meaning
The word bunyip is usually translated by Aboriginal Australians today as "devil" or " evil spirit".
By the 1850s, bunyip had also become a "synonym for imposter, pretender, humbug and the like" in the broader Australian community.[9] The term bunyip aristocracy was first coined in 1853 to descibe Australians aspiring to be aristocrats. In the early 1990s it was famously used by Prime Minister Paul Keating to describe members of the conservative Liberal Party of Australia opposition. [10]
The word bunyip can be still found in a number of Australian contexts including placenames such as the
Characteristics
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Bunyip_%281935%29.jpg/250px-Bunyip_%281935%29.jpg)
Descriptions of bunyips vary widely. George French Angus may have collected a description of a bunyip in his account of a "water spirit" from the Moorundi people of the Murray River before 1847, stating it is "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"[11] Robert Brough Smyth’s Aborigines of Victoria of 1878 devoted ten 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." [12] However, common features in many nineteenth century newspaper accounts include a dog-like face, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers, and walrus-like tusks or horns or a duck like bill. [13]
The "Challicum bunyip", an outline image of a bunyip carved by Aborigines into the bank of Fiery Creek, near Ararat, Victoria, was first recorded by The Australasian newspaper in 1851. According to the report, the bunyip had been speared after killing an Aboriginal man. Antiquarian Reynell Johns claimed that until the mid-1850s, Aboriginal people made a "habit of visiting the place annually and retracing the outlines of the figure [of the bunyip] which is about 11 paces long and 4 paces in extreme breadth." [14]
Debate over origins of the bunyip
Non Aboriginal Australians have made various attempts to understand and explain the origins of the bunyip as a physical entity over the past 150 years.
Writing in 1933, Charles Fenner suggested it was likely the "actual origin of the bunyip myth lies in the fact that from time to time seals have made their way up the …Murray and Darling (Rivers)." He provided examples of seals found as far inland as
Another suggestion is that the bunyip may be a cultural memory of extinct Australian marsupials such as the Diprotodon or Palorchestes. This connection was first formally made by Dr. George Bennett of Australian Museum in 1871,[16] but in the early 1990s palaeontologist Pat Vickers-Rich and geologist Neil Archbold also cautiously suggested that Aboriginal legends "perhaps had stemmed from an acquaintance with prehistoric bones or even living prehistoric animals themselves… When confronted with the remains of some of the now extinct Australian marsupials, Aborigines would often identify them as the bunyip." [17]
Early accounts collected by Settlers
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ef/Story_of_the_bunyip_1882.jpg/220px-Story_of_the_bunyip_1882.jpg)
During the early settlement of Australia by Europeans the notion that the bunyip was an actual unknown animal that awaited discovery became common. Early European settlers, unfamiliar with the sights and sounds of the island continent's peculiar fauna, regarded the bunyip as one more strange Australian animal and sometimes attributed unfamiliar animal calls or cries to it. It has also been suggested that nineteenth century bunyip-lore was reinforced by imported European memories, such as that of the Irish Púca. [18]
A large number of bunyip sightings occurred between 1840s and 1850s, particularly in the southeastern colonies of
Hume find of 1818
One of the earliest accounts relating to a large unknown freshwater animal was in 1818
Wellington Caves fossils 1830
More significant was the discovery of fossilised bones of "some quadruped much larger than the ox or buffalo"
First written use of the word bunyip in 1845
Fossils found near Geelong were revealed by The Geelong Advertiser in July 1845, under the headline Wonderful Discovery of a new Animal. It continued "On the bone being shown to an intelligent black (sic), he at once recognised it as belonging to the bunyip, which he declared he had seen. On being requested to make a drawing of it, he did so without hesitation." The account noted a story of an Aboriginal woman being killed by a bunyip, and the "most direct evidence of all," which was that of a man named Mumbowran, "who showed several deep wounds on his breast made by the claws of the animal." The account provided this description of the creature
The Bunyip, then, is represented as uniting the characteristics of a bird and of an alligator. It has a head resembling an emu, with a long bill, at the extremity of which is a transverse projection on each side, with serrated edges like the bone of the stingray. Its body and legs partake of the nature of the alligator. The hind legs are remarkably thick and strong, and the fore legs are much longer, but still of great strength. The extremities are furnished with long claws, but the blacks say its usual method of killing its prey is by hugging it to death. When in the water it swims like a frog, and when on shore it walks on its hind legs with its head erect, in which position it measures twelve or thirteen feet in height. [24]
Shortly after this account appeared, it was repeated in other Australian newspapers. However it appears to be the first use of the word bunyip in a written publication.
The Australian Museum’s bunyip of 1847
In January 1846, a peculiar skull was taken from the banks of
William Buckley’s account of bunyips 1852
Another early written account is attributed to escaped convict
In Popular Culture and Fiction
- A song about the bunyip is featured in one of the animated Dot feature films.
- In the 2004 romance thriller movie "Fascination" Scott Doherty (Adam Garcia) tells his step sister (Alice Evans) the legend of how one can be healed if they have the strength to swim out to his father's (James Naughtn) private island. He claims that those waters saved his life because of the magic of the Bunyips who inhabit it. another example is a picture book entitled "the bunyip of burkleys creek" telling the story of a bunyip that rises from a creek and does not know what it is. the facts are somewhat distorted as the bunyip has never been portrayed as harmless, confused or a wearer of clothes as it is in the book.
- The Victoria and the town of Bunyip, Victoriais named for the legendary creature.
- The Bunyip is the banner of a local weekly newspaper published in the town of Gawler, South Australia. First published as a pamphlet by the Gawler Humbug Society in 1863, the name was chosen because, "the Bunyip is the true type of Australian Humbug!" [30]
- There is a coin operated Bunyip in Murray Bridge, South Australia at Sturt Reserve on the town's river front. [31]
- The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek [32] is a Australian children's picture book about a bunyip.
- The title inspired the House of the Gentle Bunyip, [33] was a community house established in the 1970s
- A tale of a bunyip is included in The Brown Fairy Book(1904).
- During the 1950s and 1960s, "Bertie the Bunyip" was a children's show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, created by Lee Dexter, an Australian.[34]
- Another depiction of a bunyip in the 1989 illustrated children's book A Kangaroo Court [35].
- The bunyip (bunyap) is the symbol of the U.S. Air Force's Holloman AFB, New Mexico.
- A bunyip is the name of a summoned creature in the popular MMORPG game, RuneScape.
- Between 1956 and 1966, local TV stations in Philadelphia, Pa, USA, aired a children's television show called "Bertie the Bunyip" hosted by Australian Lee Dexter.
- The Bunyip is a monster in AdventureQuest. This version is a magical, heavily built creature of the night that is part jackrabbit, part wolf, and part giant.
- The Bunyips appear in The Secret Saturdays episode "Into the Mouth of Darkness" with their vocal effects provided by Dee Bradley Baker.
See also
- Bunyip, vanquished in the American television series Charmed
- Australian Aboriginal mythology#Rainbow Serpent
External links
- Bunyips ... enter the lair of the bunyip if you dare - interactive for kids / National Library of Australia
References
- ^ Morris, E.E.(1898) Austral English; A Dictionary of Australasian words, Phrases and Usages. p.65-66. McMillan and Co, New York. Reprinted Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, USA, 1968. [1]
- ^ Hughes, Joan (ed.) (1989) Australian Words and Their Origins. p.90. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. ISBN 019553087X
- ^ Butler, Susan (2009) The Dinkum Dictionary; The origin of Australian Words p.53. Text Publishing, Melbourne. ISBN 9781921351983
- ^ Wannan, Bill (1970) Australian Folklore, p.101. Lansdowne Press, Melbourne. ISBN 701801301
- ^ Holden, Robert (2001) Bunyips: Australia’s folklore of fear. pps.11-24 National Library of Australia. ISBN 0642197327
- ^ See for example, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker)'s story in Stradbroke Dreamtime. [2]
- ^ Davey, Gwenda and Seal, Graham (eds)(1993) The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore, p.55-56, citing research by anthropologist Aldo Massola. Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0195530578
- ^ See Geelong Advocate July 2, 1845 at Peter Ravenscroft’s Bunyip and Inland Seal Archive[3]
- ^ Hughes,Joan (ed.)(1989) p.90
- ^ See [4]
- ^ Angus, George F. (1847) Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand. Vol 1, p.99. London. Reprinted 1969 Libraries Board of South Australia.
- ^ Smyth cited in Holden, Robert (2001) p.175
- ^ For numerous examples see Peter Ravenscroft’s survey of nineteenth century newspaper accounts of the bunyip at The Bunyip and Inland Seal Archive [5]
- ^ Johns cited in Holden, Robert (2001) p.176. The page also reprints a drawing of the outline, which no longer exists.
- ^ Fenner, C. (1933) Bunyips and Billabongs. pps.2-6. Angus and Robertson, Sydney
- ^ Holden, Robert (2001) p.90
- ^ Vikers-Rich, P., Monaghan,J.M., Baird, R.F., and Rich, T.H. (eds) (1991)Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australiasia. p.2. Pioneer Design Studio and Monash University. ISBN 0909674361. They also note that "legends about the mihirung paringmal of western Victorian Aborigines …may allude to the …extinct giant birds the Dromornithidae."
- ^ Davey, Gwenda and Seal, Graham (eds)(1993) The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore, p.55. Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0195530578
- ^ Holden, Robert (2001) p.86
- ^ See minutes cited (19 December 1821) in Peter Ravenscroft’s The Bunyip and Inland Seal Archive[6]
- ^ George Rankin cited in Holden, Robert(2001) p.86
- ^ J.D.Lang cited in Holden, Robert(2001) p.86
- ^ cited in Holden, Robert (2001) p.88
- ^ The Geelong Advertiser 2 July 1845 in Peter Ravenscroft’s The Bunyip and Inland Seal Archive[7]
- ^ Cited in Holden, Robert (2001) p. 91
- ^ W.S.Macleay and later, Professor Owen cited in Holden, Robert (2001) pps.92-3
- ^ Bunyips - Evidence
- ^ Flannery, T. (Ed.)(2002): The Life and Adventures of William Buckley; 32 Years a wanderer amongst the Aborigines of the then unexplored country around Port Phillip, now the Province of Victoria by John Morgan. First published 1852. This edition, Text Publishing, Melbourne Australia. p.66. ISBN 1877008206
- ^ Flannery, T. (Ed.)(2002) The Life and Adventures of William Buckley. p.138-9
- ^ "The Bunyip". Home Page. The Bunyip, (Gawler's Weekly Newspaper). 2000-06-07-06-07. Retrieved 2007-05-26.
Beneath the nineteenth-century dignity of colonial Gawler ran an undercurrent of excitement. Somewhere in the mildness of the spring afternoon an antiquated press clacked out a monotonous rhythm with a purpose never before known in the town. Then the undercurrent burst in a wave of jubilation - Gawler's first newspaper, "The Bunyip", was on the streets.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "What to See & Do in Murray Bridge". Murray Bridge Tourism Information. Adelaide Hills On-Line. Retrieved 2007-05-26.
When a coin is inserted in the machine the Bunyip raises from the depths of its cave, booming forth its loud ferocious roar.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek, Jenny Wagner ISBN 0-14-050126-6
- ^ House of the Gentle Bunyip, Hodgkinson St, Clifton Hill, Victoria (next to the Baptist Church) The house was finally saved by Ecumenical Housing (now Melbourne Affordable Housing) and redeveloped as a home for low income people. The campaign and VCAT hearings set many precedents for planning in Victoria.
- ^ Bertie The Bunyip
- ^ A Kangaroo Court ISBN 0-333-45032-9, Mary O'Toole, illustrated by Keith McEwan