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a bear-like animal with a high-pitched scream. The Gold Coast Bulletin published a clear photo of the tracks that measured 5 cm by 5 cm and a description of the animal by two of the witnesses, Jason Turner and Grant Thrower, then aged fifteen. "There is no way it was a wild dog. It was really weird and had a high-pitched scream. It looked like a small bear, moved on all fours and had a hump on its back," said Grant Thrower. "We have been coming here to this area for about a year and a half and I have never seen anything like this," added Jason Turner. "After fleeing the camp and boarding the boat, I shone the torch and saw two big orange eyes. I guess the creature was one metre high and a metre wide. It terrified us." Unfortunately, all the maps and reports that Jack collected have gone missing since his passing, and these need to be retrieved if possible to honour the work of this fine gentleman and to increase our knowledge of an Australian icon. Whether the Macquarie River Bunyip was a member of the herbivorous, horse-necked, maned bunyips or the carnivorous, black dog-like bunyips is also unknown. There is the possibility that the black dog-like bunyip was an unclassified native aquatic predator, though there is no record of such an animal in the fossil record. the torch and saw two y big orange eyes. I guess the creature was THE "TRUE" BUNYIP: A MEGAFAUNA REMNANT? one metre high and a metre wide. It terrified us." If you visit the Australian Museum in Sydney and walk through the Aboriginal cultural display, you can sit within an artificial IS THE MACQUARIE RIVER BUNYIP STILL LURKING? cave adorned with rock art and listen to the tape-recorded voice of So, the bunyip may have survived into recent times and there is —_ an Aboriginal man talking about his own encounter with a bunyip. a remote possibility that it may still lurk within a 200-kilometre He describes the warnings he received from his elders, that the stretch of the Macquarie River between Wellington and Warren bunyip ambushed prey at the water's edge at dusk, especially and in the Macquarie Marshes in NSW. when a light wind was blowing. He then describes how he went The late Jack Mitchell, who ran a garage in Warne Street, to the place where the bunyip was known to hunt and observe Wellington, had settled on a river-frontage property at Dubbo what he describes as a giant black water rat—like animal. after the Second World War and became interested in the bunyip So, although straying seals were probably responsible for most after several of his neighbours claimed to have observed them. of the more common black dog-like bunyip sightings, we stil He advertised for information and received dozens of reports have the mystery of the less common, long-necked, maned, between 1947 and 1973 from Aborigines, graziers and tourists, tusked, horse-tailed bunyip. This "true bunyip", the bunyip of describing the animals sunbaking on the riverbank, swimming William Buckley, the Eumeralla River Bunyip near Port Fairy, the against the current and thrashing about in the water. tunatpan of the Port Phillip district and the katenpai, kinepratia Following a tradition since 1847, the bunyip once again raised —_and tanatbah of the Murrumbidgee River that William Hovell, the its head above water, perhaps for the last time, to be described as earliest cryptozoologist, searched for, is still unidentified. a living member of our unique fauna in a Sydney Morning Herald Unlike the black dog-like bunyip which no doubt fed on fish, article, this one dated 20 April 1973. Jack Mitchell was quoted as _—_ was observed to take waterfowl and may even at times have saying:”” attacked humans, the true bunyip was a shy, herbivorous animal. "In every case the animal is the same. It swims in the river, We know from the few observations that it was a grazing animal makes a fearful noise, has a head like a calf and tremen- that generally left the water only at night. Its two large dous strength. Aborigines have told me it flails the water downward-pointing tusks (no fangs or canines were ever to foam and easily bursts through their fishing nets." described) identify it it as a Diprotodontid (meaning "two front Soe i a : teeth") marsupial. The descriptions of the animal's body clearly point to only one genus of Diprotodontid. Even the skull of the "foetal" kinepratia found on the Murrumbidgee River and examined by the most respected anatomists matches this animal. Finally, of all the herbivorous megafauna, only one species appears to have avoided the mass extinctions that occurred perhaps as long as 40,000 years ago and was painted by Aboriginal artists on a very few of the caves in the Northern Territory. Tim Flannery, in the Australian Museum's 1983 book, Prehistoric Animals of Australia, states:* "Perhaps no animal is as suited to have inspired the legend of the bunyip as Palorchestes azael. Although a herbivore, it must have been a fearsome sight. The largest of the three known species of the genus Palorchestes azael was the size of a bull. Its exceptionally massive forearms were equipped Palorch ; illustrated by Frank Knight with razor sharp, rapier-like claws alorchestes azael, \\lustrated by Frank Knight. up to 12 cm long, and its bizarre (Source: Kadimakara: Extinct Vertebrates of Australia, Pioneer Design Studio, Victoria, 1985) P 9, 64 = NEXUS www. nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2001 — JANUARY 2002