Bunyip Keep Characters

Much is known about Bunyips, although physical evidence has yet to be proven because they have never been captured or photographed. One eye witness described his sighting as resembling an elephant while others described Bunyips as animals of extraordinary appearance large and small, either covered with fur or scales with round heads and long necks.

Bunyips prefer to live in billabongs, swamps and creeks and have kindly and loyal characters, proven because they wander the land at night guiding sleep walking children safely back to camp. There are no stories of Bunyips eating flesh, but some say their diet consists of fruit, plants and berries.

Because stories about Bunyips are almost as ancient as time, and mythology usually has roots in reality, scientists suggest this mythical creature may have been what they call a Diprotodon, the largest marsupial known and the last of the extinct, herbivorous Diprotodontidae. Diprotodon was the first fossil mammal named from Australia (Owen 1838) and one of the best known mega-fauna. It looked a bit like a giant wombat and was wide spread across Australia when the first people arrived, co-existing with them for thousands of years before extinction about 25,000 years ago.

Statue of a Bunyip by Ron Brooks (a.k.a. Ronald George Brooks; Ron Perversi-Brooks) Born: 1948 Pambula, New South Wales. An illustrator, artist and designer in theatre and journalism, print making and sculpture, lectures in art and design.