If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are that it’s a duck. Unless it’s twice the size of an adult, has razor-sharp claws and drowns children, in which case it could be a bunyip.
Ordinarily we’d assure readers and children alike that bunyips aren’t real, but on the other hand, they’re from Australia, so it’s difficult to say for sure. I mean, my god, have you ever looked at the wildlife in Australia? Box jellyfish with venom so powerful that its neurotoxins can kill you immediately. Earthworms so large that you can hear them crawling through the soil at night. An Australian bestiary is torn from the book of nightmares — even cuter animals like kangaroos will knock you out if they haven’t had their coffee yet, and cuddly creatures like koalas will rip your face to shreds even after coffee. With that evolutionary context in mind, we have little difficulty believing bunyips are real.
We’re not the only ones either. The Australian Broadcast Company in 2007 urged children to avoid going into the water without adults handy, for fear of being drowned by bunyips.
Copyright © 2022 by David Learn. Used with permission.
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