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The
bunyip was rarely found in traditional Aboriginal art. Surely this
omission is highly significant?
It is surprising
to find that the bunyip has almost no established image in Aboriginal
art. Perhaps this is because it was so rarely seen and so terrible
to approach? Aboriginal belief in the evocative power of such an
image may also have discouraged them from drawing any outline of
their fears.
There is one major
exception. At an unknown period in the Dreaming, a creature which
the local Aboriginal people believed to be a bunyip died on the
banks of Fiery Creek near Ararat in Victoria.
The experience was
so remarkable that the Djapwurrong people constructed an outline
around the carcass in order to preserve its shape. Spears were dug
into the ground around it and the turf was later removed to create
a sacred site. The Djapwurrong people returned each year to renew
this outline.
It was there in 1840
when white settlers arrived and was first sketched in the mid-nineteenth
century. By this time the outline was about nine metres long and
its shape had become distorted and rather enigmatic. Viewed from
one direction it looked like an emu; from another, it looked like
a seal.
It was named the
Challicum bunyip after a nearby station. The area finally returned
to nature and the outline of the bunyip faded from sight
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