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Were
skulls physical proof that bunyips existed?
In 1846 an unusual
skull was retrieved from the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in
New South Wales. In the first flush of excitement several experts
declared that it was the skull of something unknown to science.
In July 1847 the so-called bunyip skull was put on exhibition
in the Australian Museum (then located at the Supreme Court House,
Sydney) for two days.
Visitors flocked
to see it and the Sydney Morning Herald, 1847 reported that it prompted
a spate of bunyip stories:
almost
everyone became immediately aware that he had heard strange
sounds from the lagoons at night, or had seen something
black in the water.
Sydneys leading
naturalist, William Macleay, examined the skull and compared it
with an even stranger one: a skull with only one eye-socketa
veritable cyclops!
Scientific knowledge
and common sense prevailed, however, when Macleay concluded that
both skulls were freaks of nature and did not represent a new species.
The Australian
Medical Journal warned that
claims of bunyip skulls could only be seen as an ostentatious
display of our ignorance and credulity.
Gradually the debate
calmed down although one final mystery remainswhat became
of the so-called bunyip skull. It disappeared and has never been
sighted since!
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