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An
escaped convict may be the first recorded white man to believe he
had seen a bunyip.
William Buckley was
an escaped convict who lived with Victorian Aboriginal people from
1803 to 1835. His experiences, which included bunyip sightings,
were published in 1852:
I could never
see any part [of the bunyip] except the back, which appeared to
be covered with feathers of a dusky-grey colour. It seemed to be
about the size of a full-grown calf
When alone, I several
times attempted to spear a Bun-yip; but had the natives seen me
do so it would have caused great displeasure. And again, had I succeeded
in killing, or even wounding one, my own life would probably have
paid the forfeit; they considering the animal
something supernatural.
John
Morgan, The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, 1852
It was the explorer
Hamilton Hume who gave credence to these stories. In April 1818,
he found large bones from some unidentified creature near Lake Bathurst
in New South Wales. Three years later the Philosophical Society
of Australasia offered to pay Humes expenses if he would retrieve
these bones for the Society to examine. His failure to return from
this expedition has kept those bones a mystery to the present day.
Perhaps they were prehistoric remains?
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