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The
bunyips international exposure via Australian childrens
literature continues into the new millennium.
To
date, the most successful Australian childrens picture book
to feature a bunyip remains Jenny Wagners The Bunyip of
Berkeleys Creek (1973). Ron Brooks sombre choice
of colours and his minutely detailed illustrations evoke a creature
of the night, both haunting and yet strangely endearing at the same
time.
Patricia
Wrighton's novel The Ice is Coming (1977) provided one of
the most powerful depictions of any bunyip character in our literature:
It
was a thing of many kinds that could not be truly seen, but its
red eyes were like death and its bellow was like fear. It was like
a calf, like a seal, like a man; it was white, it was black
It was all these things, together and separate, in one fearful beast
It was feathered, or furred, or scaly. You could not tell
what it was except that it was dreadful
The
bunyip continues to make an appearance in childrens literature.
The most celebrated examples are The Ballad of the Blue Lake
Bunyip (1982) and Black Duck and Water Rat (1988). The
first is a rollicking verse narrative, the second returns to the
world of the Dreaming for a powerful retelling of an Aboriginal
legend.
The
bunyip best known to young Australian readers today is a whimsical
character called Alexander Bunyip.
The
Alexander Bunyip series was created by Michael Salmon. The character
first appeared in 1972 and rampaged through our national capital
in the picture book, The Monster Who Ate Canberra.
Creeping,
rollicking or dancing, bunyips continue to play a vital role in
modern children's imagination. Bunyips Dont, The
Ballad of the Blue Lake Bunyip and The Bunyip and the Night
describe three very different creatures lurking in children's books.
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