The Waa Wee

 

The Waa Wee Bunyip

The bunyip is a  creature from Australia. It is said to live in watery places like swamps and rivers. . The bunyip is part of the Indigenous peoples  stories but it is called by several different names by different tribes. One of these is WaaWee. The name bunyip comes from the Wemba-Wemba tribe and translates as devil.

The word bunyip first appeared in the Sydney Gazette in 1812 James Ives  described it as  "a large black animal like a seal, with a terrible voice which creates terror “

In July 1845 a newspaper reported the finding of fossils that the local people said belonged to a buntyip.It was  described it as having a head like an emu and the body and legs of an alligator. It was both water dwelling and land dwelling and standing on its hind legs about 12 feet tall (4 metres )

In January of 1846 a skull was found in the Murrumbidgee River near Balranald. The skull was put on display in the Australian Museum in Sydney.

In 1851, a newspaper called The Australasian published a report about a Bunyip being speared after killing a man. The creature was eleven paces long and four paces in width. The Indigenous people used to visit the site  where the creature was slain,every year and outline its form, but those outlines have been lost over time.

William Buckley wrote in 1852 that in many of the lakes he had visited, there lived an "amphibious animal, which the natives call Bunyip". He wrote that he only ever saw the back of the animal.

The Waa Wee bunyip appeared in Midgeon Lagoon NSW in April 1872.Three witnesses heard a rushing sound of something swimming fast through the water.They watched for 30 minutes whilst a creature about  7 feet ( 2 metres) long with glossy black hair disported itself in the water before submerging.

Some  believe the Bunyip is a prehistoric marsupial, the Diprotodon australis, which was thought to be extinct 46,000 years ago.  Others think it is a seal or a southern cassowary bird. Hopefully more recent sightings may be reported.