The Beasties
Over the years Tasmania has had a few wired and wonderful creatures though most are of the urban myth kind except for the Tasmania Tiger, now extinct? So here is a brief description on our beasties.
- The Tasmanian Tiger- The Thylacine
Believed to be extinct, last seen Tiger was in the 1936(who was in captivity), hunters use to kill these marsupials for their skins, though still to this day people are finding fresh foot prints over the state, have these animals adapted to living in caves and un used mines, places where they feel protected? We can only hope.
The Tasmanian tiger looks like a large dog (light brown in colour) with dark tiger stripes down the back and across its sides; they were carnivores that ate dying live stock, no attacks on humans.
Places to explore for Tassie Tiger would be the south/ west coast of Tasmania, there was a reward for a photo of a Tassie Tiger but no one ever captured one.
2- The Bunyip- though most tales come from the mainland of Australia about the mythical creature, there has been reported stories about weird creatures in lakes of Tasmania.
Lake St Clair (1960’s)- Two fishermen found strange deep embedded markings around their tents while they slept, the markings were too big to be a crocodile or any other amphibious marsupial.
Lake Sorell (1990)- A strange creature was witnessed by a few people that were camping on the lake, it swam in the shallows for a minute or two before swimming into deeper water where it disappeared beneath the darken waters.
Lake Dulverton (1980’s)- The lake has dried up, but when the lake was bursting with water it hosted sighting of a weird creature moving on the surface of the water, then duck diving under, A couple stayed at the lake and knew nothing of the “Dulverton Bunyip” during the night the female witnessed it moving slowly onto shore, when the male saw it he couldn’t believe his eyes, the creature stood up and was over 2 meters tall, covered in what looked liked slimy hair and it had reflective eyes as the torch shone on it, the creature was startled but started to move towards the couple, the terrified couple fled leaving all their camping equipment behind.
The Blobster…. 1998 Four Mile Beach near Zeehan, a strange hairy, smelly creature with no distinctive features found washed ashore…. It was over five meters long and two meters wide, and weighted a staggering four tons. Some have said that it’s a large chunk of decaying flesh… possibly from a squid or whale.
Description of Bunyip-
Though what does a Bunyip look like? Most descriptions (mainly word of mouth) of this creature may vary in appearances, everything from large amphibious marsupial to land mammal with webbed feet, glowing red eyes, sometimes hairy from head to tail (mostly on the head and face), it is slimy in texture and can stand on its hind legs and be twice the size of a man, no recorded photographs or film footage has ever been taken of these elusive creature no human has been harmed by one but a lot have been frightened by one, though unless you stay around, no-one will ever know if they attack humans, they have a below that can chill any one to the bone, it has been described between a baby cry and a cow, they have the strength to pull cows, horses and humans into their murky realm, no sighting or recorded or history or photographical evidence of the Bunyip , do they exist, we doubt it but you never know?
Other facts- they live in billabongs, swamps, lakes, dams, even deep rivers, places to have thick vegetation in and out of water, these are places they can move about unseen.
They have a bellow or a cry that is a mixture of a cow, baby crying, and mimics native birds, they have a pungent odour that smells like sludge, no recorded attacks on humans but no one stays around when a Bunyip is sighted, some people have been terrified by the sight of a Bunyip they leave all their camping equipment behind never to return to pick it up.
Bunyips
Different names for them
- Car- Bunyah: Queensland
- Moo-Roo-Bul: Victoria
- Katenpai/ Mirriola/ Mochel Mochel: New South Wales
- Mulgewanke: South Australia
- Marghet: Western Australia
- Other names like…. Wowee, Wauwai, The Yara-ma-yha-who
Sightings of these elusive creatures have been around for thousands of years, they have only became very noticeable since whitemen started writing about them and they were placed in a lot of publications. The aboriginals would paint their stories of Bunyips on walls of caves.
Weird Creatures (cryptozoology)
1755 – Erik Pontoppidan wrote about a sighting of great interest, a sea creature over 2 and a half kilometres long. The creature was described as a Kraken, though at first sighting of it, it looked like an island in the distance.
1966 – Captain John Ridgway saw a creature 35 foot long, it had a glowing outline to the body, and it disappeared before hitting Ridgway’s boat.
Congo – Mokele/ Mbembe, an African mythical beast, which resembles a prehistoric dinosaur.
The Man-Monkey – A large creature with fiery glowing red eyes, last sighted 1879 in Shrophire
Minnesota Lake Creature – 16 ft long, nick name “Pepie” black in colour, slimy skin
Beast of Brymbo – A creature of fierce reputation, 6ft tall, long slander body and very thin legs, last sighted in Wales
Tasmanian Tiger - End of Extinction
Tasmanian Tiger Sighting 2009
