Browsing around Wikipedia the other day, I followed a long string of clicks to run across two interesting related Australian creatures: the bunyip and the yowie.  Both of these stem from the indigenous Australian Aboriginal culture, which has existed in an unbroken line in Australia for at least 40,000 years.  (Compare this to the earliest Native American cultures, which arrived in North America via the Bering Sea Land Bridge about 12,000 years ago.)

Because of their long cultural roots, Australian Aborigines have a cultural history which extends back to the time of what we consider "prehistoric animals."  The earliest Australian Aborigines lived alongside gigantic marsupials that we know only from the fossil record, like Nototherium and Diprotodon (the Giant Wombat).

Both the bunyip and the yowie are elusive bush creatures that are more often heard than seen.  The bunyip is associated with Australia's rivers and creeks.  Every tribal language has a word that means "bunyip," which is known across a variety of diverse Aboriginal populations.

The bunyip is usually presented as an evil spirit, the way we might say "bogeyman" or even "the Devil."  But this is a recent development; up through the late 1800s, the bunyip was very much thought to be an actual monster.  

Although the descriptions of the bunyip vary widely, it is universally terrifying.  The bunyip may creep from the water at night, and howl in the distant darkness.  The Cryptozoology website divides bunyip accounts into two phenotypes: the "dog-faced bunyip," which looks something like a very shaggy seal, and the "long-necked bunyip," which apparently leaves the water to graze on land, as a hippo does.

Charmingly enough, if you happen to be visiting Murray Bridge, South Australia, there is a coin operated bunyip on the town's waterfont.  Drop a few coins in the machine, and a dragon-like bunyip will charge roaring from the water.  This is apparently pretty terrifying for little kids!

The bunyip and the yowie overlap in many interesting ways.  The yowie has the same basic characteristics as the bunyip - nocturnal, solitary, and terrifying.  In some areas, the lines are blurred.  The yowie may simply be a species of bunyip, or yowie sightings may have been misinterpreted as bunyips.

At any rate, accounts of the yowie are fairly standard: a shaggy, smelly, shy hominid.  In other words, it is Australia's sasquatch.  In some Australian Aboriginal legends, the yowie are the tribes which originally inhabited the country.  In skirmishes between the yowie and the Australian Aborigines, the yowie lost and were driven into the more remote parts of the country.  (Which is to say, most of it.)

All of this only adds fuel to the cryptozoological fire.  Most cryptid hominids (like Bigfoot and the Yeti) are speculated to be remnant populations of hominids thought extinct, like Australopithecus and Neanderthals.  Given the time span, it is entirely possible that the first modern migration of humans to Australia could have encountered other species of hominids.

Unlike the bunyip, the yowie continues to be sighted in modern times.  I found an excellent account with multiple witnesses from as recently as last summer!

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user misswired