The Australian Bunyip and Why I Hate Submerged Animatronics
The Bunyip by freelance illustrator Julian Baker
CW: cryptids, animatronics, submerged animatronics, thalassophobia, megalophobia
The Bunyip is an Australian cryptid that has its roots in aboriginal cultures. The illustration above is a good representation of what the majority of modern post-colonial Australians would imagine when thinking about the Bunyip (which I must only assume they often do.) It’s a bright green large dog-like creature with big paws, mixed with an almost seal or walrus aligned appearance, sporting big teeth/tusks.
According to Wikipedia, historic reports of what exactly a bunyip looks like heavily vary. This is likely because the word was originally more broadly used to describe multiple supposed water dwelling beasts. The article cites a 2001 book titled Bunyips: Australia’s Folklore of Fear by Robert Holden, where he claims to have “identified at least nine regional variations of the creature known as the bunyip across Aboriginal Australia.”
Here are some illustrations of other “bunyips.”
(From left to right) 1935 Bunyip by Gerald Markham Lewis, 1974 The Bunyip of Berkley’s Creek by Ron Brooks, Murray Bridge concept art by unkown
It’s that last illustration that will lead us into a world of confusion, fear, and personal obsession. I cannot find a high quality version of the full image but it’s from r/submergedanimatronic along with many other bunyip posts. It originates from a 2021 newspaper article, the drawing an early concept sketch for a Bunyip animatronic likely drawn by Dennis Newell, someone he hired, or another person also involved with Australia’s Murray Bridge Council. Because yes, this bunyip plan is very real and would end up coming to fruition as a late addition of the Murray Bridge 72’ Weerama Festival.
I will make one last warning before I reveal the nature of this towering, waterlogged, booming and terrible beast. This fucker is not for the faint of heart. I present to you, Murray River’s dreadful Bert the Bunyip.
Now, this melting pile of vague salamander doesn’t look much like any of the bunyips I’ve shown so far. In fact, it’s quite different from the concept art even. From what I can tell the top image is a festival advert featuring Bert before being lowered to his pool. The image’s OP pointed out his arms being more articulated back then. That second one features his creator, Dennis Newell, getting closer to Bert than you could ever possibly pay me to be. While the last image is from a few years after his debut, you can see the disgusting pool has rotted much of the body. The staining is also due in part to vandalism.
Bert was coin operated, for 20 cents you could watch him emerge from the water and jerk around wildly as he screamed a terrible loud wail. According to the Murray Bridge website he was well known for being audible up to a kilometer away. Which was, as many a reasonable person may have called it, too loud. Did I mention he was over 8 ft tall? Unreal.
Some of these early images im sharing are from redditor u/NorthWestTown who did put their watermark on all their scans. I’ve cropped some of them since they’re a bit distracting but full credit to them and all the other users on the submergedanimatronic sub for saving and compiling these photos
Now Bert wouldn’t be lonely forever, but the way they went about adding to the attraction about a decade later still baffles me. In 1981 they gave the Bunyip a baby.
It’s a boy! Well the baby is. Bert Bertha the Bunyip is a mother, oh the miracle of life. Locals would come to nickname the little scamper Oscar, I guess they were not that into alliterative names. Bertha would do the same song and dance as before but now holding this little mutant child and she stayed that way for nearly two decades. In the time vandals persisted, finding a way to mess with Bertha’s voice-box to send her howling nonstop well into the night. There is one surviving video of her in operation, which is where the second image is from. Watching this thing and her fuck ass child rise up and scream over and over in their dingy dark cage is truly nightmarish.
Some time before a revamp and redesign in 2000, Bertha was heavily vandalized with Oscar completely missing, a bunyip kidnapping. I might make a follow-up post with more photos and details of her redesigns to appear friendlier and less terrifying. But that would have to be for another day.
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