In Dreamtime the Bunyip was a spirit, which inhabited river, lakes, swamps, and billabongs (former parts of rivers that were left behind when the course of the river was altered). To the Aborigines the Bunyip was a beast of many different shapes and sizes: some were covered in feathers others had scales like crocodiles.
The Bunyip was malevolent towards humans, devouring those who invadad its watery home.
Aboriginal oral traditional stories about the Bunyip, may reflect the memories of encounters between the aborigines and the Diprotodon, passed down through the centuries. The Diprotodon was a herbivore and the largest marsupial ever to have existed. It became extinct between fifteen and twenty thousand years ago.
