Poverty Bay Herald

Poverty Bay, New Zealand

December 16, 1920

SAW THE BUNYIP.

BRISBANE, Nov. 15. – Mr. Archie Meston, a well-known civil servant, and an authority on Queensland history and aboriginal matters, states that he has evidence as to the existence of the bunyip, which he says he has previously seen in a lagoon near Cleveland, about 23 miles from Brisbane.

Mr. Meston, camped in a paddock adjoining the lagoon, owned by a farmer named A. A. Reis, and heard cries bearing no resemblance to those of any known animal. “About 10 one morning,” Mr. Meston says, “it was my luck to catch a brief glimpse of his head and the top of his shoulders. The head was very like that of a seal, and was intensely black, with long ears. The bunyip was in the middle of a waterhole which is about 25 feet deep, and dived like a flash out of sight.”

Mr. Meston states that a young farmer saw the bunyip about 50 yards from the water. The animal was about six feet high, remarkably black, with a head like a big kangaroo, and with dogs ears long and drooping like a spaniel’s.
Mr. Meston has also seen curious tracks in the vicinity of Ormiston, on the Cleveland line, resembling the track of a large emu with a toe at the heel of the foot.

“We may be quite certain that there are yet unknown birds and animals in Queensland,” says Mr. Meston. “These animals called bunyips are probably a few solitary survivors from ancient species drawing near extinction, like the Aurochs of Russia, or the Neoceratodus, still living in the Mary and Burnett rivers in Queensland.”

Thanks to Jerome Clark for this archival item.