Legendary Australian Bunyip a Diprotodon?

For those of you who haven’t heard of the Bunyip, it’s Australia’s folklore equivalent of Bigfoot. Aborigine myth tells of a large, furry, wetlands creature that was described as “demon” or “devil” in their native tongue. When western settlers came to colonize Australia, the legend of the Bunyip grew to much larger proportions, but there has still never been a single confirmed sighting of the cryptid.

Mike Conley from McDowell News has suggested that a now extinct marsupial, called the Diprotodon, might hold the key to the mystery.

Artist’s rendering of a Diprotodon. Image Credit: ArthurWeasley

Diprotodon was the largest species of marsupial ever to walk the earth. It’s extinction 40,000 years ago coincided with the arrival of humans. Might it be possible that a few of these beasts lived on in the Australian Outback, undisturbed till much more recently? Could aboriginal myths about the legendary Bunyip have been past down from tribes and people that actually lived at the same time as the Bunyip? We like to speculate.