Bunyip
Toor-roo-dun in Smyth’s collection
A feared being of deep water and underlying mud, associated with a permanent basin on the Western Port plains in a nineteenth-century account.
Quick answer
In Smyth’s Western Port account, Toor-roo-dun is a bunyip that inhabits deep water and the thick mud beneath it. People avoid bathing in its basin because earlier bathers were said to have drowned and been eaten by it. The accompanying drawing resembles an emu; the passage does not establish a universal bunyip anatomy.[1, p. 436]
Quick facts
| Tradition as attributed | Aboriginal people of Western Port, Victoria, in Smyth’s compilation |
|---|---|
| Record type | Water-being in a collected local belief account |
| Source realm | A permanent water basin on the Western Port plains |
| Printed name | Toor-roo-dun; grouped by Smyth under “The Bun-yip” |
| Source marker | Volume I, chapter XX, “Myths,” p. 436; figure 244 |
| Dwelling | Deep water and the thick mud below it |
| Reported danger | Bathers said to have drowned and been eaten |
| Appearance evidence | An emu-like drawing attributed to Kurruk; no measurements supplied |
What the selected account says
Smyth describes a basin on the Western Port plains that remains filled even in the hottest summers. It bears the name Toor-roo-dun because the being is said to live there. Its dwelling extends into the mud beneath the deep water, a habit the compiler compares with an eel’s. The account says people do not bathe there: earlier bathers were all drowned and eaten. No date, number of victims, or detailed encounter narrative is provided.[1, p. 436]
A distinct Goulburn account
On the same page, Smyth reports a different explanation from people he identifies with the Goulburn. Their authorities say Toor-roo-dun does not eat people, but holds them until they die. That difference is preserved here rather than turned into two successive actions of the Western Port being.[1, p. 436]
Description and the limits of the image
Smyth credits Kurruk with the drawing reproduced as figure 244, made years earlier under the direction of a person he calls a “learned doctor.” He describes its resemblance to an emu. The printed image is evidence of this particular representation; it does not justify assigning flight, a feather colour, or a measured size to Toor-roo-dun.[1, p. 436, fig. 244]
The next page reproduces a different drawing, made by an unnamed Murray River artist in 1848. Smyth is uncertain whether its covering represents scales or feathers. That image and his discussion of possible seals belong to the compilation’s other evidence and conjectures, not additional anatomical details for Kurruk’s figure.[1, p. 437, fig. 245]
Source realm: the Western Port basin
The selected account locates Toor-roo-dun in a named body of water within the Western Port plains, not in a separate supernatural kingdom. A footnote names a place called Toor-roo-dun on Stawell’s Creek, on the northern shore of Western Port Bay, and discusses its connection with the Koo-wee-rup Swamp. This profile preserves that historical geography without assigning a modern coordinate to the basin.[1, p. 436 and footnote]
The footnote’s suggestion that a seal might have prompted such stories is Smyth’s naturalistic interpretation. It is not an identification established by the Western Port account.[1, p. 436, footnote]
Primary text and image reference
- 1The Aborigines of Victoria: with Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania
Compiled from various sources for the Government of Victoria by R. Brough Smyth. Volume I. Melbourne: John Ferres, Government Printer; also published by George Robertson; London: Trübner and Co. and George Robertson, 1878. Chapter XX, “Myths,” subsection “The Bun-yip”: selected Western Port account and Goulburn comparison, p. 436, figure 244 and footnotes; separate Murray River illustration and compiler’s conjectures, p. 437. Edition consulted: the 1878 scan hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, checked against the printed pages; Wikisource provides a readable chapter transcription. No modern translation is used.
Read the scanned edition, printed p. 436 ↗ - 2Toor-roo-dun, figure 244
Printed illustration in Smyth, volume I (1878), p. 436, after a drawing credited by Smyth to Kurruk. The Wikimedia file record credits Richard Shepherd and F. Grosse for the published artwork and marks it public domain. That production credit does not replace Kurruk’s attribution in the primary text. The 1878 publication is also outside United States copyright. Reused as the supplied PNG, without alteration.
Wikimedia image, provenance and public-domain notice ↗
