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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 sound engineer would call 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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“Held” poem and related sketchbook page, 2023, Original

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Kim sketch, one of my first drawings of him

Pony Kim, I still am tempted to mod some G1 re release figures I bought and make them the disco boys

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Drew Homura (with a Madoka background) based on a request from a friend on an instagram story post asking for MS Paint doodle suggestions. It was done with a mouse so be nice I beg.

Later, using my thermal printer, I used the drawing at the bottom of a poem double printed onto a receipt. The poem has nothing to do with Madoka Magica I am simply a fraud.

Technically this is only part of a larger poem I’ve since used in a zine with more relevant illustrations, all the pages being these same receipt double prints

If you wanna read the full poem the zine is currently up on my Ko-fi, shipping by snail mail in the USA. I know 7 dollars is a bit steep but one of the pages includes a Linocut print, all hand done.

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MS Paint doodle based off of a instagram story post suggestion, there are more of these I might post

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Sam and Max Rollerblading sketchbook page, slightly JSRF inspired

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“VCR Planters” 2023 Photography

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Everybody loves Cumin (not an innuendo just nice clean condimental humor)

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Kim Kitsuragi sketch, ink on paper, digitally enhanced

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Title screen mock-up if Mouthwashing was an SNES game, had lots of fun making these sprites and figured the CRT was the best way to display them!

Music: Main Theme-Wrong Organ (from the game)

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DE player character traditional sketch 2024