"What the Bunyip is, I cannot pretend to say, but I think it is highly probable that the stories told by both old bushmen and blackfellows, of some bush beast bigger and fiercer than any commonly known in Australia, are founded on fact. Fear and the love of the marvellous may have introduced a considerable element of exaggeration into these stories, but I cannot help suspecting that the myths have an historical basis."
1872. C. Gould, `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' 1872, p. 33:
"The belief in the Bunyip was just as prevalent among the natives in parts hundreds of miles distant from any stream in which alligators occur. . . . Some other animal must be sought for." . . . [Gould then quotes from `The Mercury' of April 26, 1872, an extract from the `Wagga Advertiser']: "There really is a Bunyip or Waa-wee, actually existing not far from us . . . in the Midgeon Lagoon, sixteen miles north of Naraudera . . . I saw a creature coming through the water with tremendous rapidity . . . . The animal was about half as long again as an ordinary retriever dog, the hair all over its body was jet black and shining, its coat was very long." [Gould cites other instances, and concludes that the Bunyip is probably a seal.]
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 202:
"In the south-eastern part of Australia the evil spirit of the natives is called <i>Bunjup</i>, a monster which is believed to dwell in the lakes. It has of late been supposed that this is a mammal of considerable size that has not yet been discovered . . . is described as a monster with countless eyes and ears. . . . He has sharp claws, and can run so fast that it is difficult to escape him. He is cruel, and spares no one either young or old."
1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4:
"The hollow boom so often heard on the margin of reedy swamps —more hollow and louder by night than day—is the mythical bunyip, the actual bittern."
(2) In a secondary sense, a synonym for an impostor.
1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 214:
"One advantage arose from the aforesaid long-deferred discovery —a new and strong word was adopted into the Australian vocabulary: Bunyip became, and remains a Sydney synonoyme for <i>impostor, pretender, humbug</i>, and the like. The black fellows, however, unaware of the extinction, by superior authority, of their favourite <i>loup-garou</i>, still continue to cherish the fabulous bunyip in their shuddering imagination."