A bizarre road sign left by a prankster has left drivers baffled.
A picture posted to social media showed a sign saying ‘slow down for the’ with a silhouette of strange mythical creature underneath – the Australian Bunyip.
The Melbournite who posted the image quipped he ‘actually sped up … [we] didn’t want to stay long enough to find out’.
The man-eating monster hails from Indigenous Australian folklore in south-eastern Australia – later immortalised in a book titled the ‘Bunyip from Berkeley Creek’.
Social media users couldn’t blame the photographer for not recognising the animal from the road.
‘I’ve heard of the Bunyip but never seen anything about what it looks like, so I have zero frame of reference for this being a Bunyip. All I know is it’s a thing and that’s all I’ve ever been told,’ one reader said.
‘To be fair, there is no solid description of a Bunyip. They say it looks like an ox, or a hippo, or a duck or a giant snake, or a cow-sized, bulldog-headed dugong, or a feathered seal … the only consistent details are that it lives in the waterways of south-eastern Australia and will get you if you’re not careful,’ another responded.
A strange roadside appeared in a Melbourne suburb prompting many to recall their (least) favourite childhood book
The mythical Bunyip holds a fearful place in many Aussie children’s hearts as parents passed down stories of a man-eating swamp monster
The Bunyip is supposed to reside in the reedy swamplands and descriptions of the creature have evolved with the myth.
‘They have a high rate of mutation so can vary in size, shape and colour. What is common across all Bunyips is their hunger for tourists … Australians spoil their meat flavour with a diet of beer and meat pies,’ another said.
Many Aussies were keen to propagate the myth, similar to that of ‘drop-bear’ – often the root of pranks played on unwitting tourists.
One said the road sign should have warned travellers to ‘make a U-turn’.
‘You haven’t truly experienced Australia until you’ve been mildly concerned about being eaten by an amphibious swamp monster,’ joked another.
There are varied descriptions of the folkloric monster accompanied by gruesome details of its calls and behaviours
Many believe the Bunyip’s origins lie in the supposed appearance of seals upstream in lakes and rivers in Victoria, Tasmania or South Australia.
Versions of the myth suggest the Bunyip makes roaring and booming noises as it eats people brave enough to go near inhabited waters.
Some claim the cries of marsh birds were behind the monster’s reputation for having a terrifying howl.
Many said Jenny Wagner’s 1973 book scared them as children.
‘That book terrified the snot out of me as a kid,’ one wrote.
‘It was so gloomy and depressing as a kid. But now I appreciate it,’ another agreed.
‘I love the Aussie’s sense of humour. I’m a Kiwi and my mum read that to me as a kid along with Maori myths and legends. I never wanted to go visit creeks alone after that,’ a woman wrote from across the ditch.