The Tumut Bunyip

The Brisbane Courier

18 January 1907

From the South we have recently had reports of a mysterious animal supposed to be the long sought bunyip which has been seen in a lagoon near Tumut (N.S.W.) It is described as about 4ft in length has a tail like a kangaroo, a   head like a seal and cries like a seal. A man learned in natural history was to go to Tumut from Sydney to endeavour to secure the animal alive or dead.

"Nulla" writes thus: "When a little chap away back in 1869 I was travelling with some older brothers by the coach road from Sydneyside to Riverina. Owing to an accident we were camped at what was then known as the Tumut turn-off a few miles beyond Gundagai.

One of my brothers went to a lagoon on the Tumut road to shoot ducks and got rather a scare upon seeing a strange animal swimming towards him. He was, however, too much of a sportsman to shoot it and we saw it on several occasions afterwards.

It was much as described above and we made inquiries from scientific friends at various times, and were assured that the so-called bunyip was a freshwater seal. It certainly showed no sign of ferocity, indeed its appearance was quite benign.

Thus thirty-five years ago there were animals in the Tumut road lagoons which are now described as mysterious."