The Thargomindah Bunyip (1941)

In August 1941, newspapers around Australia reported several sightings of a mysterious creature at the Dynevor Lakes near Thargomindah, 1000km west of Brisbane, following a spell of heavy rain.

One witness quoted was postal inspector Mr J.G. Utz, who said he saw a black head about 30-45cm above the water. "I am inclined to think it must a seal, but that is only a guess," he said. "What impressed me mostly about the animal was that it showed much shrewdness and curiosity," he added. Utz's was the most popular theory among bunyip watchers but witnesses came forward with others, including suggestions it was a wombat taken to water, a big platypus, a musk duck, a swimming dingo, a drowned bullock, a floating stick, a turtle, and perhaps most imaginative of all, a wild pig that had developed "amphibious habits".

An official investigative expedition was planned but it had to wait on the Warrego by-election: "We can look for bunyips any old time, but there's an election only every three years," said the Thargomindah shire clerk, Mr W. Speedy. Concern over the safety of the "bunyip" led to two locals being appointed by the minister of agriculture as honorary protectors of the fauna in the Dynevor Lakes sanctuary (now Lake Bindegolly National Park).

Newspapers dubbed them "Keepers of the Dynevor Lake Bunyip". "There's been so much publicity about our bunyip that every so-and-so in Queensland will come along with a gun and try to shoot it," said appointed keeper Gerald Francis Gooch, of Thargomindah Station. By mid-September, news about the bunyip had dried up.

Information on the Thargomindah bunyip was sourced from Trove Digitised Newspapers.

Myles Sinnamon - Project Coordinator, State Library of Queensland