Does anyone know what a bunyip is?

The bunyip is a kind of mammalian-reptilian freshwater aquatic monster in Australian folklore. It is represented in different accounts as being sort of like a freshwater orca or more like an aquatic dragon. It is associated with ancestral guilt, curses, and magically-induced diseases.

It is a mythical creature in the legends of the Australian aboriginals living in billabongs, swamps, rivers or lakes. Descriptions of it vary dramatically in Aboriginal art but common features are a horse like tail, flippers and tusks. You could supposedly hear its cries at night as it claimed its victims.

Many European settlers believed that the bunyip was an actual creature as much of Australia's real fauna was strange to European eyes. In 1846, a strange skull was found on the Murrumbidgee River which was claimed to be a bunyip. It was put on display on the Australian Museum in Sydney. It was later found to be a hoax and disappeared mysteriously from the museum's catalogue.

This is a cool site on the bunyip.

It is a water monster believed to bring disease. The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning "devil" or "spirit".