Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Ettamogah bunyip!

Bunyip

In December 1985, there was only a wildlife sanctuary and a souvenir shop at Table Top, aka Ettamogah, namesake of the famous Australasian Post "Ettamogah Pub" cartoons by Ken Maynard. These days, there is an actual replica of the comic strips' gravity-defying pub (and replicas in other tourist locales) - but prior to that you could sometimes catch a glimpse of a real live bunyip, that was kept in a special pen at the wildlife sanctuary.

The display was "out of order" the day I visited. Supposedly, if you lifted a flap, the bunyip would rise up out of his muddy swamp and squirt water at you. I hoisted my camera over the fence to snap this rare shot.

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