The Strange Tale of the Australian Monster!

Its incredible how many wonderful stories you can unvcover if you just talk. Old men will tell you about their encounters with man eating slime far off in the ocean, war veterans will tell you of their meeting with a giant arachnid, and the scars to prove it. All you need to do is seek for a good story, and you'll find one.

This one is a personal favourite, I got it in '07 from a young man, probably only 20, on a trip with some friends. We were camping for the night on the Raumati beach, and the man, Rob, and his girlfriend stopped by our tent. After a while we became friendly and ate some sausages over the campfire with them as the sun set and its orange glow glittered in the ripples of the water. It was the perfect time to tell a good tale. As usual I had decided to ask if our newfound friends believed in Aliens, which I did for the whole trip to everyone we meet, often getting hilarious replies and sometimes alien abduction/UFO sighting stories and, on this occasion, a wonderful adenture story that excited my imagination like nothing else.
Robs girlfriend said that she saw a weird glowing light once, but didn't know if it was a flying saucer or just her imagination. Rob leaned back and said very casually "Well... I don't known about aliens but did I tell you my dads old story?"
The girlfriend laughed, "He told me this on our first date. Let it go Rob, no one believes you!"
Rob actually seemed slightly hurt. "Well I believe my on dad thank you very much madam. Anyway, don't spoil the story, its a cracker!"
With that he turned to us and began what truly is a cracker of a yarn.

It was during the 70's and Robs father was 19, working at his families farm in the Northern territory. Coming from a poor family he had not had a good education but was a hard worker none the less. Every weekend he would go hunting in the jungle with his friends, usually coming back with dinner for two nights. He barely ever strayed far enough into the bush to be at risk of getting lost, but when he did he always came back with amounts of meat that fed the family for a week.
For about a year since he had turned 18, the farm had started mysteriously losing livestock every now and again. Every month they would, without explanation, lose at least one animal, sometimes up to six.
Only a few days after his birthday, the farm was missing a cow, and in the wet ground around the area the cows were kept were huge footprints resembling that of a bird. That weekend there was another dosage of rain, and one morning footprints were visible right outside the house. The man grew infuriated at the thought of some wild animal sneaking off in the dead of night with his families livestock in its belly, and due to the sheer size of the footprints the entire family had become scared for their lives and only ventured outside when absolutely neccesary, as a monster that large could easily devour a man. They could only guess as to what it was, but the accepted theory among them became that it was a crocodile, which had grown immense feeding off their livestock.
Despite his families pleas, the man decided that the weekly hunt would again take place, and this time the prize would be the monster. When his hunting friends arrived he informed them of the footprints, and at once they set off into the thick bush, following the trail of footprints in the mud.
After a whole day of tracking the creature, the group grew tired and had to rest. They sleeped in the bush, with a rotational system of one man watching over the sleeping ones, lest the animal they were tracking find them.
They woke early in the morning and were again immediatly off, now deciding to venture into the deep jungle, far beyond the point any of them had gone before. One man decided to head back to the farm, rather then continue on what he called "A suicide trek"
The group now consisted of only five men, but they marched onward anyway, despite the thick vegetation and various natural obstacles hindering them.
After another day passed, another man left leaving a miniscule four people to hunt a giant beast. The remaining members however were not peturbed in the least; the footprints were becoming clearer and were obviously made more recently than the previous ones. Moreover, fallen branches and disturbed areas of bush left in the animals wake supported the idea that they were gaining on it.
Eventually however, the trail came to a lake, and there it vanished. The group surveyed the shore of the lake several times, never once finding more footprints. So it seemed the hunt was over. If the beast had gone into the lake there was no telling when it would next emerge, and it would be foolish to wait for it to do so. Never the less they decided to wait around one more night, throwing rocks at the lake, telling scary stories and explaining any small ripple as the monster stirring beneath the water. Finally they decided to go to sleep, keeping the rotational system of who slept and who kept watch. At 3 in the morning Robs father was keeping watch, when somthing stirred in the lake, causing several birds to fly away from the trees. Scared, the man sat totally still, terrified that any small movement would awaken the creature. Which it did. He turned to wake up his friend, and suddenly there was a monstrous bellow, waking the entire group. He turned around to see a monster reminescent of a monitor lizard, with a long thick neck, a large mouth filled with long, dagger-like fangs. It had small frontal legs, sturdy back legs and a long tail attached to a reptillian lizard-like body. It stood upright and occasionally on all fours. It was a murky brown-green in colour. Rob said his father estimated its height at about 12 metres, and its length around 20 metres.
Upon seeing the men it charged at them, and they ran. Two grabbed their guns and shot at it, but were flung out of the way by the beasts tail, as it pursued the other two, one of whom was Robs father.
After a long time of running and not once looking back, they realised the animal had stopped chasing them. Realising also that the two left behind were in danger of being eaten, they headed back to the lake.
When they arrived the two men were hiding in trees next to the lakeside and there was no sign of the monster.
The men climbed down and claimed that they had gone into the tree's to avoid the monster, which eventually retired to the lake. With that, however the water rippled and the shape of the beasts head could be seen on the surface of the water. The group ran back to the farm and excitedly told their story to everyone at the farm.
After that very little happened. The footprints were seen occasionally, and every now and again a sheep would dissapear but no one ever saw the monster again.

No creature, living or dead, in Australia matches the description of the monster Robs father met exactly, and his story does seem rather sensationilized. Never the less, I find this one exciting, adventerous and at the very least a little bit intriguing.

Note: Of course Rob did not actually tell the story in the way I have retold it here. I got the more minuite details talking to him later.

That's a great story Undeadskeptic. It sounds very strange and interesting. If a creature like that existed that would be something. Perhaps it is true who knows. Anyway thanks for sharing it with us.

It really doesn't fit any reptile I can think of. Too big for a monitor (though if we go with dinos, we have Megalania prisca, but I don't know if it was a swimmer Link. Seems to be in some modern cryptid sightings though Link). Maybe a croc?

But the dietry habits don't fit with crocs, since it's travelling so far to find prey and eating so frequently...

Wild dogs/pigs, guns and booze perhaps?

when i reading the story i really wish it was about Bunyip ..

still good story ... T-rex ?

That is a good campfire story!!

I gotta believe though, if 2 guys got slapped by a 60' lizard's tail, at least one of the two wouldn't be in tree-climbing shape.

I love the "tall tales" old people tell. I always wonder whether they're totally fiction, or if it's just a case of the "fish that got away" getting bigger with each retellling...

The Burrunjor?

Thanks


Booze sounds good


Thats exactly what I thought too! But the Bunyip has been practically proven to be seals and various cetecans.


Well the size of somthing doesn't necserrilly (Bad spelling ) Indicate great power. Its possible they only got a little of the impact and were only winded temporarily. But still good point.



Ah Yes, my pride and joy is having introduced that monster to the world . It is very true that the similarities are too much not to think of some sort of connection between the two if they are not in fact the same animal.

sounds like the old tales of lizard men thought to be watching over the old aus, they normally live underground and are thought to be highly intelligent, through haven't heard much for a while about them except for old stories handed down

could be that they re an undiscovered creature living in caves underwater, we still don't have proof that it doesn't exist but nor that it does. a photo from anywhere would be cool

its definitely believable

Seeing as your from Australia I wonder if you know of the Burrunjor legends? The cave idea is interesting, but I am at the moment undecided on wether it would be a moniter lizard or dinosaur were it real, I would say Moniter but the small front legs... hm...

Well I guess that depends on what context he meant when he said short front legs.
Was it shorter looking than the back legs (fairly common for many animals), or vestigal legs/arms a la T-rex?
Personally, the 'swimming' leads me to think that it is a case of 'shorter looking than the back legs'.
Though that standing upright thing pretty much excludes most creatures with a large, muscular tail (unless you want to go down the path of misidentified, thought to be extinct, carnivorous roo Link)...

Carnivourous Kangaroo ae? I actually have a good yarn about one of those which I was going to post instead of this one, but as the Roo storyn is complete bulls**t I decided to go with this.

Animals strike curious poses................


Croc 1

Croc 2

Croc 3

Croc 4

Croc 5

To be hnest Physce that practically solves the mystery, except for the long moniter lik neck.

good story however......i am hard pressed to beleave that an accomplished hunter would miss such a beast especially after finding its lair.ive killed many a things in my life after finding where they live......still agood story......Ej

You shouldn't kill anything really, except those godamn possums *Shoots one in a nearby tree* "THATS FOR KILLING OUR KIWI'S MUTH*****KA!"

Ahem, excuse me.

That is why I put Croc one in. Cruising on the water like that, it looks like it could be a head on a long neck attached to goodness knows what underneath the water.

Maybe a collaboration of two views and angles? They move pretty quick, it would be easy to amalgamate the two descriptions from an almost split second encounter. Scare the bejeebers outta you too Id reckon.

Just a possibility, but this is the second thing I thought of when I read the description. I must admit the first thing to pop into my head was "Bunyip".

Just guessin.......

And when in OZ, Cane Toads. Still hunting the op shops for a nice hefty wood Cane Toad's make great golf balls!

The are only about 25 K's from WA now I think. Disgusting little breeders. Not that I am jelous mind.............

Kill them. Kill them all.

I honestly despise Cane Toads.

Great story dude!

Doesn't matter, they're not real people over there anyway

Good story.

Good Story...

Thanks Soloangel, Tia.

Hehehe

ROFL

Metallicaaaaaaaa...................

ironic. The only thing I hate more than Cane Toads are bogans...

Megalania Prisca is NOT a dinosaur, it is indeed a monitor lizard and lived in the time of the aborigines. There are even herpetologists who believe they may still live in Australia and one claimed to have seen one.

We can only hope, but I believe that the megalania are gone for good, DC.

As for the description, if accurate, does not seem to fit either crocodiles or megalania, but something else.

Whatever it should turn out to be, cryptid, megalania, or gigantic crocodile, it would be a true shame to kill such a wonder.

Very true Archosaur.

Thats quite a story... i'm very glad it wasn't about a bunyup

Hm? Why ever not?

That's a good story, it makes it sound like it could have been some kind of dinosaur but I doubt that. It was probably some kind of giant crocodile or something like that.

Or giant lizard maybe.

Wait not, thats my bad, i meant Yowie

Yea something like that, some kind of giant reptile.

Oh right of course.

No need to worry about that my friend, I make sure the stories I post are original and intriguing mysteries, not just the sam-old same-old thats infested these forums it seems.

Oh and while Im at it, Im havng trouble choosing what story in my collection to post next. Whats more interesting - giant insects (REALLY giant) in the New Zealand wilds or the terrifying flying spiders of Australia?

Or... he was telling BS. But thats so unromantic, I prefer the idea of living dinosaurs giant reptiles.

Yea so do I, but it's hard to say if he was telling BS or not just becuase human beings are so unreliable when it comes to stories, humans tend to sensatianolize everything.

Interesting how many times you used the word human... ah yes, because dolphins are always trustworthy eye witnesses

Well humans are the only ones who can report any sightings, and yes dolphins are more trustworthy they always keep the story straight

Its true they do ya know.

Another ancient Australian reptile, lesser known than Megalania, but just as impressive, was the terrestrial crocodile Quinkana. I recall that one terrestrial croc of the age of mammals actually was bipedal, and for millions of years took over the niche of theropod dinosaurs, running down mammalian prey.

Perhaps the mystery beast was a bipedal terrestrial crocodile, which livid infar more recent times than any dinosaurs.

Hmmm i WOULD like to hear the story about the flying spiders seeing as im from Austraila... however you've already done a story about a giant spider in Vietnam. So i mean to keep your original stories going you should probably post about the giant insects, but i won't stop you if you post about the flying spiders

Flying spiders, too similar to giant spider topic.

Giant insects, completely different form giant spider topic!!!

Nah I reckon you're onto somthing, Ill post the flying spider story.

Personally Im beginning to notice several resemblances between the Australian monster and the "extinct" Baru, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baru

yea it could be there is a resemblance maybe the Baru isn't as extinct as we thought, or it could be a close relative or something like that.

wen they shot at it did the bullet hit him or bounce off him or wat