growing up in Australia, it's a requirement to learn about the culture of the indigenious population of the Australian Aboriginal Nation...
the most amazing thing to notice when you look back over it, is the striking similarity between creatures in their creation stories, and the Cryptids we know and see today.
Aboriginal story culture (a totally verbal culture) places the beginning of time during a period known as 'Dreamtime' when man and spirit co-existed on the earth at the same time. The thing to note is, the stories of creationalism from the dreamtime are stories that are 30,000 years old. Indigenous Australian culture is the oldest living culture on earth.
Anyways....check out the Wiki entry about Aboriginal mythology. There are some alarming demons and spirits that are very cryptid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_mythologyFor instance, the Wati-kutjara, a race of Lizard Men who came from the mountains and gave the people Talisman's so they could communicate with the spirits. There is also the tales of the MIMI, benign spirits who would make themselves visable to protect humans from unknown black skinned devils with glowing red eyes.