2016 - The Bunyip Story

“I have a secret. There’s a bunyip that lives just down the road from me. It’s ancient. Which means it’s lived there for a long time – before I was born, before my parents were born, before my grandparents or their grand parents, thousands and thousands of years ago. It lives in the lagoon. People like Isabella Taylor don’t believe in the Bunyip. But I don’t care because we know it’s real.”

Charlie is brave and adventurous and he would gladly spend every day exploring the local creek instead of going to school. Isabella, by contrast loves the world of books. She is diligent, hardworking and hates dirt. The two of them have nothing in common until they are teamed up at school to deliver a presentation on …Bunyips.

Isabella doesn’t believe in Bunyips but she diligently researches the mysterious creature at the local library and on the internet, all the same. Meanwhile, Charlie speaks with his elders and secretly explores the local waterhole in the hope that he might just catch an elusive glimpse of the creature and prove its existence once and for all.

Their research will take then on a rollicking adventure through the libraries, historical records and waterholes in the area. This beautiful piece of theatre for primary school audiences explores Bunyip Stories from across Scenic Rim and the Gold Coast.  It shares stories of these guardians of our local waterways and the lessons they have taught the Indigenous people of the Yugambeh Region.

This project has been conceived with the assistance of stories collected from elders across the Yugambeh Language region and historical records – in many ways the journey to create this piece of work is remarkably similar to that of Charlie and Isabella – piecing stories together bit by bit in order to maybe just get a peak at this mysterious creature.

We proudly acknowledge the contributions of the Yugambeh Language Museum, Queensland Theatre Company, The Regional Arts Fund of Australia and Scenic Rim Regional Council in the creation of this work.