October Monster Challenge 2010
A creature from Aboriginal folklore, the Bunyip is a water-dwelling creature often used as a warning to children for its perchance to drag victims to a watery grave.
Much debate ranges between its description, its origin, even the meaning of its name. Currently, it means "Evil spirit" or "devil" but it could mean something else as there were no written accounts in Aboriginal mythology and could be referring to a creator deity. Reports regardin the Bunyip's appearance and its description have been around for 150 years and vary between its appearance of a dog, duck billed, flippers, dark fur, or a horses tail. So the existence of this creature is still a popular subject for debate.
For my version of the Bunyip, I went and used a reference of a creature I saw and modified its features to include a more canine head with sharp tusks,a more skeletal armored tail, and made it a quadrepid with a miniature set of clawed arms to assist in dragging its victims down the water. Interesting enough, it bears a similar resemblance to Asian dragons, which is a happy accident, but I liked a lot of the features don to it, particularly the face.