#570 The Dream Time Legends

 Fun Fact #570

The Dreamtime Legends

Like most places in the world, Australia has its own local history, but in the place where Cryptids, Monsters, Heroes, and History meet things can get a little… ood. To avoid beating around the Bush –although that's where most of these tales take place– when Europeans first made Contact with the native peoples of Australia (Aboriginals), instead of a thriving mythology they found “Dream Time”, also referred to as “Everywhen”. The key difference is unlike mythology where these creatures and beings are worshiped as “gods” with power over the Universe, their legends were simple men, and beasts. Great in size and feats of strength or intellect? Yes, but not invincible and certainly not “gods”. In fact many of their legends are essentially plans on how to hunt and kill their most dangerous creatures.

Yet that’s not all of it, if these were mere legends they could be entirely dismissed, but they cannot. Many of the local Cryptids which feature in their tales, have had their bones passed down through the generations, and have been classified as members of Australia’s Megafauna. 

One good example is that of The Cryptid: BunYips –which were monsters who struck from the marshlands and water ways– who were thought to be purly fictional or maybe just based off crocodiles, until The Aborigine offered to show the bones of a slain Bunyip in a cave, thus bringing the first Diprotodon bones to the scientific world (1830), who just so happen to match the legends and lifestyle of the Mythical Bunyip –even though Diprotodon is thought to have died out 40,000 years ago due to the rising global temperatures.

Yet besides Fauna (and Flora) the tales tell of places which are so dangerous and filled with foul spirits and hidden monsters, that you can become sick and die from spending too much time in the area. Today several of these locations are known to hold some of the purest and largest naturally occurring Uranium deposits on earth with certain spots being far more deadly than others. 

While the debate rages on whether or not Aborigines actually knew what they discovered and if lived alongside these creatures, carries on to this day; Dreamtime is held in honor in many parts of the globe today. 

Thanks for reading and please have a wonderful day.

Reconstruction of Diprotodon, by Alice B. Woodward in 1912