Dinosaur in Australia? The Legend of the Burrunjor

In the 1950’s, throughout Australia cattle ranchers began making reports of a mysterious creature, one that was slaughtering livestock and scaring communities. It wasn’t evident at first what the beast was, but after several sightings a picture began to emerge. Some type of creature, resembling a prehistoric dinosaur was stalking farms throughout Australia. While many attribute these sightings as animal misidentification or just a large crocodile, there’s much to suggest that some type of T-Rex like creature was roaming the outback. In this post, we will explore this cryptid, known as the Burrunjor. 

The Burrunjor is typically described as being a large lizard some 20-25 feet and standing on 2 legs. While many immediately believe this cryptid is a living T-Rex , others believe it’s possible it is something like a Mega raptor or something similar. Others describe the cryptid as being something new or perhaps something that is a descendant of the prehistoric dinosaurs. Aboriginals have told stories of the creature for centuries and say that it feasts on animals such as cattle, camels, and kangaroos. 

One of the more famous sightings concerns the claim made by Bryan Clark. Clark went into the woods and got lost in 1978. He was eventually tracked by policemen and two aboriginals. It is said while tracking him, the trackers woke up one night to the ground shaking as if a dinosaur was walking by. Also, they heard loud grunting and puffing. 

It’s important to point out that the men didn’t see the creature, but only heard something massive. 

Another sighting came from Charles Waterman, a cattle rancher. He stated that he saw a massive creature standing at a height of 20 feet (6 meters) carrying off a cow in its jaws into the bushes.

One strange story happened in 1957. Then, ranchers near the McArthur River in the Northern Territory reported strange activity in the area.

Around 50 cattle out of nowhere started running towards a nearby river, and the ranchers would hear loud grunting noises as they fled the scene. Some of the ranchers reported seeing the silhouette of a T-Rex running into the bush. 

The following day, the ranchers discovered the mutilated bodies of several cattle, some of them half-eaten. Something killed these cattle, something massive and aggressive.

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Initially, ranchers believed this might be saltwater crocodiles killing the livestock, but several things show it wasn’t. One, cattle were not being dragged into the water as you one would expect with a crocodile. Second, bi-pedal footprints were typically found and with crocodiles we would expect 4 footprints. Another reason is that some of the footprints were massive indicating the crocodile would have to be some 40-50 feet long. It is possible a massive crocodile does exist, but this doesn’t correspond to the other evidence found at the scenes. 

In Rex Gilroy’s 2013 book” Burrunjor!: The Search for Australia’s Living Tyrannosaurus”, the author tells several stories concerning strange events suggesting that something massive is roaming the outback. One story concerns a farmer finding several cows that were bitten in half and large bones broken by massive jaws. The area around the site was covered by bi-pedal, reptilian footprints. 

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While many modern-day reports have surfaced from cattle ranchers in the 1950’s and 1980’s, it’s important to point out that Aboriginals have told stories of the creature for centuries. Local tribes allege to know where the creature exists and avoid venturing into its territory. Other interesting evidence from Aboriginals comes from cave paintings that show something, that looks remarkably like a T-Rex, has been painted by different tribes on multiple occasions. 

With so much info and stories on the Burrunjor, it raises the question could a small population of dinosaur survive and if so, what are the likely areas they could have not gone extinct? Interestingly, when dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, Australia was closer to the South Pole. After the meteor hit, an Ice Age followed. We should expect when the Ice Age came, that inhabitants of cold weather environments would be adapted to survive better than inhabitants of warm weather environments. 

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Another strong reason that this cryptid could exist, is that Australia is such a massive unexplored land mass. Many areas are simply too dangerous to venture with animals like saltwater crocodiles and venomous snakes. Perhaps though deep in the outback another Apex predator exists, one that has a small population. 

One other interesting piece of support is that most of the reports and behavior of the creature are consistent. We don’t see this often with cryptid reports and sightings. Although it doesn’t prove something exists, it is interesting to note. 

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Also, with such a large crocodile population, this would provide plenty of food for these creatures.  

Generally speaking, there are 5 main theories concerning the Burrunjor, if it exists:

1. Is that it is a remaining dinosaur, one that never went extinct.
2. The Burrunjor is a new type of dinosaur and descended from a prehistoric dinosaur.
3. The creature is a new type of cryptid, one that is elusive and territorial similar to an anaconda. The assumption here is that the creature was able to grow so big as it fed on crocodiles and over time a large lizard evolved to stand on 2 feet. 
4. Some suggest that it is a living giant monitor lizard, such as Megalania that hasn’t gone extinct. However, Megalania has 5 toes not three. Others state that it could just be a perentie, known to currently inhabit the lands. However, both Megalania and Perentie are four legged and this wouldn’t explain the bi-pedal, three toe tracks that have been found on multiple occasions. Still as mentioned earlier, it could be the case the creature evolved to stand on two legs. 
5. Is that this creature is either from another dimension, extraterrestrial or possibly resides under the ground. While this isn’t the most popular theory, it is thought the creature is biological since it seemingly needs to feed. 

While reports of this cryptid have dwindled over the years, maybe in the future we will have another sighting. If not, it’s reasonable to assume that this cryptid might have once existed, even in modern times.