Hawkesbury River Monster – Mirreeulla
There have been reports are far back as the ancient art of the Dharuk tribal Aborigines of New South Wales of a mysterious water monster. Legend calls them Mirreeulla (“giant water serpent”).
The Hawkesbury River has produced reports of large reptilian or eel-like animals since at least as far back as 1924. There have also been sightings of this creature in the last decade. Sightings of the creatures have been reported from Wisemans Ferry at the western end of the river, eastward to the Broken Bay-Brisbane Waters expanse at the river’s mouth.
SIGHTINGS
A popular story regarding this creature came to light in the 1980s. There was a report by a fisherman in a small aluminum boat that a sea creature surfaced below their boat, catapulting their vessel out of the water and through the air over 3 meters (9.8 feet). Other reports included boats found adrift with their occupants nowhere to be found and boats found smashed or overturned.
Tony Healy has among his files a 1912 story from the Evening News, Sydney, called “Was it the bunyip?” “That concerns an alligator-like creature seen in South Creek, a tributary of the Hawkesbury River in Windsor,” he said. “[The creature] was seen by a boating party.
A strange object swimming a short distance from them, about four-feet in length and resembled an alligator. There have been reports of them a hell of a lot bigger than that. I haven’t been able to establish to my satisfaction that the reports of the bigger ones are genuine. But they may well be.”
Another report that sparked Healy’s interest was one published in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette in 1924. “People were talking about seeing a ‘titanic seahorse’, and there’s a specific eyewitness report by a WJ Riley, who along with his brother, saw this thing while walking along The Terrace [Windsor] at midday.
They saw something in the river beneath in a deep hole,” Healy said. “He said, ‘We saw a big ugly thing, 2 foot 6 inches to 3 foot in depth, with a length of about 5 to 6 feet, and of a yellowish or sandy color. Whether its skin was scale-covered or not, we could not see. We watched for 15 minutes. It had a squarelooking fish tail. It was not a pleasant looking animal. I should certainly not care to be in the water and have it after me.'”
DESCRIPTION
It is depicted in cave art as having a snake-like head, long neck, large body and two sets of flippers with an eel-like tail. There have been reports of strange slide marks, similar to that of a crocodile along the banks of the river.
EXPLANATIONS
Descriptions are very similar to the plesiosaur, a common theme among similar freshwater cryptids. There are reports of larger turtles, the occasional seal and dolphin, along with reports of sharks inhabiting the Hawkesbury River as well.
Information sourced from: Cryptid Wiki
