Then it is discovered that the Bunyip was just an outsize wild dog, a mad bull or, in one case, a sea-going crocodile that strayed too far south. The scare is over. But the legend of the Bunyip persists. The Bunyip of Australian literature is the mythical Great Australian Novel. From time to time we hear that it has appeared at last.
Publishers hold a special corroboree.
Rival novelists lock their doors and say their prayers. Critics reach for their shotguns. Mr Patrick White's publishers are therefore naturally cautious. The Tree of Man, they say, has many of the qualities of the great novel. But the word has got around that Mr White's book is, in fact, the genuine Bunyip.