Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

The Yamuti

Chris Johnson relates a story in his book, Australian Mammal Extinctions, of the Adnyamathanha people from the Flinders Ranges, of a dreamtime mammal called Yamuti (Tunbridge, 1991).  He was bigger than any other native mammal, and was dangerous. There is a definite element of fear in the stories, as there is in other stories of the megafauna of the dreamtime. According to the story he ate people. It was believed that he couldn't raise his head enough to look at the sky, so children who came across a Yamuti were told to climb a tree. The Yamuti was also believed to have sometimes taken the form of a giant kangaroo. It is difficult to associate this description with any single megafauna species, making it sound more like a combination of several species, but there remains the fear of a dangerous predator, whether it was a real creature, a mixture of real creatures, or simply a creation to scare children into behaving themselves. A characteristic of the animal in the story does actually coincide with the suggestion that diprotodonts could probably not raise their heads.

They believed the diprotodont remains from Lake Callabonna were those of the Yamuti. Maybe in life the diprotodonts might not have been the gentle giants they are often thought to be, bull elephants in musth can be extremely dangerous. Being around an elephant in musth can easily lead to death.

Sources & Further reading

1. Chris Johnson, 2006, Australia's Mammal Extinctions, a 50,000 year history, Cambridge University Press.