WEBVTT - CLASSIC: The Bunyip and Beyond: Meet the Cryptids of Australia 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.760 Good evening, fellow conspiracy realist. We're going to set off 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:08.960 today's classic episode with a shout out to longtime friend 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:12.320 of the show Cranketthas, who wrote to us just recently 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:17.239 and said, hey, you suggested. I suggested an episode a 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.319 while ago on Australian cryptids. Thanks for doing it. Found 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.840 it interesting, learned some things I didn't know and guess what, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.720 Cranken House, we learned a lot of stuff we didn't 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.440 know either, and we did it with the help of 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.640 our good friend Annie Reecee from stuff moumb never told 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.040 you and savor, so let's do it. From UFOs to 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:41.239 psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is riddled with unexplained events. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.760 You can turn back now or learn this stuff they 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:45.800 don't want you to know. 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.080 Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:01.920 name is no. 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.600 They call me Ben. We were joined with our super 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.960 producer Paul Decktt. Most importantly, you are you. You are here, 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:12.880 and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:17.000 Pardon that momentary pause. I was thinking to myself, should 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:19.880 we open by saying good day? But that's that's kind 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:20.880 of lowbrow for us. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.920 You weren't taken aback by my odd introduction of myself. 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.479 I was not no, really, I'd like to know more 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:28.240 about what the new me. 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:33.080 Yeah. Yeah, it's just a little more robotic. Okay, I've 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.360 been assimilated by the borg. 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.039 Oh I knew it. I could tell you have all 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.840 this machinery kind of protruding from your cranium. 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.679 Yeah, and the big red one eye. Ben, you did 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.040 a masterful thing just then. You didn't open by saying 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:48.559 good day, but you also kind of did. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.880 I know. It's like when you add just saying at 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:52.840 the end of a sentence. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.760 It's like having your good day and eating it too. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:59.000 There we go, well done. This micro circuitry is doing wonders. 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.040 You really fun to say, Yeah, firing on all microcylinders. 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:08.120 Right, So we are going We're going to travel a 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.639 bit today. We're going outside of the States. A lot 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.160 of you have written to us and said, well, I 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.720 appreciate all the stuff you guys do on the show, 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:20.919 but you spend a lot of time in the US. 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.640 We're looking at the US sides of things. And earlier, 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.760 when we were talking off air, Matt, you and Noel 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.360 were telling me a little bit about some of the 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.720 here's where it gets crazy. A male that you found 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:40.320 right in posts. And one of the things that that 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.000 guys were very excited about was the concept of cryptids, 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.840 but not just all the cryptids we've covered so far 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.480 in the past. Cryptids down on that. Oh yeah, cryptids 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:51.679 of Australia. Right. 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.359 Yeah, we had someone named Leif Allen creed right into 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.760 us and talk to us specifically about drop bears. You 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:00.639 wanted us to cover that in a couple other things, 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.360 what the bunyip and the yowie. Yeah, a lot lots 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:05.000 of things like that. 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.080 Interesting conflation too, as we'll find out. So, yes, we 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.760 are diving into the strange and fascinating world of cryptids. 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.680 When we started this show years and years and years 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.560 and years ago, Matt, Nolan and I all started diving 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:24.000 into these bizarre, unusual things. And the weird thing is 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.320 that more often than not we would find a grain 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:32.919 of truth in these stories. And cryptozoology candidly is one 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.160 of those fields that I had always personally thought would 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.440 be mainly smoke and mirrors, you know, like a misidentified bear, 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.040 because most people nowadays haven't seen a bear in real life. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.320 Soon you know, it's a scary thing. 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.480 Or folklore conflated with some animal that's similar enough to 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.640 scare you at the night, like in nighttime. 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.960 Yeah, or like some kind of misinterpretation of a fossil. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.640 Yeah, good call, good call. Right, that's why we used 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.840 to think dragons were for so long. Wait what or 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:03.480 were we wrong? You know? 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.600 Sure? Hope? So, man, I need to believe in something. 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.320 I wish the Jurassic Park, I just every rebook they do. 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.440 I wish they would try feathers on the dinosaurs. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.520 That'd be cool, you know, you know what, I have 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:19.920 a pitch, go for it, Dragon Park, Dragon Park. How 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.440 has that not happened yet? They probably what happened all 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.039 the dragon movies, that's true, dragon Heart. 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.520 They were slumbering just for a little bit post Lord 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.880 of the Rings, dragon Heart. But they'll be back. They'll 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.400 be back in the after the seat last season of 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.440 Game of Thrones ends, people will have a dragon deficit. 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:38.520 That's where we get our dragon fixes on Game of Thrones. 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.479 They on the they run the Dragon show. 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:42.800 Yeah, but I'm not talking about cgi dragons. We got 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.240 to get some real dragons, get them in sag, get 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:46.680 them really working, you know. 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.559 Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it in the case 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:54.400 of cryptozoology, though, you know, we we are outlining several 0:04:54.480 --> 0:05:01.039 of the common things misidentification of fossils, misinterpretation of actual animals, 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.360 or you know, out and out hoaxes. Since we've been 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.400 doing this show, at least three times, some group of 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.440 people once in Georgia have claimed to find the corpse 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.159 of sasquatch or Bigfoot. Yeah, and those folks had not 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.680 misidentified a corpse. They were out and out con artists. 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.080 Well, some of you maybe just misidentified the suit that 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:21.559 they made. 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.520 There we go. Yeah, And frankly, we've delved into some 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:33.039 questions here that don't have clear, definitive answers. Sure, many 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:37.359 of those photos of the Lockness Monster are genuine, clear hoaxes. 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.480 But then there are things that are real cryptids, like 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:46.640 the Silicas, which is a tremendously disgusting looking, ugly, ugliest 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.480 sin fish that was thought to be extinct for millions 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.279 of years. It turns out that we just weren't looking 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.840 in the right places. But that's where we get to 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.160 the tough part about cryptids. Because most stories of cryptids, 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:06.240 these unidentified or unacknowledged animals, come from remote and dangerous 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.760 areas and traveling to those parts of the world can 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.120 be enormously expensive. 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:11.600 And or dangerous. 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:16.400 And yeah, certainly like the deserts of Mongolia where the 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:21.760 Mongolian blood worm is supposed to be hiding, that's millions 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.440 of dollars easily just to get a decent team of 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:25.040 people there. 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.600 Don't do it well if you got the money, right, 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.600 Musk do it yes. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.240 Or Buffett if he's going to turn a new leaf 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.880 in his elder statesman age. So the institutions or governments 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:42.360 that could support these sorts of explorations, they often aren't 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.520 going to waste millions of dollars on what they see 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.640 as a wild goose chase. And we should mention here 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:52.720 that wild geese are not cryptids. I don't know why. 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:54.320 That's it feels. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.960 Very important mention what constitutes a wild goose? 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.360 I know, right? Is it? Is it just not in 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.400 a zoo? Or is it acting out? 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.520 Because I used to work in an office where these 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:11.080 geese would just just fly in and post up outside 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.800 the door, and as you all know, don't much care 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.840 for birds. Yeah, so I didn't leave the building when 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:18.760 that happened, but it was a pretty regular occurrence. Were 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:19.680 those wild geese. 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.480 Yeah, I mean geese do migrate yea. So okay, yeah, 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:26.720 there's probably was there a pond nearby it was that's why. Yeah, 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:28.560 it wasn't for you. It was for the pond, so 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:29.480 they weren't out for you all. 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:30.640 Yeah. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.800 And I imagine, without going too far into the figures speech, 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.800 it's the idea of chasing an animal that doesn't want 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:43.280 to be caught. Yeah. But in all of our previous episodes, 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.800 let's see, we did. We even did the math, the 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.560 cryptid math on how big a range an animal a 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:51.920 certain size would need depending on stet We did that 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:56.400 for local amembe. 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:59.040 And specifically on a big foot type creature. 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:04.520 Yes, yeah, like wat danhopithecus or something. Yeah. But in 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.920 all of our episodes, we have never explored Australia, and 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.240 that is why today we are taking your suggestion and 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:19.040 looking into one of the most interesting continents on this planet. Confession, 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.680 you don't hear the facts, But confession, we use the 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.680 CIA World fact Book for some of the stats about Australia. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:29.480 You trader. 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:35.160 It's when he says we he says Ben Bolan, because 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.040 Ben Boland does all the research. 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:44.000 I okay, it's not. It's not it's not Nolan Matt's fault, Paul's. 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:46.400 I'm the one who use the CIA World fact Book. 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:47.760 But it has good information. 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:48.440 It really does. 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:54.720 So Australia as continents go. It looks huge on the map, 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.960 but we all know how they're like Mercader projections versus 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.320 a globe versus other sorts of and it messes with 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:02.240 the size. 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:04.920 You know what's funny, our buddy Chuck from Stuff you 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.040 should know. They just got back from a tour of 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.920 the Outback for you know, their mega successful podcast, and 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.880 he mentioned that they took a flight from Sydney to 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.120 Perth and then it was the equivalent of taking a 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.319 flight from like New York to Los Angeles. It was 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.960 like a six hour flight. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, because 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:22.840 I'm so bad at geography, I was like, I had 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:23.360 no idea. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.559 Josh, Josh and Chuck did just return from an Australia 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.120 tour and they've got some interesting stories about it. Josh 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.320 was catching me up on some stuff. You know who 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.960 else went to Australia, Scott Benjamin Oh and he was 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:38.720 going to take a road trip and he was also 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.600 startled by the size of the continent. You know, this 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.040 happens a lot to our European friends when they traveled 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.120 to the US. Have you ever met somebody from Europe 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:48.720 is hanging out and you say, oh, what are you 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:50.840 going to do while you're here for a week, And 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:53.200 they're like, oh, I'm you know, well, I'm in Atlanta. 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.520 I figured I would just drive on over to la Yeah, 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.080 check out Hollywood, and then just drive back to the 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:03.920 airport before Thursday. No, no, it's not happening. It's like 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.000 just trying to describe Texas makes us sound like lunatics. 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.520 Oh yeah, And just to give anyone who doesn't really 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:12.960 know what Australia looks like or you can't imagine in 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.960 your head, Perth is in the south western side of 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.840 the continent, and then Sydney is in kind of the 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:26.480 southeastern corner. Not really Melbourne is probably closer to what 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:27.000 that would. 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:28.720 Be, but you can kind of stay correct. 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.040 Yeah, but you can you can see how a flight 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:32.679 you could compare that to a flight. 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.480 From New York to la Ah, there we go, that's 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.520 the comparison. Yeah, it's seven million, six hundred and eighty 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:44.199 two thousand, three hundred square kilometers in land mass, and 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.320 most of it is a desert. The place we call 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.080 the Outback, not to be confused with a surprisingly popular 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.040 steakhouse chain here in the US. Yes, which if you 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.079 are Australian and you're listening, we want to know your opinion. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:05.240 So bad about Outback Steakhouse, Crocodile Dundee, what else fosters 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:10.920 the beer Steve Irwin of course, Steve Rkele, Steve Rkle 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.000 as well. Yeah, I think I would be interested to 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.199 know how what was that? That was Family Matters right, Yes, 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:19.360 I would be interested to know if Family Matters made 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:20.360 it to us. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:22.560 Oh, I'm sure they had a huge We even have 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.559 listeners in Australia. Shirley Family Matters did. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.559 That's a very good way to put in perspective. 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.559 Yeah, And just so you have an understanding of these deserts, 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.320 if you're looking at like at the top of Australia, 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.960 it is really everywhere. Everything from the Strisblecky Desert, which 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.240 sounds very odd when I say that st r z 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.880 b l e c k I Desert, to the Great 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.160 Sandy Desert, to the Little Sandy Desert, to the Gibson 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.160 Desert and the Great Victoria desert and the Tanami desert. 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.840 It they're everywhere and they're huge. 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.080 Right, Yeah, they're the majority of the continent. Now, that's 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.720 not to say that the whole thing is a desert, 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.160 which I think is a common mistake. A lot of 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.719 Americans make the southeast and southwest corners that you had 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.719 mentioned earlier, Matt have temperate climates, yes, you know what 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.800 I mean. And the northern area and part of the 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.079 eastern side of the continent are in what again might 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.760 surprise a lot of us in the US, actually tropical 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:21.840 and subtropical climates. Australia has a rainforest. I know, Aussie listeners, 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.280 I know that we probably sound kind of like nincompoops here, 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.319 but I don't think a lot of Americans know that. 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.559 No. I think we've been corrected before. And it's it's 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:31.160 ausy ausy. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:40.400 In terms of human population of Azzi's, the first Azzi's 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.120 may have arrived on the continent as far back as 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:44.719 sixty five thousand years ago. 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:46.160 That's a long time. 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:47.760 Are we going to talk about it? It's a history 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.240 as a prison colony at all, because that's always fascinated me. Yeah, 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.160 this is I mean, this is before it was a prison. 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.320 But yeah, yeah, no, no, I know, yeah, I don't know. 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.000 Maybe that's two in the weeds. We should probably get 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:58.880 to the cryptids. That's what the game here for. 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.240 Right, Yeah, So continue with the facts. This ancient migration 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:09.160 sixty five thousand years ago makes the ancestors of Aboriginal 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:13.120 Australians the first human beings ever to migrate out of 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.199 what's called the Afro Asia sphere. That's according to a 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.120 historian you've all, Noah Harari, who wrote who writes excellent 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:24.880 books Homodeus Sapiens, Nole's Roommate, and I go back and 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.520 forth for hours about this stuff. But as of July 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.200 twenty seventeen, Australia was the fifty sixth most populous country, 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.720 the population of twenty three million, two hundred and thirty 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:39.920 two thousand, four hundred and thirteen people, many of whom, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:45.200 to your point, nol Yes, were descended from prisoners. Because 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.720 for a time Australia was treated as a dumping ground 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.280 for undesirables. 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:53.400 The whole continent. 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:58.080 They started a prison colony, but they weren't bothering to 0:13:58.320 --> 0:13:59.800 protect the native people. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:01.760 So then it just kind of the folks that were 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.840 there just spread and put down their roots, Like you 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.400 do have a lot of room to put down roots there. 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.080 Yeah, Well, but here's the thing. There are only certain 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:14.400 little kind of spaces, they're really fairly small spaces within 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.600 this huge continent where you can put down roots at 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:18.319 least safely. 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:20.600 In other words, habitable areas, right. 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.200 Areas, Yeah, where you're going to have enough enough other 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.160 humans to have a large enough civilization to you know, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:27.720 have enough commerce and things like that. 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:28.480 Right. 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.760 So, so in those places that we talked about, what 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.280 is it, eighty percent or eighty six eighty six percent 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.360 of the humans live in these largely populated areas. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:40.600 And the rest is what just the bush. 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.960 The rest is wilderness. Even it's the bush, right yeah, 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:50.800 out back. But then also you know the forest, the jungles. Yeah, 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.480 the crowded places are very crowded. But then like the 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.680 largest city is Sydney and the population there is only 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.080 four point seventy nine two million. 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.520 Wait a minute, I see what you're getting at, Ben 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.640 and discussing cryptids. Our whole thing has always been but 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.320 how come like there's not just an infinite amount of 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.880 space for these things to hide? Right, But in Australia 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:13.840 there kind of is. 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:15.400 We got lots of it. 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:19.720 Yeah, yeah, and not infinite, but there's a lot a. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:25.160 Lot because in addition to that, it's not just geographically isolated, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.960 it's what we would call ecologically isolated. That makes it 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:33.120 unique amongst all the other human occupied continents. And sorry, 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.720 listeners in Antarctica were not counting you for this part. Yeah, 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:37.440 I'm sorry. 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.720 Yeah, but just from the fact that it is an 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:45.320 isolated continent into itself, there's no land connecting it to 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.040 anything else. If anything gets to Australia, that's not by 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:53.240 a ship or a plane, at least as since those 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:56.200 technologies have been available. It's been by flying there or 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:57.480 swimming there and that's it. 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.480 Yeah, or floating there. Yeah, and then just some through 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.760 some miraculous event not dying. That's what happened to the 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.160 ancestors of a lot of Australian animals. 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.600 But in nor since the land bridge was there at 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:10.160 a certain. 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:13.400 Time, or since it broke off of the super continent. So, 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:18.360 according to professors like Rick Shine, Australia has a unique 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.480 fauna because it was isolated from the rest of the 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.480 world for very long periods, Like you said, Matt, surrounded 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.840 by the ocean, for millions of years, and he calls 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.560 it a life raft of sorts more than the continent. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.080 So these plants and animals were very different ecological pressures 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.600 of all in different ways. So if we imagine ourselves 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.560 as the very first people to go into Australia, the 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:46.600 stuff we see is insane giant wombats who have no 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.360 fear of humans because they have never seen us. Yeah, 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:52.920 they don't know that we can make spears and they 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:53.480 don't care. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:55.120 I don't want that, I know. 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.400 Chuck cuddled with a tiny cute Koala baby. 0:16:57.680 --> 0:16:58.480 Oh yeah, yeah. 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.320 He made a joke today when we record Mini Crush 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:02.960 that they present you one as soon as you get 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:04.320 off the plane, And I asked if you had to 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:06.160 return it when you get on a plane back home. 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.680 Oh well, I hope it was a nice Koala bear, 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:10.880 because this is this is what an upset Kuala bear 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:11.399 sounds like. 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:19.399 Sh Matt, I can't believe you played that. 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:21.000 There's just so adorable. 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:23.840 That did not sound adorable. That sounded horrific. 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.040 It's disturbing. It reminds me of a more sinister version 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.920 of that moment in Dumb and Dumber where they say yeah, 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.480 where they say what's the most annoyance. So okay, I 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:36.760 thought you were going to do the bit where you 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.320 continue to interrupt this with it. Thank you for not 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:41.360 doing that. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.520 That was the guy to get on on the fine. 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.639 Yah, well we appreciate you still listening, Yes. 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:48.399 Both of you. 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:49.400 Yeah. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:55.000 Yeah, it's it's strange though, because there's a really good question. 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.840 Could a koala bear have evolved anywhere else? The answer 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.480 is probably no, or it's much less likely that it would. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.560 And the isolation historically of Australia carries over to the 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:08.920 modern day. That's why it's home to so many animals. 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:14.560 They're found nowhere else in the world. Kuala bears, kangaroos, dingoes, wombats, coals, 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.639 Tasmanian devils, which in person are way less cool than 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.240 their name would imply. Yeah, and so on. Yeah, so 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:27.080 we have several things here that add up to create 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:32.600 a unique situation, a perfect storm of cryptozoology. It's, as 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:37.399 we said, sparsely populated, enormous stretch of desert, as you mentioned, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.439 and home to unique animals found nowhere else in the world. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.520 Could it be possible that there are even stranger animals 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:45.840 in the Australian outback? 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:52.199 Yes, it could definitely be possible. Is it true though, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.520 and what will we find? We'll talk about it right 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.000 after a quick word from our sponsor. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.960 Here's where it gets crazy. It's true. Australia is home 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.760 to a ton of alleged cryptids, maybe even more than 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:16.199 the US on balance. When these often fall into a 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:21.200 few types of categories. They might be urban legends, right, sure, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.600 things that came about in modern folklore. You can make 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.280 a pretty interesting argument that maybe slender Man itself is 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.520 a form of a cryptid, absolutely humanoid but not human. Yeah. 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:33.879 You're also going to find some that are basically the 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.880 Australian version of a cryptid that exists pretty much every 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.320 elt everywhere else in the world, like a certain type 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:40.000 of sasquatch. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.560 Yeah. Yeah. And then there are unique versions of cryptids 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.800 creatures that are solely believed to exist or have existed 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.040 in Australia and possibly some nearby islands like Tasmania, New 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:56.760 Zealand and so on. There's a very important aspect of 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.800 Australian culture that influences the idea of cryptid here, and 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:05.200 that is the fascinating I would call it cognitive technology 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:06.560 known as the dream time. 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.560 Yeah, see this is the part that I couldn't quite 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.320 wrap my head around. And we talked about this on 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.399 the Here's Where It's a crazy episode, So I am 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:14.680 looking forward to this discussion. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:20.639 Yeah. Well, none of us have participated in the culture, right, 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:22.840 we have to be clear about that for sure. But 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:33.240 our colleague Annie Reese has oh holy smokes, oh was 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:34.119 that a digrado? 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:35.560 I don't know? 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.600 And then a puff of smoke Annie Reese has has 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:39.880 appeared before a very aye. 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:42.679 Yeah, we're spoiling the lead here. There was a portal 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:43.520 that just opened up. 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.280 That's how I always get to work. I guess you 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.080 guys have never noticed. No, no, we way to travel. 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.000 We spend a lot of time bunkered up in the 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.560 studio here. But we appreciate you joining us for a 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.000 little bit, because, first off, that portal thing's very cool. 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.800 As people know or may or may not know, the 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.560 five of us counting Paul, have worked together closely for 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.760 a number of years, and you are somewhat of a 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.439 legend in our office. Not just for hosting Savior, not 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.720 just for hosting stuff Mom never told you, but for 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.960 going on adventures in different areas of the world, some 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:22.400 very remote places. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.840 Yes, I do like to travel. And thank you for 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:27.840