Australia’s ‘little people’ – the Junjudee

The Little Brown Hairy Man: Junjudee

MAY 5, 2019 / DR KAREN THURECHT PHD

Australian Aboriginal people tell stories of little brown hairy men who roam the Australian bush. In South East Queensland, where I live they are called Junjudee, but in other areas they have other names. My children grew up on North Stradbroke Island sharing stories of the Junjudee who live in the scrub between our house and Brown Lake.

Newspapers from the 19th century have many stories about the little brown hairy men. This story from the Evening News published on February 27, 1897, is a typical example.

One cold winter’s night when we were camping by the Bay we heard a terrible cry. We had Tom’s mother with us. She was 87 years of age and her recollections went back before her tribe had ever seen the White man.

We were all squatted snugly around the fire when we heard a fearful yell ring out. It made me feel as if cold water was running down my back and an icy hand gripped my heart. “Was it a possum?” I asked.

“Possums don’t go like that,” said Granny.

I suggested it might be a bandicoot, or a morpoke having a nightmare, or the howl of a dingo with a fishbone in its throat.

The others shook their heads.

“It’s the hairy man of the bush,” Granny said. She told us she had seen it twice.

“It’s no use attacking it with a stout stick, or a boomerang or a nulla,” she said. “Those weapons won’t hurt it. 

When did you see it Gran? we asked.

“When I was a piccaninny we went down to the beach one day and my sister said, ‘Hush’, like that. We looked. There on the rocks where the waves were breaking it sat. It didn’t see us, it was looking away out to sea. We crept away, and when we got far enough we began to run. My word! Did we run!”

“Did you get away Gran?” asked one of the boys.

“Would I be here to tell you if I didn’t?” she said.

Gran said she was married the second time she saw it. Her and her husband were camping. They were asleep. Then she woke up and saw its eyes glaring across the fire. Her husband took his tomahawk and advancing towards it, buried its blade downwards in the Earth and spoke an incantation to it. “It ran off with a yell just as we heard just now,” she said.

We sat there, scared by our own silence and the silence of the bush around us.

The shrill wail of a curlew rang out near us and made us jump. 

***

The Junjudee that children share stories about today, is a creature of mischief. It pulls your toes when you are sleeping and it takes things and hides them from you. Sometimes when you get into trouble, you can blame the Junjadee. Still, you need to be wary of it. It can be dangerous.