We were wondering about the kind of magical creatures one might be able to find in magical Australia. Some ideas so far:

- A spider that's so small that it's invisible to the naked eye, that bites you without you feeling a thing. 5 weeks later, unless treated, your eyeballs burst as ten thousand spiders hatch from the inside.

- A malicious spirit that takes the form of cute creatures like puppies and kittens. If you stroke it you die instantly.

- A parasite that lays its eggs in herd animals humans eat as meat. You consume an egg as part of your dinner and the egg makes its way to the urinary system. If it infects a woman, they pass it out as urine. If it finds its way into a male... you wake up in searing pain, watching your penis wriggling away from you. The parasite, when it hatches, uses the human penis like a snail uses a shell.

- A magical bacteria that infects the teeth, eating out the dentine and replacing it with a magical explosive. The process is painless and the explosive can lie dormant for years... it is triggered only by the saliva of another human. The bacteria is known as the Kiss of Death.

Needless to say, there aren't many wizards in Australia. Feel free to contribute your own ideas.

 

Plenty of mythical creatures in the Aboriginal Dreamtime.

Here: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-australian-mythical-creatures.php

I'm a fan of the Rainbow Serpent, myself. "It believed that the worship of the Rainbow Serpent represents the world’s oldest continuous religious tradition."

 

I kind of like this thread.

A small creature called a jackaroo. At night it steals into the pouch of a mother kangaroo, choking the child and stinging the mother with nerve toxin paralyzing it. While snacking on the small kangaroo, it's tendrils burrow into the mother and take over motor function.

At dawn, the jackaroo has a full stomach and a brand new car to travel the wide open vistas with.

 

Drop Bear, a beast so dangerous that one has never been captured alive.

 

The farting cat, a distant relative of nundu. It farts poisonous fumes/disease when in distress. Looks like a regular cat.

 

I think that definitely mining the indigenous culture for mythological creatures would not be a bad idea (as seen in canon with the Japanese kappa).

Perhaps some sort of Rainbow Serpent, a flying serpent creature that acts almost like a D&D Displacer Beast (an optical illusion that explains its identification with rainbows in Aboriginal mythology).

Another option would be the Bunyip.

Otherwise, maybe a magical version of the thylacine? Or some sort of marsupial — the above jackaroo or the drop bear would be examples of this; I'd love to see a drop bear where the large parent creature makes the initial surprise attack and then its children appear from the pouch and swarm the prey like Piranhas.

EDIT: I somehow missed Joe's post while reading this thread the first time through. So now I kind of feel stupid.

 

Cool thread. I thought up a couple:

- A wraith similar to a Dementor or Lethifold that resides in billabongs, and preys upon those who disturb the stagnant water. They use a mental compulsion to hypnotise their victims and lure them into the billabong, before drowning them violently. This is somewhat inspired by the Australian folk song, Waltzing Matilda, and the predatory tendencies of saltwater crocodiles.

- A scarab with gold elytra. Not just gold-coloured, but actual gold. It moves with a similar speed and elusiveness as a Golden Snitch. It has become an endangered species - almost extinct - since British wizards first arrived in Australia. While Muggle settlers rushed to mine gold from the veins of the earth, wizards and goblins had their own gold rush, which consisted of hunting these beetles until there were almost none of them left. Inspired by Australia's Christmas beetle. (Edit: Just realised this one isn't a 'deadly' creature, but it would still fit in well in a magical Australia, I think).

Also, I agree that the Aboriginal Dreamtime creatures could all be depicted as magical creatures.

 

A sheep whose wool is coated with anthrax.

NOW NOBODY IS SAFE!

 

A Basilisk with two hind legs similar to a Kangaroo. It came into existence when an ancient Basilisk and a Kangaroo fell in love.

It's scales are of a greenish yellow shade. It can jump, walk and kill with its gaze.

 

That big rock thing in the middle of Australia. It's a giant turtle/dragon mix that was put asleep by aboriginals years ago when it was terrorizing the continent (that's why there so deserts) Now it's covered with sand and dust but nobody know when it will wake up.

Were-coala/sheep/kangoroo.


Shapeshifting Sheep. A proverbial wolf in sheep clothes. It's a carnivore and it's main diet is sheep and sheepherders. And people from new-zealand and wales.

 

A magical millipede, three hundred feet long and 1000 tons. People think the dust clouds in the outback are from land trains, but they're actually from these. Known to swallow up entire villages. Can burrow underground causing minor earthquakes, and it's poison is known to put down a dragon.

 

Your poor poor made up magical creatures won't last one day in Australia.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatara

New Zealand would need to be part of the discussion of any magical Australia story. Fuck, go read up about the wildlife there, it's crazy. The above lizard can live over a century in captivity. I don't even know how we can suggest this, but the Tuatara can live close to two centuries in optimal conditions according to some. They also have some other interesting physiological features, notably a third eye. I'd base a magical creature off these guys, that's for sure.

Magical Kiwi birds, too. Harry has a Kiwi instead of Hedwig. I'd squee like a teenage girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg9qVkQgHrE

Weta are some of the largest insects in the world. It's actually something you might want to discuss in such a story - how islands that get inhabited by magical creatures tend to result in very unusual magical creatures, due to limited human interference and a food chain which can be easily exploited by them. There could even be islands that are shielded from muggles using magic, to protect the public from discovering some of the wilder discoveries made by the Wizards in Australia.

It would also be interesting to see the influence of China/Japan in such a story. I'd imagine political relations in an HP setting between the three nations to be interesting.

 

I'm assuming that this is what you're talking about.

 

hmmpf.. I see your basilisk and raise to DnD Basilisk.

 

Could you imagine a welshman fucking one of these? I don't know if I'd laugh or cry if this was a real thing.

 

A variation on the dementor, found only in Australia. It's diet is slightly different, as it feeds on fear, something something magical vibrations something something emotion eating.

It has eight legs, and small (but functional) wings, which it uses to hunt down lone humans. Their bite is poisonous, and contains mild amounts of a naturally occurring forgetfulness potion, causing the prey to not fully remember any attack. This ensures that the human feels the full fear and horror that comes from being attacked by flying spiders each and every time it happens.

 

For a moment, I thought that this was just a frog with a very long tongue.