Australia’s Creepiest Urban Legends

5. The Satanists of Perth

The charming Australian city of Perth is the setting for this eerie and unlikely urban legend. According to rumours, Perth is home to a thriving community of devil worshippers. These Satanists come together at Kings Park in the dead of night to perform dark rituals.

They draw occult symbols, burn figures and have wild orgies on the grassy slopes. Then, once a year, the coven of worshippers performs a human sacrifice. According to conspirators, the group does this by hunting down and murdering the local homeless as a means to sustain their power.

Some witnesses say they’ve seen disembodied shadows roaming through the park at night. Could these sightings be linked to the sinister rituals being performed?

As if parks weren’t terrifying enough places to visit at night.

4. Suburban Big Cats

This one definitely takes the cake for strangest Aussie urban legend. According to conspiracy theorists, the suburbs of Sydney are being stalked by packs of big cats!

That’s right: authorities have received many questionable reports of puma and cougar sightings. These huge silent predators are said to skulk around the western suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, surviving on possums and the occasional human.

Of course, these creatures are definitely not native to Australia, which might explain the lack of concrete evidence. It’s more likely that some poor, imaginative – and possibly intoxicated – person simply mistook a black shadow for a crouching tiger on their late-night walk home. It’s not hard to imagine somebody working themselves into a frenzy of terror and calling the police.

Or maybe the rumours are true. Maybe a colony of deadly big cats lives in plain sight somewhere in the Australian suburbs… Stranger things have happened.

Some historians allege that a colony of big cats escaped from a travelling circus and have been breeding secretly in the Australian wilderness.

3. The Burning Airman

In 1940, tragedy struck the outskirts of Canberra when a Lockheed Hudson II bomber plane spiralled out of control and crashed into the nearby woods. The incident was dubbed the ‘Canberra Air Disaster’ and went down as one of the most tragic events in local history.

A few years later, reports began flooding in from Canberra residents having strange encounters in the woods. Many people claimed they saw unearthly lights near the old crash site. Others reported hearing the distant drone of an airplane, followed by a deafening bang.

Then there was the chilling account of a teenage girl who emerged from the forest one night in a fit of terror. She claimed she had been pursued by the long-dead airman, whose spectral body was still shrouded in flames.

Hundreds of similar reports have flooded in over the years, with many so frightened that they vowed never to return to the woods again.

2. Sydney’s Secret Subterranean World

It seems Sydney has another dark secret: this time, a hidden underground network of unused train platforms, tunnels and tracks. These were completed in the 1920s but were never made operational, and this has led to some wild and downright creepy rumours and speculation.

One uncomfortable theory suggests the underground level was built by marauding First Settlers to aid them in their kidnapping schemes.

Other rumours suggest the subterranean world has served as a WWII bomb shelter, an experimental mushroom farm, the filming location for a snuff film, an Army training ground, and an illegal playground for secret societies who practice witchcraft and black magic.

Rumours are rife yet there is little hard evidence to suggest these tunnels actually exist, but then again, maybe that’s what the secret societies want you to think.

1. The Bunyip

The Bunyip, or Yowie, is an Aboriginal legend and Australia’s answer to Bigfoot. This mythical creature allegedly dwells in swamps, creeks, waterholes and other murky waters. It’s said to emerge late at night where it emits blood-curdling screams.

Bunyips have no absolute form, and are variously described as evil spirits, towering gorilla-like creatures, and even half-human–half-elephant monstrosities. They have insatiable appetites and, according to legend, do not discriminate between animals and people when it comes to finding a meal.

These days, most Australians consider the Bunyip a silly superstition. However, many members of the indigenous community remain deadly afraid of it.

There is one scientific explanation that might shed some light on the Bunyip mystery. During the Pleistocene Epoch, some of the largest marsupials on the planet roamed the Australian countryside. Diprotodons were the size of rhinoceros and closely related to koalas and wombats. It’s thought that indigenous stories are referring to these enormous beasts that went extinct some 20,000 years ago.

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So there’s our list of Australia’s creepiest urban legends. Have you heard of any of these before? Let us know in the comments below or on any of our socials.