The Australian Bunyips, or Life in the City and the Bush

The Australian Bunyips or, Life in the City and the Bush. Melodrama in four acts by Monsieur Richard premiere 26 January 1857, Our Lyceum Theatre, Sydney.

Aborigines probably first appeared on stage in The Australian Bunyips, performing war dances and a corroboree. Novel touches in local scenery and effects in this melodrama were accompanied, however, by poorly developed characterisation according to reviews. No script survives reviewers’ plot summaries show the characters to have been the usual melodramatic types, even to their names. Rookly, a villainous wealthy squatter, plots to marry off his stepdaughter Flora, to another evil crony, Crafty. He also employs Trapp, a bushranger, to destroy the hero, Lawrence by causing him to fall off a bridge into the Bunyip’s Glen. Lawrence is, however, saved by a helpful and loyal Aborigine, King Billy (played by a white actor). All ends happily with the death of the villain and the uniting of Flora and Lawrence.