Terror Australis

“How chilly the night vapours were which rose from this large pool, for it was more like the moat from some ancient ruin than an ordinary Australian water-hole. How ominous the shadows that gathered over this dwelling, and which even the great and lustrous moon, now clear of the gable end, seemed unable to dissipate.”

The Australian landscape is one that lends itself to the uncanny: the oppressively hot, fly-infested bush, populated with abandoned shanties or rundown homesteads, slowly petering out into the empty, endless outback with its blood-red sands and emaciated myall trees. It has birthed a weird tradition that is often quirky, disorientating and unexpected; uniquely blending imported gothic tropes with Aboriginal folklore and colonial horror.

These twelve terrifying tales of bloodthirsty bunyips, displaced phantoms and strange ancient magic, taking place in Aboriginal settlements, dusty desert camps, remote country towns and bustling coastal cities, create chills enough to quell the most shimmering-hot Australian summer day.