Book Review: Burrunjor

 BURRUNJOR

 The Search For Australia's Living Tyrannosaurus 

Author:                           Rex & Heather Gilroy

Publisher:                         URU Publications

Type:                                 Soft Cover

Pages:                                336

Genre:                               non-fiction

Published:                        2011

ISBN:                              9780987226204
                                         9781326839390 

 This book explores the fascinating fact that people, often through no fault of their own, continue to encounter large reptilian beasts in the outback and rugged bush of Australia.

 The book itself is well made, it is resplendent with black and white photos and drawing thorough. One criticism i have of some of the photos is that rock art and foot prints seem to have been outlined. While i understand this is so they appear easier in print, i can also see some "skeptics" scoffing that the evidence was just drawn on in chalk. While i am sure this is not the case, it is a shame that maybe two pictures couldn't be included for some of them, one with outlines and one with out for comparison.

 Speaking of evidence we have examples of whiteness testimony, and remember one witness claiming you did a crime in court is enough to get you killed even in some democracy's. I don't think any of these witnesses had any benefit in coming forward, in fact most were ridiculed by friends and family when they told of their harrowing encounters.
 We are shown tracks many of them have been measured, photographed, sketched and even cast in plaster. I should note that these tracks match no accepted extant animal species in Australia, or the world for that matter. And it should also be noted that these tracks are not fossilized! Meaning they are from recent footfall of some unknown animal. 
 Evidence of kills that could only have been from a large carnivore have been discovered, in some cases witnesses have caught the culprit in the act. Some of the poor animals have been prize winning cattle, not something any farmer is going to kill on a lark.
 In a similar vein the beast has been seen destroying property, I can attest to the difficulty in dealing with an insurance claim for a natural disaster, i cant imagine the insurer being any less helpful, but i recon blaming property damage on a creature thought to be extinct might get you there.

 Now for those who, due to a woeful misunderstanding of scientific method, believe that such a creature can not exist because it has not been declared extant by established science, a common theme will emerge upon reading any Cryptozoology book. When witnesses go to establishment scientists they are often ridiculed, scientific institutions in Australia have a long history of "losing" evidence, and so called "skeptics" professional or not, have a bad habit of making unfounded claims without looking at or considering the available evidence. The witness only "obligation" is to provide whatever evidence they have, then it is up to "the scientist" to investigate that evidence.

 So enough of my ranting lets get back to this book. The forward entices the reader into exploring the subject of tyrannosaur like beasts that have been sighted within Australia (and New Guinea) from way back in the Aboriginal Dreamtime to at least the publish date of this book.

 The book looks at what the beast could be and how it might have come to still be roaming the Australian bush. It should be noted that this book appears on some whack-a-doodle young earth websites. These donkeys seem to think, by some fantastic leaps of acrobatic style logic,  that any existing prehistoric creature somehow proves their particular brand of religion. For the record this book does not in any way support a "young earth" fallacy, the book even shows some fossilized prints and skeletons. It also does not support any unscientific anti-evolutionary nonsense. 
 Rex Gilroy has been an avid explorer of Australian mysteries since 1957, he is known as the father of Australian Cryptozoology and associating him and his work with such anti-science does a disservice to him and to the whole scientific field.

 I can recommend this book to anyone interested in Australia, history, Aboriginal culture, dinosaurs, and Cryptozoology.

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