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A gorilla in an Australian fairytale!

How beastly! What's a gorilla doing in an Aussie fairytale? Reading Australian Fairytales, written in 1897 by Atha Westbury,  I find 'Twilight '( definately not about vampires) is a 'Beauty and the Beast'  ripoff set in Melbourne.  A gorilla seemed an odd choice for an antipodean 'Beast' until i discover  that a gorilla arrived in the colony of Victoria in 1865. This one though was truly immobilised in an action pose guaranteed to terrify the fainthearted and small children (including me a hundred years later).   The  display at National Museum at The University of Melbourne obviously fired the imagination of Melburnians and Westbury.  Read more:  Gorillas at the Museum