MYTH OR MONSTER? THE HUNTER VALLEY YOWIE…

Below is preliminary report from Greg.
Rex is to send me his account later this week.
As Rex did most of the measuring, recording etc ...those details
will have to wait till I have his report.

Bold letters are Greg talking-the rest are Lloyds words from the day.

"I noticed these deep impressions in the mud beside the gate. It had jumped the gate. The dog was sniffing the area. Lloyd explaining where the prints were beside the fenced gate. One footprint was there, and the other footprint was there".

Lloyd describing the two foot prints in relation to each other. Photos & video up soon showing Lloyd explaining how he discovered the prints and their situation in comparison to each other.

Behind the right side print there were what Lloyd described as "blast impacts", with craters. "My dog knew something was wrong because he was on the scent of something and he came right down to these prints".

This creature has jumped the gate, and there were no prints on the other side of the gate as the ground was just too hard. Where the two prints were found was very soft mud after torrential rain. The right side print pushed chunks of clay behind it. It had landed it's right foot only slightly on the back pad and when the front of the foot landed the big toe did not register in the mud as it must have landed in a way that the big toe was pushed upwards.

I carried out an experiment where I removed my right shoe and went over the fence and tried to mimic jumping over it as this creature had did. Amazingly when my feet hit the ground the right foot went one way and the left foot went another, with my right foot big toe not touching the ground as I landed.

That didn't surprise me as much as that both feet landed in the same position, and the left foot was turned to the far left-just as the two prints showed. The creature then walked up and across the property, leaving faded prints that eventually just disappeared from the rock hard surface.

Lloyd then proceeds to point to the mountain area on his poroperty-approx...300 acres of thick bush. Lloyd then explains why he believes this was not any, " human playing tricks". "The creek that runs at the side of his property was flooded and was 130 metres wide and a raging torrent of 20-30khs in the middle"., Lloyd explained that, "no-one is going to swim across that in the middle of the night. ".

The creek when we walked across it was less than 6 metres across. 130 metres wide, travelling at the speeds Lloyd describes makes it impossible for anyone to come from that direction to jump his fence. The person would be stranded as Lloyd and his family were. They eventually had to have a helicopter drop off supplies after they were down to their last loaf of bread and had two kids with them.

What this implies is that this creature must have already been on the property, living somewhere on his 1000 acre property which has a mountain and numerous thick forested areas that are almost as thick as the Carrai Ranges-which is one of the thickest forested area I have been into where even sunshine doesn't penetrate the thick canopy in many places.

"The big blast impact was made by the back of the right foot and the track when I discovered it was still milky". Lloyd explained the toes were, "5 inches across and that the ruler in the photograph is 6 inches". Lloyd also believes that the creature had, "leaped over the gate quite easily".

I tried to jump over the gate and found as most humans would that as the gate moves it is hard to be steady as you climb it-which to me seemed not how this creature had jumped but that it had hurdled it quite easily (as Llloyd trhought) which would explain the blast impact zone at the back of the right foot print and also why it's left foot was spread so far to the left-as I had proved by doing the experiment myself of jumping the fence, although I steadied myself before jumping.

I had one hand on the fence and just leaped over, which is another possibility. If this is true then although the print is only 6 inches across the toes and approx..6-8 inches in length (without the back pad of the foot) and the fence is a good 4 foot+ (over a metre) in height-this height alone would be enough to make the deep impression that it did. The creature would have weighed a few hundred pounds and was probably quite thick in build.

Lloyd discovered these prints back on the 22 April 2008. Nearby I discovered more faded evidence. These were above the area that was wet mud and the ground then-although soft, soon was baked by the the hot sun. This in turn had sort of solidified the prints into the hard ground-which is how they still remained almost 8 months later.

Once we knew the location of the main two tracks it was just a matter of working out the stride and then doing experiments, where I would do a series of stretches and then finding another print and do a long stretch and see how far the stride was from the original prints. The photographs show a ruler between the second print and the third print.'

It was quite a stretch and over 1 metre and a half, between right foot impressions. When I tried to reach the second print in one stride I was almost and full stretch and could just reach the second print. If I'm stretching and this creature seems to be just walking normally how big was it? I am just under 6 foot and have a 30cm (`12inch foot without shoes on) I weigh approx... 80 kilos.

The dimensions of the first two tracks that Lloyd discovered in mud are approx...5 inches across the toes and 6-8 inches in length allowing for distortion in the mud, without the entire back area of the foot.

Other tracks though, as it left the muddy area seemed to show the entire foot formation which shows a much larger foot, as well as the entire structure of the outside dimensions, whereas in Lloyds photographs they appear stunted and compact without the entire back area oft he foot present as it had landed on the ball of the front pad. It does seem also that we are dealing with more than one creature as the prints also show a smaller form.ill stop and wait for you to go away and you just don't see or hear anything or they will themselves just take off to get away from you, and you hear them going away from where you are. To say that they were being followed and that every time they stopped this sound also stopped, sounds plausible in the light of the above).

Lloyd then proceeded to show us (NBN film crew and Heather, Rex and myself-Greg) the latest discoveries from only four days earlier where a creature-of considerable weight had walked across soft sand near the creek at the back of their house.

Lloyd had phoned Rex and Lloyd had covered four of them with large plastic containers which helped to preserve them till we arrived. The sand is hard on the surface in places and soft elsewhere. This creature had walked along the creek bank, then walked across this sandy area and then across a small ridge and then down along the creek to disappear at an unknown location as the prints faded after the sand finished, but were going down this general direction-though no other prints were discovered down that way, in the direction these prints were travelling to.

While Rex measured I went searching (walking almost a kilometre from Lloyd-the film crew & Rex) and discovered a few more faded indistinct prints, although this time in very hard mud. I also noticed their were vast amounts of these wild round melons along the creek, obviously they had been eaten by many creatures, none of which I believe were the creatures we were searching for evidence of-judging by the small holes that were found on each melon. As these melons are very soft a hominid would just brake it open with it's hands as I easily did..

The NBN film crew left, then Lloyd & Ann offered us lunch at his home. After lunch he offered to drive us in his four-wheel-drive to the top of the mountain on his property and to show us areas he had seen or heard unusual things. One one side of the mountain you can see in the distance, Mt Royal, Barrington Tops and other mountain ranges. These areas are also well known for settler encounters as well as modern day reports.

Lloyd is a knowledgeable bush person, and he has worked in many fields and has had quite a few encounters, not just with these prints. One last comment, the sound Lloyd said he had heard coming from the mountain in the past sounded like,"woop woop woop". We have heard other encounters claiming similar "woop woop woop" sounds. Lloyd had contacted many government departments and other researchers before he was told by a rural lands officer to contact Rex.

Rex, Heather and I are planning the next trip to the property. We would like to thank Lloyd and Ann for their hospitality and for allowing us into their home and for showing us around his immense property in his four-wheel drive, as well as sharing his story and other's with us.

One of the most intriguing reports comes from the Mt Royal area http://www.australianyowieresearchcentre.com/yowie-database-1920.html

Read the story right hand column below images.

Photo's copyright © Greg Foster

	Photo left: Dam On Lloyds Property
	Photo left: Mountains In The Background
	Photo left: Lloyd Pointing The Direction The Tracks Were Going
	Photo left: One of the Deep Prints Near The Creek In sand
	Photo left: Indistinct Print Near Creek
	Photo left: Indistinct Print Near Creek
	Photo left: Large Kangaroo
	Photo left: View From Lloyds Property
	Photo left: Large Kangaroo
	Photo left: Rex Pondering the Day
	Photo left: Thick Scrub At The Back Of Lloyds Property
	Photo left: Rex & Lloyd Standing Amongst Volcanic Hill
	Photo left: Rex Holding Chopping Tool He Discovered Moments Earlier
	Photo left: Rex Holding Chopping Tool He Discovered Moments Earlier
	Photo left: Lloyd - Rex & Ann

Yowie Expedition Page - Click Here

 

 

Photo: Mr Lloyd Stapleton showing Footprint's
Photo: Mr Lloyd Stapleton showing Footprint's
Photo: Rex - Lloyd - Heather & film Crew
Photo: Distinct Outline of a Foot Print
Photo: Foot Print 30 cm Ruler
Photo: Faded Footprint
Photo: Faded Footprint
Photo: Two Prints - Stride - Distance Between Each Step

More Images Up Soon
Photo: Mr Lloyd Stapleton Interviewed By NBN TV Crew
Photo: Rex Recording Print
Photo: Photo: Rex Measuring Depth Of Print
Photo: Two Prints - Left print Faded
Photo: Mountain In The Distance On Lloyd's Property
Photo: Prints Inside Rectangle Lines
Photo: Prints Inside Rectangle Lines

Photo: Three Plaster Casts Still In Ground

 

Plans are already afoot to return to Singleton in the near future to continue our investigations. Yet what we have already turned up is more than enough evidence to convince us that Yowies, still roam this area. Near Mt Royal 1920's An interesting encounter of man and Beast It was near Mt Royal one day, during the 1920's, that a bushman was riding about in search of cattle. As he rounded the lower end of a long, steep ridge extending up into higher country, he met a creature whose appearance stunned him for several minutes. The creature stood about 1.6 m tall but was tremendously wide and heavily-built, with an enormous chest, shoulders and long heavily-muscled arms reaching to below its knees, with hands far, far larger than any ordinary man's. It had a huge head somewhat bullet-shaped, with half-monkey, half-human facial features, and it had long coarse-looking black hair covering its head and much of the body. As the bushmen steadied his horse while trying to comprehend the 'manimal' before him, it stood gazing at him with large, jet black (but not unfriendly) eyes. The horse displayed considerable fear, refusing to go any closer than the 10 m or so that presently seperated the bushman from the weird creature. He addressed the hairy 'manimal' several times but 'he' made no sound, then after about tem minutes, turned around and moved off at a slow, shambling walk up along the far side of the ridge. It had only walked about 30 m when it stopped, turned around and to the rider's astonishment, began waving one huge hairy hand at him, as though inviting him to follow. The man's curiosity was aroused, so he began to follow at the same time reassuring his mount. The 'manimal' appeared pleased that he was following, and would walk a short distance, then look back, wait until the rider was close, then move forward again, along a shelf formation running parallel with the ridge. The bushman followed the hairy manbeast for about three quarters of a kilometre, before he noticed that the shelf was becoming narrower, and it also became apparent that, where the shelf went around a sharp bend at the foot of a high, steep cliff, he would be unable to turn his horse around and which also prevented him from seeing what lay beyond. Then when he was about 40 m from the bend, the weird creature broke into a shuffling, shambling run, vanished around the bend for a short time, then reappeared. Seeing that the man had stopped following it, the 'manimal' began beckoning to him even more enthusiastically than before. The man debated a while what he should do, at the same time keeping a wary eye on the creature and listening for any sounds that might suggest the presence of other similar animals nearby. From where he was he could still back his horse around and make a quick getaway, whereas up ahead this was impossible. He remained there for about ten minutes, pondering what he should do. His curiosity told him to continue, and he might have, had his three cattle dogs been with him, for he would have left his horse and gone on foot; but his only defense if attacked was his heavy stockwhip (with which he felt he could hand out some punishment to any assailant). Even so, what if there was a whole mob of these creatures waiting for him around the bend. Common sense won out and he turned his horse around and rode off slowly, looking behind him at the same time, to see what the 'manimal' would do next. When it realised he was leaving, the creature began following at a shambling, shuffling pace, at the same time beckoning him frantically to come back, and emitting a series of cries and grunts, as if pleading "Come back, Come back, I wont hurt you..." The creature followed him for about half a kilometre beyond where the bushman had first encountered it. His last sight of the 'manimal' was of it gazing after him, with a sad, disappointed look on its face. The bushman never saw the creature again, even though he often returned to the scene alone, or with other men he sometimes took along. His tale of the 'Wild Man of Mt Royal' often met with ridicule. However, local Aborigines used to warn the first European settlers of the district, to beware of hairy, human-like creatures of upwards 2.6 m height, who often emerged from a certain rocky gorge in search of meat-animal or human.. Rex and Heather Gilroy can be contacted at the “Australian Yowie Research Centre”. Phone 02 4782 3441; email randhgilroy@optusnet.com.au; or PO Box 202, Katoomba, NSW 2780. Photo's copyright © Greg Foster