Australia's Hidden History
This article is composed of extracts from the 2007 book:
“The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils From The Dreamtime".Copyright (c) 2007 Rex Gilroy, Uru Publications.
The implications are that, not only does Australia possess a ‘hidden history’ in the form of an independent hominid evolutionary fossil record equal to that of Africa but that as the earliest modern humans [Homo sapiens] only appeared in Africa by around 200,000 years ago, the discovery by the authors of fossil skull-types of anatomically modern humans no later than 300,000 years old in Australia demonstrates that Australia, not Africa, was the birthplace of the earliest modern humans!
The fossil evidence to be presented in this book speaks for itself to demonstrate that, the time has come to think “Out of Australia” rather than “Out of Africa” for our origins. The fossil evidence to be presented by us has great bearing on the Yowie mystery, for with this evidence we have laid the fossil foundations of the true origins of the “hairy man” traditions of our Aboriginal people.
We intend by this means, to present the very ‘archaeology’ of the Yowie, to reveal a commonsense picture of beings which the ‘popular’ press and other media has for far too long treated with “tongue-in-cheek” derision; for as our evidence will demonstrate in the course of this book, the Yowie was/is none other than Homo erectus, our immediate ancestor. Our book will not meet with the approval of those so-called “Yowie researchers” who support the hairy gorilla-like monster image.
This is because we are approaching the subject from a proper scientific palaeoanthropological aspect, while not neglecting contemporary sightings reports which, for various reasons we consider to be authentic, in that they meet with the physiological image built up by us of these hominids through a lifetime’s researches. In the forthcoming chapters the reader will be presented with startling fossil evidence which we believe, proves our theory on the true identity of the Yowie.
Searching for freshly-made relict hominid footprints in the forest and so-called “territorial markers” in the form of broken tree limbs and twigs supposedly placed against trees and rocks by Yowies, is the favourite ‘sport’ of the “hairy monster” Yowie-catchers brigade, yet it proves nothing. Plaster casts of “Yowie footprints” are too often faked these days by these people [usually to get media attention] and are not regarded as conclusive evidence by understandably sceptical scientists, any more than they would accept the “territorial marker”, as such sights are commonplace in any forest, particularly following bad weather.
Australians May Be 1 Million Years Old
By Richard MaceyAustralia may have been inhabited by humans a million years ago, a leading scientist says. Mike Archer, the dean of science at the University of NSW (New South Wales) and former director of the Australian Museum, says evidence in recent years that humans had reached the Indonesian Island of Flores 840,000 years ago suggests they might also have migrated to Australia.
"I am personally convinced it was going on, "he said, adding that the belief humans only arrived here 50,000 to 60,000 years ago stemmed from "conservative" scientific thinking. He said the first to reach Flores must have used rafts, if these early humans, Homo erectus could reach Flores, they could make it to Timor. And from there they would have seen smoke fires on the Australian mainland.
Curiosity would have tempted them to use the currents to reach that land. "I would have thought it would have been impossible to resist. It was a big target to miss." Professor Archer said evidence of early humans might already exist. I found archaic stone tools in the Numbung Desert...in Western Australia nearly 25 years ago." However, technology could not date the stones and the material in which they were originally buried, which would normally provide clues to their age, eroded long ago. Aborigines had told him legends about "short, hairy people" that came out at night to feed on meat". In Going Native, published last month, Professor Archer and Bob Beale wrote:
"Given the Flores discoveries...we can't see why the real dates for human arrival in Australia shouldn't turn out to be in excess of 100,000 years." Colin Groves, of the Australian National University, was sceptical, because evidence of human activity in Australia appeared, "quite suddenly" in archaeological layers 50,000 or 60,000 years old. I can't think what's come over him [Professor Archer]." he said. Professor Groves suspected the sea between Timor and Australia was too wide for ancient people to navigate. Nor did he put faith in tales of little people. Professor Mike Morwood, who helped discover the miniature human "hobbits" on Flores, and evidence of 840,000-year-old human activity, said he wouldn't be surprised if humans reached AUstralia 200,000 years ago. " Its just that we don't have the evidence yet."
The introduction to our previous book on the subject, “Giants from the Dreamtime – The Yowie in Myth and Reality” already says it all. The fact is, what should be a combined scientific investigation of the mystery has become a slanging match between rival so-called ‘research’ groups, with one party spending precious time searching for all kinds of dirt to use in slandering their ‘opposition’. Thefts of one another’s casts are not unknown, and a Blue Mountains Cryptozoological Group stole valuable cast copies from the author’s own home, with the aid of ‘spies’ who attended a monthly gathering of researchers at our home in 2004.
One only has to take a look at the Internet to see the ‘bitching’ that goes on, with all kinds of insults and accusations being thrown at one another. All too often the Gilroys have been the sole targets of this unwanted attention, all aimed at discrediting the other party in order for the attackers to set themselves up as more ‘respectable’ researchers than the Gilroys And then there is the hate mail and the crank phone calls that the Gilroys have often to contend with!
We ask, what is the Internet to be used for – the worldwide exchange of information and consultations between serious researchers in whatever field; or as a venue for slander, insults [even bad language at times!] and general bitching like two gossiping housewives over the backyard fence? All that time wasted, when it could be put to better use in research!
As to all those so-called ‘researchers’ out there who have nothing better to do than criticise our latest fossil and artefact etc discoveries, rather than waste time attacking us for our good luck, why can’t you all do what we do, and that is, get out in the bush and look for the real evidence! Unlike our opposition, we do not conduct our research in front of computer 24-hours a day, but instead look for it in the field. Photograph right: Aboriginal Girl wearing a Kangaroo hide Garment. Photographer Unknown. I will credit anyone who owns this photograph.
We do not use other people’s theories and discoveries as our own, nor do we plagiarise another’s hard work and unlike some ‘researchers’ I could name, who have to employ gimmicks to get themselves on television, any television or other media publicity that I, Rex Gilroy, have ever had, I have worked for it the hard way, in the field! In the 50 years since, as a young High School student I began researching the Yowie and mystery animals, in the course of which I became the ‘Father’ not only of Yowie research, but also Australian Cryptozoology, I have amassed a huge natural science collection which includes, besides every aspect of the natural sciences, a huge collection of plaster casts and other evidence on the Yowie and unknown animals.
Here in Katoomba for over 30 years Heather and I have operated “The Australian Yowie Research Centre” and “Australian Unknown Animals Research Centre”, for the gathering and study of all manner of evidence not only on Homo erectus/Yowie but mystery animal species generally. Our activities in recent years have included the establishment of URU Publications for the publishing of our books, and now URU Productions for our documentary film making. The money we make from these ventures helps to fund our continuing field investigations for the purpose of turning up more evidence on a variety of subjects.
We have written this book as an appeal for commonsense research and therefore are aiming this volume at younger hopefuls who wish to become involved in the search for Australia’s relict hominids, and to train them to steer clear of the ‘wacko’ and ‘paramilitary-clothed’ Yowie-catchers. By so doing they will earn the respect of the scientific community, even if these people don’t always accept the relict hominid theory, and it will open the door to the kind of discoveries Heather and I make, which are far more convincing to an anthropologist and zoologist than the kind of ‘evidence’ of the un-trained “Yowie-catchers” already described.One glaring example is given by one media-hungry gentleman who dresses his ‘catchers’ in paramilitary uniforms [because “gee whiz, that how American Bigfoot catchers dress!] and who, when giving a media interview during an ‘expedition’ near Wollongong, New South Wales, stated “Unlike Rex Gilroy, we do ‘search’ not ‘research’!” This is a fundamental error. It is indeed very necessary to conduct research if you are to know anything about the subject of your investigations. That is why Heather and I are constantly in the field, searching for evidence that might tell us something of the physiology of these relict hominids, how they manufacture their stone tools, make fire and the type of rock overhangs or other forms of shelter they might prefer.
At these sites we can learn what foods they eat – and they do live in family groups – and by such ‘detective work’ we can learn far more than any mindless ‘hunt’ for these beings. Thus the aim of the true researcher should be, not to ‘hunt’ and ‘capture’ a Homo erectus/Yowie with financial reward in mind, but instead learn what we can from these hominids as they go about their hunter/gatherer lifestyle, continually on the move as they continually in our remote mountainous forestlands.
As the reader will learn in the course of their progress through this book, the ‘hairy man’ was/is more than one form of Homo erectus, from pygmy to average modern human height and giant-size. Much exciting information and evidence is about to be revealed, such as fossil hominid footprints and skull-types found around Australia, which demonstrates that, as we modern humans evolved from Homo erectus, we are related to him. He is our father. Let us all hope that the mindless ‘Yowie hunters’ realise this before they contemplate their next foray into the wilderness, without any thought to the harm they will be inflicting upon these beings.
The words ‘hunt’ and ‘catch’ are not found in the Gilroys’ vocabulary in our search for evidence of any mystery hominid or animal species, any more than we would ever contemplate capturing some creature in a cage or other trap, from where it would only end up in a zoo. The fact is, we learn nothing of any species’ habits in a zoo situation. It is far better to study the species in the wild, observing its habits, studying its lairs for traces of its foods, etc. Only in this way can we ever hope to learn the life-history of any rare animal species, and the same can be said for relict hominids.
“The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils From The Dreamtime".
“The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils From The Dreamtime". Special Dedication. The Authors dedicate this book to the late Charles Melbourne Ward F.Z.S.; F.R.Z.S. known to his great many friends simply as ‘Mel’. Together with his wife Halley, he operated a natural history museum in the grounds of the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath for many years and also another established at Echo Point, Katoomba. It was ‘Mel’ who first taught me how to collect, record and study natural history specimens, beginning when I was aged 11 years old on holidays with my parents at Katoomba in 1954. Thereafter, every school holidays spent in Katoomba began with a visit to ‘Mel’ at his Medlow Bath Museum to inform him how my fledgling natural science studies were progressing!
As a result and after my parents moved from our Lansvale [western Sydney] home to Katoomba, the Gilroys and Wards became close friends. There was hardly a week which did not see me peddling my pushbike from our North Katoomba home up the Great Western Highway to see ‘Mel’ at his museum for more instruction. Mel Ward possessed a wide knowledge of the culture of the Australian Aborigines and that of the former local Blue Mountains tribes in particular.
He was also a firm believer in the “Hairy Man” and supported my researches in this regard. At my 21st birthday party, held at the Homesdale Function Centre, at Katoomba on Saturday night 8th November 1964, I well recall how my old friend, in front of a large gathering, congratulated me on my researches and the large natural science collection that I was forming and then said: “You’ve done a fantastic job Rex, BUT IT’S ABOUT TIME THAT YOU STARTED MAKING SOME BLOODY MONEY OUT OF IT” in a loud voice that brought the house down!
That following week, together with my father Mr W.F. [Bill] Gilroy, I began a search of local venues, which soon resulted in the acquisition of the lease from the Blue Mountains City Council of the Mt York Tea Rooms, outside Mt Victoria, the rest they as “is history”. Two years late, on October 6th 1966, Mel Ward was dead, having passed away in his sleep. He once said to my father that I was “the Mel Ward of Tomorrow” and I am certain that Mel would be pleased to know that I have indeed followed in his footsteps.
Mel led an adventurous life. The son of Hugh J. Ward, a famous Shakespearean actor of the early 20th century, Mel was encouraged to go on the stage by his father but Mel developed a passion for the natural sciences and his wealthy parents helped him become established. In his lifetime of achievement, Mel became recognised as a world authority on Crustaceans and an anthropologist. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales and was pleased when I too became a member of the Society in 1963. He encouraged me, not long before his death, to take on the Presidency of the Society’s Entomological section, where I served for three years from 1966 to 1969.
That he achieved so many things in the course of his lifetime researches is remarkable, because like this author, he was an amateur with not one university degree to his name! I am certain that my old friend would be delighted at the fact that, together with heather, I am now writing and publishing book on the subjects he loved and on the Yowie in particular. He taught me never to blindly follow the textbook and dare to question dogmas and not be told what to think! I have certainly followed his advice. Knowing Mel Ward as I did I know he would wholeheartedly approve of the scientific approach of this book, therefore “Mel”
This Book is for You!
Rex Gilroy - Australian Yowie Research Centre, Katoomba, NSW.
Monday 25th June 2007I also present sensible advice to any future would-be Yowie investigators. The reader will also be awed at the great many discoveries my wife Heather and I have made in all our years together in the field. I feel privileged to be the founder of Yowie research and to have encouraged other, sensible researchers to follow my example. The search for surviving relict hominids in remote, hidden regions of the world, has been called the “last great search”, and it is both a fascinating and exciting one. Rex Gilroy may be contacted at the Australalian Yowie Research Centre, PO Box 202, Katoomba. NSW 2780. Ph 02 4782 3441 or email New Email Address as of June 2009 randhgilroy44@bigpond.com on or visit our website : http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/ or http://www.australianyowieresearchcentre.com/ or http://www.rexgilroy.com/
Newspaper Articles on Rex Gilroy's Lifetime Search for the Australian Yowie
Newspaper Articles on Rex Gilroy's Lifetime Search for the Australian Yowie
Aboriginal/Koori Names for the Australian Yowie
To present the Yowie mystery in its proper context, relict hominid evidence from south-east Asia, New Guinea, other west Pacific Islands and New Zealand is revealed, demonstrating how the ancestors of these ‘manimals’ once spread out across the earth via land-bridges that formerly joined Australia/New Guinea/New Zealand with what is now island south-east Asia to the Asian mainland.
“Hairy man” was a name given by the Aborigines to any non-Aboriginal race with which they shared this continent, but the term centred primarily upon at least three basic forms. These forms were either the height of an average human being, an enormous man-like and also ape-like form. All were known by different names Australia-wide, but all meant either “hairy man” or “great hairy man”.
