Giants
From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality
Bega
District 1912
7ft
dark haired-upright walking ape-like Beast
During
October, 1912 a Melbourne surveyor, Mr. Phillip Mills and two geologists
were camped on a mountainside in the Bega district. One night, as the
men sat around their campfire having their evening meal, Mr. Mills spotted
a dark tall shape, illuminated by the glow of the campfire moving among
trees. To the horror of all, the mystery visitor emerged into full view,
a mere several feet from them; a 7 ft (2.1 m) dark haired, upright walking,
ape-like beast.
He appeared very
muscular, with big, powerful arms and legs, big feet and large hands.
His genitals appeared about normal man-sized and he looked at the men
with a face somewhere between ape and human in appearance. One man grabbed
for a nearby revolver, but as he did so, the man-monster turned and
walked away, as if quite unconcerned. The man-ape seemed to be inquisitive
and made no attempt to harm us, and I motioned to my companion not to
shoot", said Mr. Mills to a journalist many years later.....
The
Saddle 1912
Three
stories of a Thing
Several kilometres south-west
of Carey's Peak, the second highest point in the Barrington Tops Range
in a northerly direction from Mt Royal, a great razorbacked spur branches
off from the Range, running southwards for about 13 km distant, where
a huge dome-shaped peak rises well over 1000 m above sea-level, between
the Allyn and Paterson valleys.
Beyond the Knob, or Mt Allyn,
[its correct name], the range continues as the watershed of the two
valleys. Between the Knob and the peak nearest it on the northern side,
is a long deep depression called 'The Saddle'. It was here that the
following three stories took place about 1912, as related by two old
Cedar getters to Mr. E L. Bates during the 1930's.
The first story took place
one night when they and a mate were camped in a large bark hut erected
on top of the saddle ridge.
"We all turned in early
that night after a long hard days work amongst the timber and up to
that time had never seen or heard anything unusual, and were hoping
for a good night's sleep; but about 9pm we were awakened by our three
dogs barking and growling in an unusually savage way, quite unlike their
average manner of greeting anything or anybody who might venture near
the camp."
"A few moments later
we became aware of a tremendous growling, snarling noise far louder
than the dogs, far too loud for a dingo, and totally unlike any animal,
or other kind of noise we'd ever heard in the bush up to that time;
in fact it reminded us of the circus lions we'd heard on many occasions.
The night was very dark, we had no firearms, so called out "Who's
there?"
"The answer was a terrific
roar that fairly shook the ground and sent the dogs scurrying inside
the hut [the door was open up to then].In they came helter-skelter straight
underneath our bunks. A few moments later something struck the back
of the hut a tremendous blow. Meanwhile, I had shut the door whilst
my mates secured the two wooden windows, at the same time yelling out
to enquire who it might be and what the hell he meant kicking up that
bloody row that time of night."
"The answer was an even
more savage attack on the walls of our luckily well put together dwelling,
accompanied by growls that made our hair fairly stand on end. We stacked
the table and a couple of bunks against the door, it being about the
weakest part of our defences, then stood back, armed with mattock handles,
the best available weapons we had, ready to offer battle to the Unknown
which continued to try to batter its way inside."
"Once during a long
attack on the rear wall we shifted the barricades away from the door
and tried desperately to 'sool' our dogs out to the attack, but although
they would like most Australian Cattle Dogs tackle anything, this time
they utterly refused and took shelter underneath the other bunk, eyes
glaring, every bristle they owned standing on end, and shivering with
fright; which showed plainly that this creature was something they knew
no more about than we did, which helped convince us our very unwelcome
visitor was no human being."
"Several hours passed
during which most of the time, the 'Thing' walked round and round our
hut, the heavy 'pad, pad, pad' of its feet revealing it to be of very
considerable weight; only stopping for short intervals, even then keeping
up a low slobbering sound that was horrible to hear, then at it again.
More that once we fully
expected to see the walls and roof of our bark hut come crashing down
under the rain of blows from some heavy weapon the creature was using;
more than once did we bless our foresight in using fairly heavy hardwood
timber for the framework."
"About two o'clock 'it'
finally gave up and went off still growling, but we understandably enough
did not venture out until after sunrise. Only then did we learn something
of the actual size of our bad-tempered caller. A few yards away was
the weapon 'it' had been using - the trunk of a young and solid Corkwood
tree. It was a good fourteen feet [4.6 m] long when measured and eight
inches [20.5 cm] across the butt end, and had been SNAPPED off at both
ends, and looked as if it had been battered for hours with a hammer.
[Note: Australian Corkwood
is renowned for its toughness and tensile strength]
Enormous
man-like footprints
"Also, around the hut
we found numbers of enormous man-like footprints embedded in the soil." "We stayed home that
day to repair our sorely tried dwelling as well as keep a sharp lookout
for the enemy, but strange to say, although we continued to camp there
for several months, 'it' never again interfered with the hut."
"However, only twice
did we ever have any real experience of its presence thereabouts, although
several times we found bullock yokes and other gear scattered about,
and one evening about a fortnight after the night attack, one of my
mates hung some chains across a certain track after unyoking his team,
in order to stop them from straying away. A short while after tea [about
dusk], he thought he heard them trying to break through so went up to
bring them down and turn them away in another direction. About a hundred
yards [100 m] from the chain barricade he heard sounds like that Bloody
animal."
"Sneaking forward cautiously,
to a spot nearby from where he would be able to see the barricade area
outlined against the sky, he saw not cattle, but an enormous creature
'like those Bloody big Chimps we saw that time at Sydney Zoo, only bigger'."
"It was pulling the
chains apart and hurling them around to the accompaniment of savage
snarling and growling that caused the watcher to return at his best
downhill speed. Next morning we all went up with our rifles, just in
case, but there was no sign of 'it', but what a mess the working gear
was in. Some of the iron neck bows had been pulled out almost straight,
others twisted almost right around in a circle, yet another warning
of what a rough customer it would be to try and capture it alive and
unhurt if one so wished, which we certainly didn't."
[Note: the men were using
what are known in other countries as Ox Teams to draw the Cedar timber
away on large, iron clad slides. Also, in Australia Ox Teams have always
been referred to as Bullock Teams.] One afternoon about three
months after the hut and other incident, one of the men was pulling
some timber up to the top from a short way down on the Paterson side.
"The other blokes were
both away on other work so I'd brought young 'Alf' up for company, he
was about seven years old at the time and pretty handy about the camp. "I'd stopped the team
to give them a spell when all of a sudden, a tremendous and seemingly
human voice began roaring and yelling about a quarter of a mile away
down where we had come from only a short while earlier. We could hear
it quite clearly, in fact so loud was it that for a few minutes I had
a bit of a job to calm the team."
"Unlike animal sounds
these seemed to be in the nature of connected and definite language
utterances though neither Alf or I were able to recognise any actual
words. The team by now having become accustomed to the noise, I cracked
my whip and we both yelled as loud as we could between the intervals
when the voice stopped for a while. We went a short way down to where
we could see without being seen from below. Here we waited quite a while
but saw nothing, and after about 30 minutes the Thing not having appeared
and been silent for a good while we resumed our journey."
"Whatever it was, animal
or sub-human, it had a voice far louder than any bullock driver I've
ever heard. In truth, if you've ever heard an angry bull working himself
into a fury, by lowering his mouth to the ground and roaring his loudest
amongst thick standing timber, you'll have some small idea of what I
mean." "I've no doubt it was
either the same or a similar creature that attacked the hut and bullock
gear," the man said.
Sassafras
Mountain 1912
Brown
haired man-like Beast
About June in
the winter of 1978, Sussex Inlet resident Alf Collier was exploring
bushland in the mountains of nearby Morton National Park when he found
long strands of hair caught in the branch of a shrub on the side of
Wandandian Mountain. The hair seemed unlike any normal human hair.
Nearby Alf found young wattle
trees with 8 cm thick trunks broken 1 m above the ground, and which
had then been torn down the centre, exposing Witchetty Grub holes, obviously
done by someone or something to get at the grubs, presumably for food.
Above these trees Alf smelt a powerful stench. He had smelt this stench
on two other occasions in the same area earlier during April 1978.
Alf's father-in-law, Mr Norm
Allsopp, about 1912 saw a brown-haired, man-like beast in scrub at the
foot of Sassafras Mountain 30 km west of Sussex Inlet. With him were
two large dogs which cowered and ran off terrified at the sight of the
hairy manbeast.