Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Southern Highlands 1940's

Yowies

Old identities of the southern Highlands district still talk of incidents stretching back 100 years along the Deua River, west of Moruya, around Araluen between Braidwood and the south coast and Numeralla.

The Yowies here were said to occasionally wander from out of the rugged mountainous forest country onto remote farms, to kill straying stock, carrying off the butchered remains to caves back in the mountains leaving behind them the crude stone knives with which they had carved up the animals.

They do not appear to have been the 'monkey'-type Yowies of elsewhere, and as late as the 1940's were still being reported seen quite frequently, until the spread of civilisation drove them deeper into the mountain ranges.

Orbost District 1940's

Hairy man-sized Creature

Back in the 1940's Jimmy Cook, a part Aboriginal, was employed on a farm in the Orbost district of north-eastern Victoria. One day he set out to walk into town. An hour or two later he returned to the farm in an exhausted state, trembling and for some time unconsolable.

After he had sufficiently recovered, he told his employers that, on his way along a bush road he had spotted a 'hairy man' watching him from nearby bushes. The man-sized creature began to follow him and Jimmy 'took to his heels' screaming in terror.

He made for the nearby Snowy River, and upon reaching the bank, clambered over rocks, wading into the water to the opposite bank. The hairy creature, having reached the water's edge, stood watching him escape.

Megalong Valley 1940's

Manimals

Tales of Yowies seen in Megalong Valley were still commonplace during the 1940's, when Mrs Iris Baker [now of Springwood, and mentioned earlier in this chapter] had her own 'close encounter' with one of these 'manimals'.

Crowdy 1940's-Related 1982

Swamp creature of great Height

Mrs Irene Daniel informed me in 1982 that, when she was a young girl in the early 1940's, she lived with her family at Crowdy, situated 50 miles south of Port Macquarie.

"I used to walk in to the school with other children of a morning along a bush track. Sandy hills lay on one side, on a freshwater lagoon which lay between the ocean and swamps and bushland." "On one occasion the children found big footprints in the sand leading down toward the lagoon."

"I also recall about this time, three men were out shooting one day when they spotted a creature in the swamp thereabouts. The creature was of great height, about 12 ft [3.6 m]. The men at first thought it was a man walking in the swamp, but once they realised it was no normal human they ran off in fear of their lives".

Emmaville 1940's

Ape-like Tracks

"One day Roy went out looking for sheep on his horse. This was during the early 1940's. He rode off into the dense mountain country. He later returned in haste, galloping up to the house." "'Did you hear the news. A couple of kids are lost up in the mountains. I found bare footprints out in the scrub - might be their's,' he said. We wanted to make our own search for the children, but as it was getting dark the search had to wait till morning."

"At first light we rode up into the scrub to the site of the footprints. Roy had apparently not had a close enough look at the tracks the previous day, for when we saw them we realised they appeared more ape-like than human." "We boiled the billy and while discussing the tracks and the likely whereabouts of the missing children [who turned up later elsewhere], we began to feel that we were being watched. We were glad to get out of the area.

Giants Dance 1940's

Two legged brown man-like Creature

In the area known as "Giants Dance", which lies on the Wild Cattle Creek, itself about 6 km from Watsons Creek, there is an unpopulated area of gum forest some 50,000 or so square acres in extent. There was a tin mine here in the 1940's.

Near the mine and above the creek was a cabin constructed of tin sheeting, and it was here that kangaroo shooter, Mr Keith Blackman used to stay when shooting in the area. One day as he walked down to the creek, rifle in hand, he saw ahead of him, and across the creek, a "two legged, brown haired, 2.6m tall, manlike creature," as he described it later.

The manbeast strode into the water in his direction, at which Keith fired a shot at the monster hominid, then turned and bounded for the cabin, barring the door. The hairy man-ape did not pursue him and had disappeared by the time Keith nervously looked outside. However, the next morning when he emerged, he was shocked to find huge footprints in the soft dirt all around the area. He lost no time leaving the place after that!"

Roper River 1940

Kalkadoon Man

"In the early years of the 20th century, prior to World Was One, settlers of the Cloncurry and Mount Isa districts were warned by Aborigines that "giant blackfellas" were still living in the arid country of the nearby Selwyn Range. 'Kalkadoon Man come get you' was a common warning.

I know of a cave painting in the Cloncurry district that old Aborigines say depicts this giant." "In the late 1940's I met a drover, Jim Spriggs, at a pub in Darwin. In the course of a discussion on our travels I happened to mention the old stories of giant Aborigines in northern Qld." "Oh, the Abo's talk about them up in Arnhem Land, and I saw one myself a while back," he said.

"I pressed him further and he told me that, one day in 1940 he was mustering a large mob of cattle in the Roper River area near Urapunga. With him were three Aboriginal stockmen." As they sat on their mounts, about 200 yards away a very tall dark figure emerged from the nearby scrub. At this the Aborigines cried 'Kalkadoon Man boss, Kalkadoon Man', and galloped off in fright.

Jim then realised that the figure in the distance was no ordinary man and at least 8 ft in height. He was holding a spear which he then hurled into a nearby calf. As the cattle took fright and scattered, the big native dashed to the calf, and removing the spear, picked up the dead animal and strode off back into the scrub.

All this time Jim just sat on his horse dumbfounded. "I was unarmed but for my stockwhip, and if necessary could have dealt out some punishment to the big bloke if he tried to attack me." Jim then road off to search for his frightened Aborigines. "I found them soon after, and with difficulty got them to help me round up the scattered stock. They were certainly glad to get out of the place," he said.

"Having learnt the Aboriginal name for these giants I was pleased some years later to be invited by a couple of tribal elders, while in the Victoria River district near Wave Hill, to inspect a number of very large human footprints fossilised in solid rock, made they said, by a 'Kalkadoon Man' in the Dreamtime."

"These giant Aboriginal beings will always remain very real to them." The scepticism of many people regarding such claims is understandable, but to the Aborigines these beings are very real. They are real also to experienced old bushmen who have had their own encounters with the Kalkadoon people, and do not take kindly to anyone who doubts their honesty.

Like the Jim Jim pygmy folk, the dreaded Pankalankas and gorilla-like Jimbras, the Kalkadoons are no myth and some still survive "out there, somewhere"!