Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Kangaroo Island 1948

Megatools [giant-sized stone implements]

Some of the most important myths and legends of the Aborigines of the Murray River region concerned those of the Ngurunderi. These giant people lived upon the Murray cod fish, as well as the giant kangaroos and other 'megafauna' that inhabited the surrounding countryside in ancient times. The first Ngurunderi giant was said to have been responsible for the creation of the Murray River.

These giants made huge stone implements, including knives with which they cut up and skinned the giant marsupials they killed. The Ngurunderi people also knew the use of fire for they cooked all the food they captured. One myth says that the first Ngurunderi giant had two wives, which he had obtained in the course of his travels along the Murray River.

The women eventually ran away from him and he pursued them all the way down to the South Australian coast, from where the wives were attempting to cross over to Kangaroo Island, at that time still joined to the mainland. Ngurunderi caused the sea to rise, drowning the women. He then crossed over to Kangaroo Island where he lived for a time.

Note: The first 'megatools' [giant-size stone implements] to be identified by scientists were recovered from Kangaroo Island in 1948 by archaeologist Dr A Gallus. At the time they were linked to an early Aboriginal stone tool culture, labelled 'Kartan', after the original Aboriginal name for the island. Could the Ngurunderi tradition be a race-memory of the former presence there of a much larger form of hominid?

Snowy River 1948-1990

Hairy female Creature

In October 1990, Dereck Holmes, while camped on the bank of the source of the Snowy river below Mt Kosciusko, awoke at first light to peer from his tent. As he did so, he caught sight of a 1.6 m tall hairy female creature standing nearby amid granite boulders. As he emerged, bewildered at the sight, she bolted away, disappearing over a granite outcrop.

Tall hairy Figure

[It was hereabouts back in 1948 that a party of campers sighted a tall, hairy figure, moving up a mountainside through snow, at a distance of about 100 m].

Hanging Rock Village 1948

Nundle Giant-hairy [reddish] human-like Creature

Most of the locals need little convincing of the existence of these primitive, hairy hominids in the wilderness around them and have many personal experiences to relate, such as the following: George Partridge, now about 60 years old, and a personal friend of this author, often talks to me of his own "close encounter" with the 'hairy man' or 'Nundle Giant' as 'he' is better known to the locals.

George, who has lived all his life at Hanging Rock village, the little community perched high above Nundle township, and nestled amid surrounding forest-covered mountains, has shown me the exact location, where in 1948, when he was about 8 years old, he saw a sight that he is hardly likely to ever forget.

"One afternoon, a young mate and I decided to go and pick some wild cherries in the forest over at Mt Pleasant, in a valley forming part of the mountain." "We took a galvanised tin bucket. We were working our way down a steep gully.

However, before we reached the bottom where the cherries grew, we were stopped in our tracks when we saw, about 100 yards below us, this hairy [reddish] human-like creature, a good 7-8ft [2.1-2.4m] tall - the height of the cherry trees - standing there with his arms raised picking the cherries." "Actually we wondered if 'he' wasn't some kind of large bear."

"We decided not to wait around to find out and bolted back up the mountainside the way we had come, dropping the bucket as we did. We were at least two and a half miles from home and were exhausted by the time we reached my place". "My parents laughed when I told them of the "big hairy bear" we had seen, 'Ah, there's no bears in Australia', my mum said". "A few days later my dad [George Steven Partridge] went down to the spot and retrieved the bucket, but saw nothing".

The Hanging Rock region was alive with miners during the mid-19th century following the discovery of big gold deposits in the nearby Nundle/Peel River area, and it was not long before they learnt of, or saw Yowies while searching lonely forest-covered gullies for signs of the 'yellow metal'.

Aborigines of this region warned the prospectors and early settlers not to venture about this area alone or unarmed, otherwise they might be attacked by 'hairy men' or 'Coories who had inhabited the ranges hereabouts since before the appearance of the first tribespeople.

The Coories were cannibalistic also, and made stone tools and fire, and were either normal human-height or sometimes a bit taller. They also warned the settlers of other, much larger "great hairy men" the Goolagahs, the stone tool-making "giant hairy ones" who would kill and eat anyone they caught in the mountains.

Owen Stanley Range Papua New Guinea 1948

Mabi brandishing a huge wooden Club

In the heart of the Owen Stanley Range about 1948, a young warrior is said to have killed a Mabi manbeast by shooting three arrows into him,, as the monster approached him brandishing a huge wooden club. He removed the monster's head, smoked it and kept it as a trophy for some time thereafter.

Whatever my readers may think of these native tales, the hairy man-giants of the forests are very real to them, for unlike the many evil spirits that haunt their folklore, these monsters are living flesh and blood creatures to them. In fact, all Melanesians believe in an age similar to that of the Dreamtime of the Australian Aborigines, when the first human-like beings roamed the earth.

The Dobu people call these first primitive hominids Kasa sona. They are distinct from ordinary natives, because the Dobu claim they and other tribes are but recent inhabitants of the earth compared with these primitives. The appearance of the Kasa sona as described by the Dobu is reminiscent of Homo erectus ape-men.