Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

The Cauldron 1950-Related 1965

Little naked male Creature

In 1950 two campers, Tony Parkes and Ned Struthers were exploring the 'Cauldron', deep gully at the southern end of Megalong Valley and west of Narrow Neck Peninsula. Tony momentarily separated from Ned to fill his water bottle in a nearby creek.

Crouching down he proceeded to fill it at the creek edge. Having done so, he stood up. In front of him on the opposite side of the creek was a 2 metre high flat rock, upon which there sat a "little naked male creature, no taller than a chimpanzee", as Tony later described 'him'."He had long dark hair, a thinnish wrinkled face and his skin was a dark brownish colour."

"I'd no sooner caught sight of him than he stood up, looking past me, then turned around and dashed off into the surrounding bush." "At this point I turned around to see, standing some yards away, watching me above another rock ledge, three more of his kind, two male and a little female, all with shoulder-length blackish-brown hair. One male wore a little kangaroo hide cloak."

"I ran from the creek calling out to Ned, who at first didn't believe me and laughed. We returned to the spot but the little natives had vanished. Then Ned spotted a number of little human footprints in the sand a short way along the creek from where I had seen the little natives and he then believed me."

The above story, given to me by Tony Parkes in 1965.

Goesi-Western Dutch New Guinea 1950

Hairy man Ape

In 1950, a "7ft tall, long breasted hairy female 'Masalai' monster", as she was later described, scared a group of natives when she emerged from bushes to interrupt their fishing activities near Goesi, in what was then western Dutch New Guinea. A few years later two 7-8ft tall hairy 'man-ape' creatures were claimed to be terrorising natives in the Fak Fak area west of Goesi. They smashed huts and carried away a native whose half-eaten body was found after as search the following day.

Island Of Tana 1950's

Semsen Manbeast

Back in the early 1950's on the island of Tana, a woman called Onda was captured in the forest by a male Semsem, but after a struggle she managed to break free and escape. Running through jungle she hid in a hollow tree trunk until the monster was gone. Following this incident, her tribe decided to do something about it. The men of the tribe subsequently tracked down and killed the Semsem manbeast with stone axes and spears.

The natives of the Seniang district of southern Malekula, generations ago called the female Semsem ogres 'Nevinbimbaau'. These 2m tall [and over] females were often seen gathering clams on the shoreline. These primitive hominids were said to have roamed the island since long before the creation of the first natives. The male Semsem mostly kept their females and young secreted away in their remote lairs. The Malekulans say their ancestors killed off the last Semsem long ago.

Dr Loius Burkhalter 1950

Gigantic Men

In 1950 Dr Louis Burkhalter, former French delegate to the Prehistoric Society, wrote in the Revue du Musee de Beyrouth: "I want to make it clear that the existence of gigantic men in the Acheulian age [ie between about 75,000 and 150,000 years ago] must be considered a scientifically proven fact."

In his paper, "A Report On Gigantic Implements Found In South Morocco", Dr Burkhalter refers to 'gigantic' stone tools unearthed at Sasnych [Syria], located five miles from Safitah in the alluvial ground of Nohr Abrach. These included bifaces of 'abnormal' dimensions weighing 2.5kg to 3.5kg. These finds were followed by similar discoveries made by Captain R Lafanechere in south Morocco - biface tools of Acueulean manufacture weighing 4.150kg, while one specimen was over 8kg.

The stone megatools recovered from Australia to date appear to be the largest and heaviest, reaching weights of up to and over 20kg! Tools which only beings of 3 to 4 metres or more height would have been capable of using. Dr Burkhalter theorised that ancient and modern gigantism could be caused by biological mutations related to both quantitative and qualitive variations in the solar emission of infra-red rays, which are connected with biochemical variations [ie endocrinian or neuro-endocrinian] and biophysical variations in the human body, particularly the secretion of thyreo-type hormone, which causes a tendency to gigantism.

Whatever were the causes of giantism among the Pliocene-Pleistocene hominidae and hominoidae remains a mystery which is the cause of much continuing scientific debate. Perhaps the answers to this great mystery may eventually be found here in Australia, where the greatest amount of evidence in the world is lately coming to light.