Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Fish River 1964

Tall man-like ape-like Creature

In the midwinter of 1964, two pig shooters, Eric Rolf and Morris Patton, both of Sydney, went on a weekend camping trip to the Fish River near the town of Oberon, west of the Blue Mountains. In those days the men knew nothing of the hairy man-like creatures that local traditions said, inhabited the surrounding wild mountain ranges. They knew only that it was an area plagued by wild pigs, and they anticipated a good 'kill' that weekend.

They stayed at a cabin situated on Water Supply Road, on the Fish River outside Hampton, which lies east of Oberon, and across the Hartley Valley from Mt Victoria. The area where they stayed is in rugged mountainous terrain. On the first night of their camping trip, Morris, his three cell torch in hand, left Eric alone in the cabin to study platypus living along the river bank. The time was about 9pm on a very dark night, and all the time Morris was gone Eric had a strange feeling that they were not alone.

He was glad when he heard the footsteps of his friend approaching the cabin door. The door opened, to reveal a terrified-looking Morris, white-faced, gasping out that he had just seen some hairy man-like 'thing' out there in the dark. After he had calmed down, Morris said he wanted to return to the river bank to see if the 'thing' was still there. Eric, not wishing to be left alone decided to accompany him, but they armed themselves with two stout tree limbs for protection before they left.

The men were reluctant to use their rifles against what they thought was probably a "wild man". As they reached the river, Morris flashed his torch about. Standing 30m away on the opposite bank of the river on the edge of thick scrub, they saw the mystery manbeast, a 2.3m tall, man-like, ape-like creature, vary dark-haired, stooped in appearance, with its arms at its side, and very broad shouldered. There was a pungent odour about the area being emitted by the strange hominid.

Then, after about 30 seconds, the mystery 'manimal' turned around and ran off into the scrub, making no other sounds but for the breaking of foliage as it ran from the startled campers. At this Eric and Morris ran back to the cabin. The mysterious manbeast made no other appearances during their stay. Some time ago Eric Rolf informed me that, over the years he has returned to this area on wild goat shooting trips, and while roaming the bushland has often experienced the feeling that he was being watched by 'something'.

Lamington Plateau Cliffs 1964

Hairy man-like Beast

In 1964 a Tweed Valley stockman, Richard Adams, was mustering a mob of cattle on horseback on a steep hillside, on the edge of rainforest, situated at the foot of the Lamington Plateau cliffs, when the cattle and also his horse suddenly took fright.

It was at this moment that, barely 16m ahead of him, an enormous muscular, hairy man-like beast appeared on the edge of the forest, menacingly brandishing a large tree limb. The beast, whose face Richard later described as being somewhere between human and ape, stood its ground snarling, as the terrified stockman turned his mount to gallop off down the slope.