Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Yowie Reports 1970's

The1970's was a very active period for me in my Yowie investigations. It was the decade in which people at last began losing their fear of coming forward publicly with personal experiences with Yowies [and 'unknown' animal species generally], and suddenly I found myself having to deal with dozens of reported sightings and footprint discoveries over a vast area of eastern Australia, including Tasmania; but the region that produced the greatest number of reports was the northern NSW mountain ranges.

Ruined Castle 1970

Rex Gilroy's personal Sighting

It was on the afternoon of August 7th 1970 on the western slope of Ruined Castle, overlooking Cedar Valley, that I had my first encounter with a living "hairy man". However, I made the mistake of trusting the press, who quickly lampooned my initial newspaper report in the nationwide media.

The distortions created by the Australian press, radio and TV caused such embarrassment that I soon ceased repeating the story to people, and in the years ahead I rarely mentioned it, even at times denying it in certain quarters.

However, times change and also attitudes, so that I am at last able to relate my experience in my own words, and not as the media failed to report it.

The facts are as follows: I had been climbing Mt Solitary that day and returning from there along the 'saddle' track to Ruined Castle, I decided to go searching for fossils on the steep western slope of the 'Castle' above Cedar Creek. There is thick scrub here and as I picked up slate rocks containing fossil plants on that quiet afternoon, I heard the sounds of breaking foliage and twigs snapping underfoot further down the steep slope.

Chancing to look down among the foliage I saw, about 15 metres away a naked, darkish, hairy skinned male creature approximately 2m in height, moving across the slope from north to south oblivious to my presence. The hominid looked rather primitive, with big eyebrows and hairy arms, and long dark hair trailing down from its head. He appeared to be scavenging, as if looking for fern roots or other bush food.

I watched in silence as he disappeared into the dense scrub, heading southward down the slope in the direction of Cedar Creek. I glanced at my watch. The time was 3.30pm. The mystery hominid had been in view for barely 4-5 minutes. I climbed up the slope in haste to reach the track, as I knew I had to hurry to get out of the valley before sundown.

The hominid I saw was not the 4 ft [1.2 m] long-haired, gorilla-like monstrosity created by the newspaper artists, who in more than one instance claimed myself as the artist responsible for the drawing! Little wonder that today many eyewitnesses are reluctant to approach the media with their own experiences.

Geehi 1970

Hairy man-like Figure

During June 1970 at Geehi, north-west of Mount Kosciusko, two mountaineers, Ron Bartlett and Frank Sinclair, were camped on the edge of a stand of mountainside trees. Overnight, light snow had fallen. At daybreak they were preparing to abandon camp when Frank noticed some large, manlike tracks embedded in nearby snow. Both had heard tales of the giant hairy Doolagahl's said to inhabit the mountain country but had taken little notice of these 'bushmen's tales' until they saw these tracks.

The men also detected a strange odour and had the distinct feeling that they were not alone. Cautiously they worked their way down through the mountainside scrub. Suddenly ahead, they spotted a 2.6 metre-tall, dark, hairy manlike figure staring at them. It then vanished into the dense scrub. In the years following the outburst of sightings reports of the mid-1970's, many more incidents have occurred on and around Mount Kosciusko.

Nerriga Giant 1970

Feeding 3 metre tall Monster

North from Braidwood lies Nerriga, home of the "Nerriga Giant". Often described as a "gorilla-like" beast both by whites and Aborigines {who also call it the Doolagahl}, it has been claimed seen in the nearby Budawang Range. A farmer claimed to see a hairy male creature eating apples from a tree on his orchard near Nerriga in 1970. The man was too scared to approach the three-metre-tall monster and watched it feeding from the safety of his farmhouse until the man-beast walked away into scrub.

Lake Wells 1970

Extensive trail of giant-sized Footprints

Another similar hairy giant, stone tool-making hominid is Tjangara. An inhabitant of the vast Nullarbor Plain and the Great Victoria Desert country, between South Australia and Western Australia.

Tjangara received considerable Australia-wide media publicity in July 1970, following the discovery that month, of an extensive trail of giant-sized footprints by a Mr Peter Muir, an Agriculture Department dingo hunter, north of Cosmo Newberry near Leonora, and in the vicinity of Lake Wells, about 540 kilometres north-west of Perth. Each print measured 38 cm long, displaying a soft pad and opposable big toe.

Mr Muir estimated at the time that the creature who made the prints was bipedal and about 3.3m tall. Mr Muir, together with his Aboriginal wife, followed the footprints for four and a half kilometres until they entered the long spinifex grass to disappear in rocky terrain. At this point, Mrs Muir became "upset and a little terrified", and so the pursuit was abandoned. Mr Muir estimated that the lurching creature was only about an hour ahead of them.

Mr Muir, an experienced bushman, had never before seen such tracks and could not identify them. But local Aborigines he questioned recognised them immediately as belonging to the Tjangara, a 3.3m tall man-like beast. This legendary monster stalks the remoter regions armed with a big stone club, killing and eating anyone unfortunate enough to meet it, say the Aborigines.

Yet even Tjangara was dwarfed by the monster-men of South Australian-western Victorian Aboriginal legend, the Narragun. Probably the same race as the Illankanpanka of the Gulf Country, these were a race of 6.6m tall giant men and women who made huge stone tools and ate meat.

In the Mt Gambier region they were said to cook their food with fire obtained from volcanic lava flows; a habit also reported from western Victoria where Aborigines lived in fear of the monsters. Aborigines point to fossil giant footprints found in these districts as being footsteps left by the Narraguns.

Cox's River 1970

Flat and droney sound, Kaw-Kaw

A close friend of the author, Mr Robert Warburton, once had a eerie experience at a location long known for "hairy man" encounters, below the western escarpment of the Blue Mountains, on the Cox's River just north of Megalong Valley. As he related his experience to me in late April 1970, Robert and three other companions were camping at this particular location only a week before, on the evening of Monday 13th April. On the west bank opposite their camp there was a blackberry patch.

Trees still grow along the river's banks but not on the rolling hillside through which it flows. It is limestone country hereabouts and caves are to be found in the area. The area is very rocky with boulders lying everywhere. "About 2 am my friends and I were woken from our sleep by a noise - a drawn out flat and droney sound, 'kar-kaw'."

"The others thought it to be the sounds of a crow, but this was neither that or any other bird, even any nocturnal species. The sound began in the trees above the blackberry patch across the river, opposite our camp. It then began travelling across the river [which is actually only the size of a wide, shallow creek in the drier months. RG.], right around behind the camp within a radius of 25 yards, then back across the river, then the strange sounds ceased," he said.

Robert also observed that the area around their camp had been quiet the previous afternoon, no bird or even cattle sounds [from nearby farms]. Following their eerie experience the boys got little sleep wondering about the origin of the strange sounds. About 8 am six cows appeared through the trees, coming to drink at the river's edge and the sounds of birdlife had also returned.

It is a feature common to a great many reports that, whenever one or more of these hominids have been present in remote bushland areas, all bird and other native animal life fall silent for the duration of their presence.

Roper River Area-Arnhem Land 1970

Jim jim pgymy Tribe

In 1970 an American girl, Nina Vaughn, and a male companion 'Erich' were on a photographic expedition for an American magazine in the Roper River area of Arnhem Land. One night out in the scrub some distance from their camp, and wafting down river, they could hear the faint sounds of singing. Deciding to investigate, they crept though the bush with torches, to see in the distance a fire, and the dark forms of moving human figures.

Children they thought at first, because of their small features. As they watched hidden, they realised they were witnessing some kind of secret ceremony of small males, either naked or dressed in loin cloths of animal skins, dancing around in a circle. Nina and Erich decided to leave and crept back to their camp. Returning later the next day, they found the ceremonial site deserted.

When they eventually reached Mataranka, south-east of Katherine, they told their story to a local stockman, who surprised them by saying, they had probably witnessed a ceremony performed by one of the secretive little Jim Jim pygmy tribes said to roam the Gulf country.

Mildura 1970

Huge stone Megatools

Since an initial discovery by workmen near Mildura on the north-western border with NSW in 1970, numbers of huge stone megatools have been frequently unearthed by farmers, on properties bordering the Murray River into south Australia.

They are also turning up in the desert country west of Broken Hill in far western NSW. Aboriginal elders who have examined them claim the largest specimens were made by the Narragun, while those smaller [but still impossible for normal humans to lift and use] implements were those of the Tjangara.