Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Woods Well 1973

High pitched scream-rocking Vehicle

In 1973 down at Woods Well on the south-eastern South Australian coast, south-west of Tintinara, Mr. Kim Rayner and his wife Ellaine were camping in thick scrub. As they sat at their campfire around midnight they were suddenly startled by a high-pitched scream which lasted 15 minutes, ending in a gutteral sound. At this, the Rayners climbed into there utility and locked the doors. Rabbits they had with them in a cage outside on the ground were very agitated.

Suddenly something was pushing at the rear of their vehicle, rocking it up and down. All they could see through the back window was a huge dark shape. The rocking ceased after a minute or so, and their mystery intruder walked away into the encroaching scrub.

The Rayners remained in their vehicle for along time, before emerging to gather their belongings including the terrified rabbits, by torchlight and driving away. Within days, other campers in the same area reported finding enormous freshly-made manlike footprints in damp soil. At Tintinara a couple of weeks later, a minibus load of people was startled one afternoon when a 2.6 metre-tall hairy man-beast strode across a dirt road from out of bushland in front of the vehicle.

Innisfail 1973

A group of primitive looking Hominids

Further south, and north of Townsville on the coast, lies the town of Innisfail, many of whose inhabitants for the past 100 years or so have believed in the "Milla Milla Monster"-giant hairy hominids that Aborigines and early settlers alike believed inhabited the rainforests and mountains of the region.

The 'hairy men" of the Innisfail district have been known collectively as the Milla Milla Monster since the many reports of their activities that were rife in the 1800's. During January 1990 two campers found huge footprints of one of these monsterous man-beasts near Milla Milla, for a time reviving many of the old stories

Innisfail July 1973: earlier, In July 1973, Innisfail residents were alarmed when Bill Towns, a bushwalker, and "Mark", a mate, sighted a group of primitive-looking hominids, comprising a small male, a larger seven-foot male as well as a small female and a larger, seven-foot female, moving through a rainforest late one afternoon.

This is what happened in Bill's own words:

"We were hiking through forest on the edge of a sugar-cane field above an embankment next to a creek. Mark suddenly stopped me. 'Quick ahead of you,' he said." "There was something moving in the bushes near us next to the track. Then, barely a few feet away, a large hairy male creature emerged onto the track, pushing a side the foliage on either side of it as it did so.

"We were terrified and stood fixed to the spot as the creature, a seven-foot male with large genitals visible, looked at us then slid down the embankment and into the creek. As it stood in the creek it let out a loud howling sound towards the forest behind us.

"As he did so, a smaller male appeared of about five-foot {1.2 metres} height, and then a female of about seven feet {2.3 metres}, and a smaller five-foot female, all of whom assembled on the opposite bank of the creek, looked up at us, then ran off up the bank and into forest cover. The adult and smaller males then re-appeared and began screeching at us.

"By now we were looking about us for some large pieces of wood with which to defend ourselves. The big muscular male was by now screeching all the more and shaking a tree with rage. He then dashed back along the creek towards us, and we ran off in terror. However, he may have only wanted to frighten us, as he did not climb the embankment."

Brewarrina 1973

Modern stone-age Campsite

Brewarrina, on the upper Barwon River, 158 km south of the Qld border and west of Moree, was the scene, early in 1973 of the remarkable discovery by bushman Mr Bill Berrell, of an apparent modern stone-age campsite, from which he retrieved a number of freshly made stone axes and clubs.

It is significant that this region has long been claimed to be the habitat of a 'lost' tribe of still-wild Aborigines. Such tales are not entirely unlikely in this region.

Further west of Moree, in the Bulloo Channels country of north-western NSW, stories of 'lost' tribes of Aborigines date back over 70 years to the time when an Aborigine was found in the area who had never seen a white man before. The Bulloo Channels are in the Delalah district, an area where there have been a number of sightings over many years, sometimes of a group of more than three natives carrying spears and boomerangs or of single individuals.

Mr Berrell gave me a stone cleaver and other 'recent' stone tools found by him at the site. The Brewarrina area has also been another 'hairy man' locale since pioneer days.

Beenleigh 1973

Big hairy haired Figure

About half way between the Gold Coast and Brisbane lies Beenleigh. During 1973 people were reporting visitations by a "big hairy thing" hunched and walking upon two legs. Some people claim 'it' was man-sized, others much taller. Perhaps more than one creature was involved here.

Lake Meremangye Area 1973

Fresh hominid Footprints

I received a report of several monstrous, 50cm long, fresh hominid footprints found in a dry creek bed near Lake Meremangye, by a group of mineral surveyors. Some Aborigines differed over whether these tracks had been left by a Narragun rather than a Tjangara.

Mt Willougby-Oodnadatta area1973

Enormous man-like Footprints

However, there was no doubt over a number of tracks found one day in 1973, by a busman/explorer from Qld, Ken Francis.

In 1977 he gave me the following alarming report:

"I had found fresh dingo tracks at a waterhole at Mt Willoughby west of Oodnadatta and out of interest attempted to follow them. They led along a dried creek bed and at times I lost them among rocks. Then, when I picked up the trail again I found they crossed over a set of enormous man-like footprints heading down from a rocky hillside and then leading off in the same general direction. I estimated the footprints measured about 60cm in length.

They were no more than an hour old." "I was by now 3km from my 4-wheel drive vehicle, my camera and a .22 rifle with it, but I had my water bottle and decided to carefully follow the tracks." "They led on out of the creek across intermittent mulga and soil, becoming indistinct at times, until they reached a waterhole. Here in drying mud they were very clear. It was apparent the owner of the tracks had only recently left the scene.

There were impressions in the mud consistent with a large creature drinking on all fours." "From here the footprints led off over a hill of rocks and it took me some time to pick them up again on the other side. They led off across flat featureless country. And then I saw him - a tall black-haired figure - I estimated a height of at least 4m, lurching far across the plain.

He couldn't be more than 15 minutes ahead of me, I thought, but the fear of meeting up with such a monster, unarmed as I was, overcame me and I hastily re-traced my steps. I had covered about 6km." "I returned the following day with two men and an old Aboriginal tracker that I had met at a country hotel. The old black man took one look at the tracks and turned pale. "Narragun, Narragun alright", he said, and suggested we leave the area immediately."

Eastern Highlands New Guinea 1973

A smoked head of a Mabi

In 1973 natives informed Europeans at Goroka that, up in the mountains there was the smoked head of a Mabi displayed on a pole.

The story goes that a village elder observed that a male Mabi came regularly from out of the bush to drink from a creek at a certain spot, leaving his large footprints in the mud. One day the elder hid close by with a large rock. The Mabi appeared, and as he squatted down to drink, the man dashed forward and crashed the rock on the manbeast's head, killing him. He afterwards removed the head to smoke and display it at his village.

Captured Mabi

In another startling incident, claimed by natives to have taken place in the Mt Hagen region, but which was not reported until some years after the event, about 1965 a 1.8m tall female Mabi is said to have been captured by hunters and held captive in their village, where she eventually gave birth to a male child of one of the men.

As he grew older the boy looked completely unlike a normal human. He died of some disease about 1973. The beast woman had however long since wandered off into the bush never to return.