Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Thredbo 1975

Large hairy biped Creature

In July 1975, a group of skiers claimed they saw a large, hairy biped creature at least 2.3-2.6 m tall, moving up a snow-covered mountainside near Thredbo, soon after a snowfall. The following winter a long trail of large footprints were found in snow and mud outside the town.

Mt Kosciusko 1975

Tall hairy ape-like Beast

Modern interest in these hairy manbeasts was reawakened in July 1975, when a skier near Mt Kosciusko spotted a tall, hairy ape-like beast walking across a snow-covered hillside. Thereafter it was the press which came up with the name "Abominable Snowman" and "Kosciusko Snowman" for the creatures, attempting to link them with their more notorious Himalayan 'cousin'.

Barrington Foothills 1975

Several small Aboriginal-type Natives

In 1975 Mr Craig Francis, while mending a property fence in the Barrington foothills one day, spotted a group of small figures huddled in nearby bushes. He immediately realised he was being watched by several small Aboriginal-type natives, both males and females, some clothed in animal skins.

"I had no sooner spotted them than they turned and dashed off into the scrub," Craig told me. ome stockmen often have the uneasy feeling of being watched while mustering cattle in this scrub, and some farm hands after experiencing this feeling have often refused to work unaccompanied in lonely areas.

Aborigines of the Coffs Harbour district still claim that tribes of little black people continue to inhabit the nearby coastal forest-covered mountain ranges and similar tales are told by Kempsey district Aborigines, of the "little hairy fellas" who share the nearby vast, rugged Carrai Range with the yowies.

Poatina Foothills-Tasmania 1975

Long-armed female Beast

In another incident, during 1975 , in the rugged Poatina foothills of central Tasmania, which have been the scene of a number of eerie 'hairy man' encounters over the years, two bushwalkers, Fred Ball and Andrew Bradshaw, were exploring dense hillside scrub. Entering a clearing they suddenly froze in their tracks.

Standing barely 29 ft [6.1 m] from them, and looking straight at them in a stooped position, was a long-armed, female beast 1.8 m in height.

In a 1978 interview with me, Fred described the eerie 'woman beast':

"One of the first things we noticed about here was her face; something both human and ape in appearance' her eyes deeply set inside the big, protruding eyebrows, and she had a receding forehead. Her head appeared to be sunk into the shoulders, and this gave her a stooped posture.

Her breasts were small, and her body was covered in long, dirty-looking dark brown hair. Her arms and big hands reached down to below her knees and she had large feet." "We had barely enough time to make these observations, because as we stood there stunned at what we had come up against, she just bolted off into the scrub, and we were certainly not going to chase after her."

"We were shaken to say the least, and left the place immediately." "We have often discussed our experience and are sure the creature was just as surprised to see us as we were to see her, but we feel sure that she did not want to harm us," said Fred.

Wollongambie Wilderness 1975

Enormous ape-like Tracks

East of Lithgow, deep in the Wollongambie Wilderness, during June 1975, a group of soldiers were on a field operation when they came upon a number of enormous, ape-like tracks, freshly embedded in swamp mud.

About that time a 17 year old boy, part of a large group of campers, came across similar large Yowie-type footprints in creek mud, when he strayed from camp exploring bushland thereabouts. In both cases, the tracks displayed the characteristic opposable big toe.

Hill end Road 1975

Hairy man-ape Creature

One morning in 1975, young Mrs Hillary Montgomery, was driving a school bus packed with children on their way to school outside of town on the Hill End Road.

As they passed a roadside stand of trees, Mrs Montgomery spotted a hairy man-ape creature squatting on the edge of the trees beside the road. She alerted the children, most of whom also saw the strange manbeast. As the bus passed him, the 'manimal' rose up upon both legs to a height of 2m and ran off into the trees.

Tailem Bend 1975

Hairy man-ape Creature

Earlier in June 1975 at Tailem Bend, motorists were stunned at the sight of a 3m tall giant hairy 'man-ape' walking by the orad carrying a fire stick late at night. It was followed by a further three sightings reports of giant hairy manbeasts in that district that month which had the local residents in a stir.

Tall male Creature

The following month a 2.6m tall male creature was claimed seen scavenging food scraps at an isolated picnic ground outside the town.

Hairy Creature

Then one day soon after this incident motorists in the same area reported seeing a hairy creature which could have been the same hominid crossing a field just off the road.

Large Shape

In another incident that occurred at this time, a family camping at a Tailem Bend tourist ground were woken late one night by their caravan being violently shaken. The husband and wife looked out the windows but could not see what was shaking the van. When their daughter had a look a large apish face appeared at the window. As the father opened the door a large shape was seen to disappear into nearby scrub.

Wyndham-Ord River 1975

Group of little black men & Women

During the mid-1970's there were a number of sightings claims of "little hairy people" by Aborigines and others in the Wyndham-Ord River district of the Kimberley, west of the Northern Territory border.

In one incident, which took place in 1975 a group of stockmen rounding up a mob of cattle in the Carr Boyd Range south of Ivanhoe near the Ord River, were startled when they noticed that they were being observed by a group of little black men and women in nearby scrub. When one of the horsemen approached them through the trees the little group scattered.

Digoel River-Indonesia 1975

Male ape-like Creature

On the Digoel River, inland from de Jongs Points in 1975 two Indonesians, part of a larger group of explorers, claimed they spotted a "2.8m tall male ape-like creature", tearing bark from a tree trunk, apparently in search of grubs and other insect food.

The man-ape moved on but the frightened men left the scene to return hastily to camp. They later returned to the spot with other men to find scratch marks on the tree trunk up to 5m above the ground.

Descriptions of these 'Devil-Men', as they are also known across New Guinea, reveal two forms, as I have pointed out.

The first is the 'Maslai', whose head and general body description, with long powerful arms and big hands reaching down to the knees, resembles a gorilla-like creature [ie Gigantopithecus].

Also known as "Masalai igat gras" or 'Lauma' in the Motu tongue, these creatures are both herbivorous and cannibalistic; as is our second giant, the more man-like, tool-making 'Drea tuana' or 'Vada', also known as 'Dera kiboni'.

But what do these names mean in plain English?

Returned Papua New Guinea Assistant District Commissioner, the late Mr HE 'Lynn' Clark, once informed me that the above names are Melanesian 'Pidgin' talk. 'Masalai', which means 'Devil', also stands for 'fiend' or 'demon'. The word 'gras' means 'hair', so that 'Masalai igat gras' translates as "Devil with hair". "Luama' means 'ghost', and 'dera' is 'hairy'; 'Dera tuana' is 'hairy man' and 'Dera kiboni "Hairy Devil man'.

Doubtless these are many more names for these 'sub-men' still to be uncovered by the dedicated researcher, but with at least 700 different languages throughout New Guinea to unravel, this would be a difficult task to say the least! New Guinea is also a land of considerable racial variation, where a 1.2m tall pygmy folk often share a district with more than one large racial type.

All rear the hairy man-giants, who they agree are quite distinct from ordinary people, due to their great height and general physical appearance. I have studied the Duk Duk, a secret society of men who wear disguises up to 3m in height. Known widely to Papue New Guinea tribespeople, they are principally of New Britain origin.

The Kaiva Kuku, another secret society, wear similar disguises of up to 3m height around Kemema in the wester Papuan Gulf country. Both costumes appear to have been based upon giant man-like beings in their folklore.

Goroka District-Paua New Guinea 1975

Six hominid type Creatures

In June 1975 a native man and woman were sitting atop a ridge overlooking a gully in the Goroka district one afternoon when, below them they observed a group of no less than six hominid-type creatures, two of which were child size [1-1.2m in height].

There were two female of around 2m tall and two male of around 1.8m and 2.1m height and were very muscular in appearance. The strange hominids [by now being observed by the couple from behind foliage] wandered about below, apparently scavenging for beetles and vegetable food. The group was in view for some minutes before moving on to disappear into the jungle.