Giants
From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality
Thredbo
1977
Kosciusko
Snowman
Then in 1977,
a 2.6 m tall, hairy muscular man-like creature appeared early one morning
in the back yard of an isolated farmhouse, terrifying the occupants.
Little wonder that, since the mid-1970's, 'Yowie' has been replaced
by 'Kosciusko Snowman' in local parlance!
Jimberingga
1977
Massive
upright-walking-black haired gorilla-like Monster
To
the north of here lies Jimberingga. This community bears a name which
is actually another variant of Jimbra, the other local name for these
monsters, and it, too, is an area of 'hairy man' sightings in recent
times.
One day in 1977, two young property workers, brothers Vince and Trevor
Collins, were driving a truck along a bush track about 10 kilometres
north of Jimberingga when they heard a loud crash on their cabin roof,
then another on the back of the vehicle. Stopping
to check, they realised two large rocks had been hurled at their vehicle
from roadside scrub. Looking back along the road, they beheld a horrifying
sight.
"A
massive, upright-walking, black haired, gorilla-like monster emerged
from the bushes onto the road, waving a large tree limb menacingly at
us and making an unearthly, terrible, loud snarling sound. "He
was only 100 yards away and beginning to stride towards us, all the
time brandishing the tree limb at us.
We
could make out his sex and that he was very hairy, and had a large gorilla-like
head-a nightmarish, ugly brute. By now we were frantically climbing
back into our truck, and as I increased speed, he had already begun
running swiftly in long strides towards us, waving the tree limb and
screaming.
Our
last sight of him was from a distance as we drove off along the road.
He stood there for a moment watching our escape, threw the limb aside
and strode off into the trees," said Vince in an interview with
me in 1979.
South
Of Cape York 1977
Twenty
Pgymy-size Natives
In 1977, a small Army group
made contact with a party of 20 pygmy-size natives who threw spears
at them while exploring an area about 80 km south of Cape York. At another
location further south they later stumbled upon an abandoned camp site. Here the men found several
small bark humpies. They also retrieved a number of small stone implements
scattered about the soil.
Barrington
Tops Area 1977-Related 1982
Twenty
Pgymy-size Natives
In
1982 Mr Ralph Kelly of Sydney, NSW related to me the following story: "I was in the company
of a group of bushmen exploring deep in the Barrington Tops [inland
from Taree] in 1977, when the men found a huge strip of bark, 30 cm
in width, which had been torn off a tree trunk up to a height of 10
m.
This had in turn been stripped
of its fibre which had then been rubbed into balls, in the same manner
as Aborigines did, in order to make string for basket weaving". "There was a musty smell
about the site, and it soon became obvious to us that the string makers
had left the spot in haste at the sounds of our approach".
Ralph Kelly also informed
me that he has been in the Barnard River area, 100 km north of Glenrock
Station [Scone district] which is in the Hunter region at the southern
end of the New England Ranges. In this area he once had
the feeling of being watched while attending to grazing cattle in an
isolated, lonely bushland area. In the same area on another occasion,
a stockman was rounding up cattle when he suddenly realised he was being
watched by two naked little black natives from behind nearby bushes.
They fled into the scrub
when he became startled.
Bushmen living in the Barrington
Tops district, on the western [Muswellbrook] side of the range in the
19th century, claimed pygmy-sized Aboriginals had been seen roaming
the forests of the high country, sometimes watching cattlemen mustering
stock.
It was these early bushmen
who first gathered information on the culture of the pygmy folk. They knew, for example, that
these natives were more primitive that the Aboriginals, lacking the
spear-thrower and boomerang, and various other tools of their neighbours.
Suggan
Buggan 1977
Naked
hairy man-like Creature
One day in 1977 Mr Tom Brown
was driving his car north of Suggan Buggan, on the Victorian side of
the Snowy Mountains. As he drove at a moderate
speed along the road through scrubland, his attention was suddenly drawn
to a man-sized figure some distance ahead of him, as it emerged from
roadside tree cover on the right hand side, and proceeded to walk across
the road as the car approached.
As Mr Brown approached the
figure, he observed it to be a naked hairy man-like creature of 2 m
height. The manbeast at this instant stopped in the middle of the road,
forcing Mr Brown to pull up quickly. By this time he was within 8.3
m of the strange beast.
The man-like creature stood
looking rather inquisitively at Mr Brown and his vehicle for an instant,
then turning it bolted on two legs for the safety of the roadside scrub. Mr Brown was left momentarily
in a state of mild shock. Recovering quickly he drove on looking back
for another glimpse, but the creature was gone.
[Note: It was in this same
area that the Aboriginal couple, Big Charlie and his wife, had their
experience with a Doolagarl, while driving a Wagonette through bushland
one day a few years prior to World War One, as reported in Chapter Two].
Springwood
N.S.W 1977
Naked
hairy man-like Creature
During
December 1977, Mr and Mrs Cecil and Iris Baker were visited at their
Heather Road, Springwood home by two brothers, Alan and Ken Clarke. When they left to go home
upon climbing into their car, parked outside in the street, they heard
a strange wailing sound coming from nearby roadside scrub. A few days
later Iris spoke with a Mrs Emma Robson, who lived near the St Columba's
College.
Mrs Robson told her that
her two dogs woke her up the night before with their barking. When she
went to see what was troubling the dogs, from the scrub near her back
door she heard an eerie wailing sound. By this time, she said, every
dog in the vicinity had begun barking and running around the houses.
People emerged from their homes checking their yards and surrounding
scrub with torches.
A few people later claimed
to have seen a tall, hairy, man-like creature moving about in the nearby
scrub.
Lithgow
1977
Unseen
Presence
One day in 1977 Mr and Mrs
Michael and Helen Lodge were picnicking with their dog in bushland at
a remote Lithgow picnic ground. The time was about 5pm when
as they sat on the ground, their dog suddenly began running erratically
and sniffing all over the place, then growling at the bushes near where
they sat. Some unseen presence was moving about in the scrub, breaking
twigs underfoot.
Then the dog took fright,
its hackles raised. This was enough to encourage the Lodges's to quickly
pack their belongings into the car and leave the area in haste.
Enormous
man-like Footprints
Later, other picnickers were
to report having found enormous man-like footprints embedded in soil
in that same area.
Cullen
Bullen-Capertree Area 1977
Several
enormous man-like Footprints
One April weekend
in 1977, two men, Keith Grove and Garry Norton both of West Pennant
Hills NSW, were on a weekend camping excursion to Cullen Bullen in the
Capertee area. They had brought
their trail bikes with them and were spending the daylight hours exploring
the rugged forest trails of the district.
However, after
the evening meal, as they settled down in their sleeping bags around
their campfire near their car, they were startled by a loud, mournful
cry coming from the depths of the forest. A loud eeeooo-eeeooo! The
sounds died away and the men returned to sleep.
Then around
3am they were both awakened again, this time by loud screaming howls,
and the sounds of crashing timber. Flashing their torches in the direction
of the sounds across a nearby creek, they could see nothing. However,
the sounds were enough to make them remain awake until daylight.
After daybreak
the men went down to the creek bank to get water for the billy, at the
same time wondering what had made the terrifying sounds during the night.It was then
that they found, embedded in the mud of the creek bank, several enormous
man-like footprints, far too large for any normal human being, at least
40 cm in length and 20cm wide across the toes.
The feet had
been deeply impressed into the mud, the ball of the foot at least 7cm
deep, with the instep almost the same depth, with all five toes also
deeply impressed.It
appeared to the men that the tales they had heard of the Yowie were
no laughing matter, and that their camp had been visited by such a creature
during the night.
They searched
the surrounding scrub to find further, though indistinct footprints
embedded in the leafmould-covered forest floor. On their trail bikes
they explored all day the nearby back roads and tracks, but failed to
find any further traces of the mystery visitor.
The men spent
the Sunday night sleeping in the car without further incident, but they
were taking no chances, and drove out of the area the next day. Over the years
Keith and Garry have returned to the same spot but have never again
found any trace of the 'monster-man' of Cullen Bullen.
Abercrombie
Caves Road-Bathurst Area 1977
Several
enormous man-like Footprints
During December 1977 Mr Stephen
Drambacs was rabbit shooting in the hills along the Abercrombie Caves
Road south of Bathurst, when he had a meeting with a "hairy man".
The following account of
his experience was related to me by him some months later. "I was heading for home
at the time as it was getting late. the time was 7.30pm so I thought
I had better take a short-cut through the scrub to get to my home.""I was working my way
through one of the bush-covered properties hereabouts, all of which
are intersected with gullies."
"Suddenly, hearing a
noise behind me I turned around - and got the shock of my like - to
see, standing at the bottom of a nearby gully, a hairy 'man-ape' like
creature, which immediately began scrambling up the embankment and moving
in my direction." "As I ran I realised
that I had rifle on me [why I never thought to use if before I don't
know], so I turned around and fired three shots in the direction where
the 'man-ape' had gone into the bush, at least to scare him away."
"In the brief view I
was able to get of the creature, I can say 'he' was 5ft [1.5m] tall
and was stockily built with dark black hair. The face was also dark
coloured." "The man-ape didn't
seem to be covered with long hair all over the body, but the hair on
its head was quite long. Because of this I couldn't make out definite
features, but I thought the creature had a human-like nose and not pushed
in like that of an ape's."
"There were also indistinct
feet and hand prints in the mud at the bottom of the gully when I returned
to inspect the scene the next day, but rain soon disintegrated these
before I could cast or photograph them."
Summer
Hill Creek-Ophir 1977
Ape-like
Beast
Mrs Pauline Yeates says
that one day during 1977, a group of hikers saw a 2.4m black haired,
ape-like beast moving through the scrub near the third crossing of Summer
Hill Creek.
Central
Western Daily-Orange 1977
Double
Sighting
The period 1977-1979 saw countless
[and too often tongue-in-cheek] newspaper reports concerning the Yowie.
I quote the following:
CENTRAL
WESTERN DAILY [column] [Orange NSW] - 12th October, 1977.
According to a Wellington
Man, the Yowie really does exist. The who prefers not to be named, said
he saw it when driving along the Wellington-Yeoval road at night. He
saw it twice, in fact, within a half a mile of the original location. It was big, about seven
feet tall, wide and bulky, and he is convinced it is a link with the
ice-age. He wants a party to scale
Mt Wellsley to Mt Arthur to flush it out as he's convinced that's where
it is. He has warned people passing the area to watch out.
Turon
River-Hill End 1977
Hairy
ape-like Beast
Mr and Mrs George and Janice
Gibbs of Sydney went camping with their big Doberman dog in January
1977 on the Turon River at Hill End, at a spot on the river where a
well known bridle track crosses the river at the second to two weirs.
Their next four nights here would be unforgettable.
On the first evening, coming
on dark, they were seated next to their tent beside their campfire cooking
tea. About this time George got
the feeling that "something was watching them". He asked Janice to look over
his shoulder and tell him if she could see anything, because at the
same time they could both hear the crackling of breaking branches on
a rise among the trees on the other side of the Turon River [which is
not very wide - about 10m in width].
Janice looked but could not
see any thing. George then looked across the river and spotted the head
of 'something' moving back and forth behind a tree trunk. George did not do anything
about it that night and could not explain what he had seen. They slept
that night without any disturbance. The next day also passed without
incident, that is until evening [and the next evening] when, about the
same time as the previous evening the same thing happened again, [around
sundown ie 6-7pm].
"We
just studied it, and it studied us, as it were", said George, when
relating this story to me in 1983.
On the third night however,
they decided to use their spotlight which was attached to the car for
shooting trips. When the 'intruder' reappeared about 10pm, George said
quietly to Janice, who was by now working it from inside their car,
"now turn on the spotlight". As she did so, George fired
a 15 shot magazine with his Winchester rifle at the tree trunk, behind
which the strange visitor was hiding as before, hoping to lure him out
into the open.
"I fired the shots in
a row down the side of the tree trunk, at which the mystery visitor
suddenly let out a deep breathing, asthmatic rasping-type sound,"
added George.
Everything
then went dead quiet, the mystery intruder had vanished.
One thing the Gibbs' later
realised was that, at all times of the intruder's visits, there were
no other animal sounds to be heard in the area. A feature common to
other Yowie encounters.
The next day a man and a woman, both in their late 40's, arrived on
the scene intending to set up camp for a week. George and Janice told them
nothing of their strange experiences, but the couple would be gone the
next morning without telling George and Janice, for reasons no doubt
to do with the events that were to follow.
That night about 1am, George
was woken up by the whimpering of his big Doberman, which he had tied
up on top of the car - a Valiant Fiji 1971 model - by a tow bar chain
long enough for her to wander around. George could hear her whimpering
and the chain going 'crash' about the car.
He woke up Janice and grabbed
his Winchester rifle and left the tent to see what was wrong. He found
the dog whimpering under the car. She was still shaking as he dragged
her out from underneath the vehicle. Janice meanwhile remained in the
tent.
It was then that George suddenly
froze! There 5m away and standing
2.5m tall, looking down at him [George is 1.6m in height] was a "hairy,
ape-like beast". George was so terrified that
he could not pick up his rifle [which had already dropped to the ground],
and the dog was still trying to get out of his arms. The creature, George observed
in the available light, appeared like a "human with fur [hair],
not plump or hefty like a gorilla".
He could not see the eyes
for the darkness, but the face appeared flattish. The head appeared
fuzzy [ie hairy], and the moon, which up till now had been out, was
just going under clouds so this was all he could see of the 'manbeast'. The manbeast turned, stooped
in posture, its hands at its side, then it began walking away from George
and his terrified dog. George, still shaking, picked up his rifle and
not thinking, called out "stop or I'll shoot!" to the strange
manbeast.
At this moment the creature
began walking in longer strides than before, its arms still hanging
at its side. The manbeast then broke into
a run towards the tent of the other couple. Their tent was located 30m
or so down the river to the west, so George could not fire at the creature
for fear of hitting the couple [who were still asleep]. The beast ran directly for
their tent but side-stepped around the back of it and disappeared into
the trees.
After this incident George
and Janice put their Doberman dog in their tent with them. Said George to a by now terrified
Janice; "If that animal wanted to hurt us, it had ample opportunity,
so don't worry about it." They spent an uneasy, sleepless
night, the Winchester by George's side just the same. The next morning
they found that the other couple had left without as much as a goodbye.
George and Janice decided to break camp and left soon after.
A couple of weeks later,
at the end of January, George and Janice returned to the scene of their
encounter with the hairy hominid, this time with three mates from George's
Sydney workplace. The men, having heard George's
account of the weird events, wanted to see for themselves what the area
was like where the mystery creature had appeared.
During their first night
camped at the site, these men claimed they heard strange sounds coming
from the opposite side of the river. Thereafter, for the next two days
that the group camped there, the three men remained inside their tent
at night, so frightened did they become at the prospect of meeting up
with the "hairy man of Hill End", as the locals call the creatures.
George's mates were relieved
when he and Janice informed them they were breaking camp. "Red Jack Ellis",
a local identity, told George and Janice on another occasion that he
could take them into areas where the monsters have been claimed seen.
Mt
Barrington 1977
Hairy
ape-like Beast
In 1977 a friend of this
author, Mr Louis Morrell and a mate, Ian McLaughlin were at Mt Barrington
near the Chalkstone Caves of Mt Egmont, exploring along a dirt orad
in Louis' Datsun Station Wagon. Rain began falling as they
crossed a brook. At this moment they both spotted a "2.2m tall,
man-like, ape-like beast", standing observing them from among roadside
forest scrub.
"What do you think that
is?" Louis asked Ian. "We
could smell a strong formic acid type stench about the area," Louis
later told me. He continues: "The manbeast had long
arms and big hands and was covered from head to foot in long hair. 'He' began emitting low,
somewhat plaintive grunting sounds at us, then turned around and ran
off in big leaps into the forest."
"Soon from the depths
of the forest we heard loud wailing sounds. I recall now that the beast's
head had a receding forehead and thick protruding eyebrow ridges. The
head appeared very thick," he said. After the creature had gone
the men discovered that there were wild watermelons growing about the
site, most of which had been smashed and their contents eaten. Tree bark had also been removed,
as if the creature had been searching for insects.
Rangers in the Barrington
Tops region claim there have been many other reports of 'hairy people'
from the Caves area. According to Rangers, the early copper miners who
entered the Tops over 100 years ago, claimed to have seen 'apes' frequently,
as did their counterparts on the rugged Carrai Plateau west of Kempsey.
Barrington Range Area 1977
Yowie
Encounter
In mid-April 1977, together
with my wife and fellow researcher, Heather I carried out a major search
of the NSW north coast districts in pursuit of evidence of the Yowie. For quite some time I had
been hoping for some really authentic photographic or other evidence
to turn up, which might at last convince understandably sceptical Australian
scientists of these creatures existence.
The question was, which area
was the most likely one where this kind of evidence might be obtained.
I decided, on the strength of the prolific number of reported encounters
with primitive 'man-ape' hominids in the Carrai Range, to concentrate
most of our efforts there.
However, we first made a
visit to scone, in the northern end of the Hunter Valley, and on the
western side of the Barrington Range.
A resident of the town, Mr
Wayne Caban, had just reported an encounter with a Yowie he had experienced
in the Barrington Range area, and we wished to interview him. Mr Caban had recently been
attempting to secure photographic evidence of the Yowie on the Barrington
Range without success.
Wayne's encounter with the
Yowie took place while he was employed with a mining company, engaged
in carrying out an exploration programme on the Gummi River, at the
headwaters of the Manning River near Tomala in the Barrington Range
area.
Wayne remained with the company
from October 1973 to February 1974, during which time he learnt of many
strange things in the area from among mining acquaintances. He said "When I began
my employment I was asked by Barney Matthews, a contractor who hailed
from Armidale, if I knew anything about a so-called 'gorilla' which
was said to roam around the Tops area and had been seen from time to
time by timber cutters".
Oxley
Island 1977 Interview
Large
black man-like Shape
We had been unsuccessful
in securing any photographic evidence of the elusive Yowies of the Carrai,
or finding any fresh footprints. Yet we had obtained a large
number of new reports from Kempsey district residents, enough to encourage
us to continue investigations here in the future.
Saying goodbye to George
Gray we headed southward to Taree, there to investigate the claims of
the Gee family of Oxley Island, several kilometres south of town and
close to the mouth of the Manning River.
Arriving
at the Gee's farming property on May 5th, we interviewed the family,
inspected and photographed the respective sites that figured in the
following story:
About 11am one morning in
early February 1977, while alone on the farm, Mrs Gee was standing at
her back door looking south across the nearby Manning River a good 300
years away towards family wharf, which was situated over a rise of ground
1.5m high. Suddenly a large black manlike
shape appeared, half visible over the rise.
As the rise of earth partly
obscured the figure, Mrs Gee estimated the full height of the manlike
creature to be about 3.3m. At this point the telephone rang and Mrs
Gee went to answer it. Shortly afterwards she returned
to find the mysterious beast gone. A search of the wharf area later
revealed large man-ape like footprints in the surrounding mudflats.
Mrs Gee recalled for me how,
three night before her sighting the family dogs had barked each night,
perhaps aware that someone, or 'something' was on the property. One week following Mrs Gee's
sighting of the strange figure, neighbours on a nearby farm had heard
a high-pitched screaming sound some time after 11pm. When they went
to investigate they detected a very foul-smelling odour about the back
yard.
One week later the Gee family
awoke one morning to find an old 1500 gallon water tank and its stand
in the backyard had been pushed over during the night. Leading up to
the tank they discovered numbers of large footprints. A search for more soon resulted
in the alarming discovery, that the seemingly enormous beast who had
made them had come up from the river, crossed newly dug cornfield into
a shed, through which they passed until they reached the water tank.
Around the whole area Mr
Geoff Gee and his son Geoff junior smelt a foul odour just like their
neighbours had detected a week before. Geoff Gee junior found he had
smelt the same odour further up Oxley Island on the same night the screaming
sounds were heard by their neighbours. Mr Gee himself later smelt
the odour on a dirt road near his farm. It remained there for three
days when it could still be detected about the cornfield.
Tall
hairy ape-like Beast
About this period a woman
tennis player reported seeing a tall, hairy ape-like beast in roadside
scrub as she was driving home from a game in Harrington. Also residents
of Mitchell Island [just across from Oxley Island], reported seeing
what could have been the same creature seen by Mrs Gee.
Was it possible the creature
seen by Mrs Gee had been able to cross the Manning River at low tide,
to emerge at the Gee property, and if so, had it crossed the full extent
of Oxley Island, to yet another river barrier to reach the Harrington
area?
The Manning river at its
mouth is very deep, except at low tide, where it could be possible for
a 3.3m tall creature to wade across in certain places. It might have
found it easier to cross the next river barrier to reach Harrington
from where it could have, by crossing farmland, vanished back into the
coastal mountain belt from which it had originally wandered.
The investigation of the
Gee's Gigantopithecus-like manbeast ended our 1977 north coastal NSW
search, and the many new reports we had gathered were more than enough
to encourage us to make future field investigation throughout this region.
Torrington
North N.S.W 1977 Letter
Large
black man-like Shape
The following information
was contained in a letter from Mr Charles Elliott of Kyogle NSW dated
14th September 1977.
It
confirms the story of Mrs Burton concerning Rex Clifford:
"Recently while on a
holiday with my parents at Torrington in the north of NSW we were discussing
recent publicity about the Yowie, when my mother mentioned that a dead
animal of a similar description had been found in the area some years
ago."
"I interviewed a Mr
Lance Burton of Torrington. He informed me that some 15 years ago a
Mr Rex Clifford, a tin miner, from Emmaville, found the body of an animal
at what is known as The Gulf which is an area of rugged granite ridges
to the north-west of Torrington."
"Mr Clifford described
the animal as being about the size of a ten year old child, covered
in brown hair and he said the animal had teeth similar to that of a
human being, this being the main feature of the body that caused him
to examine it more closely. Mr Clifford showed the body
to Mr Lance Burton's father, Mr Roy Burton of Torrington."
"Mr Lance Burton said
that "someone" from Emmaville had contacted "someone"
either from Sydney University or the University of NSW and a man had
come to Emmaville and interviewed Mr Clifford about the finding. When he was informed that
it was about 13 miles ride on horse to view the body the man returned
to Sydney without further investigation."
"Mr Lance Burton further
stated that his father and mother had seen unusual footprints in The
Gulf area but they said they were different to those described as those
of the Woodenbong 'Yowie'. Because of limited time I
was unable to interview Mr Clifford or Mr Roy Burton to verify the story
about the alleged finding or ascertain if it would be possible to locate
the skeleton of the body."
"Your description of
the sounds made by the Yowie brings to mind another incident in Torrington
area. Some years ago two brothers, Mr Bill Sherratt and Mr Fred Sherratt
were camped at Pyres Creek which is to the north-east of Torrington.
They said one night they
heard a noise that started like a pig grunting and rose to a scream. They did not sight the animal
that made the noise. Although there are many wild pigs in the area now,
at that time wild pits were unknown in the area. Both men, who have
spent many years camping in the bush in the Torrington area, stated
they had never heard anything in any way similar to that noise before."
Mt
Connor 1977
Unexpected
Visitor
South-east of Alice Springs
and east of Ayers Rock stands Mt Conner, home [according to the Aborigines]
of the Mimi people, a 4ft [1.2m] tall pygmy-size race. One night during May 1977
a lone fossicker, Peter Fitzgerald, was camped near here next to a waterhole
beside his 4-wheel drive vehicle, when he had an unexpected visitor
to his campfire.
"She was stark naked,
4ft tall, young with nubile breasts, and had little hair at all on her
body but for the shoulder-length reddish hair of her head. She just
stood next to some bushes observing me some yards away." "I tried enticing her
to the campfire with some bread I cut from a loaf, but she would not
approach any closer. Then I threw it to her and she dashed forward,
grabbed it, put it to her mouth, then proceeded to eat it."
"Then she turned her
head to look away, in the direction of rustling sounds coming from nearby
bushes. I realised she was not alone. She then ran off into the darkness.
I heard the sounds of more than two other creatures running off with
her." "Shaken, I spent the
rest of the night inside my vehicle. Next morning I counted six sets
of child-size human footprints in the sand around my camp.
I remained
here for most of the day before heading off, and although I saw no more
of the little female or her companions, I more than a few times had
the feeling I was being watched, as I fossicked about in a nearby creek."
According to a local Aboriginal,
Barney Cameron: "These little people live in fear of the Pankalanka
[also known as the Pungalunga] giants. These Pankalanka people are really
terrifying. They use big wooden or stone tools and make fire, with which
they roast any Aborigines they catch.
They eat white people too
if they get them. They are like the Dinagabbie
further west and both these people are giants up to two or three times
the height and weight of any Aborigine or white man." "It is eerie country
out there at night. Aboriginal people keep clear of certain areas as
we know the little hairy Mimi lurk in wait for unwary travellers,"
said Barney.
Europeans don't generally
take Aboriginal 'bush yarns' of this sort seriously unless, of course,
they have such encounters themselves.
Adelaide
Hills 1977
Hairy
male Creature
One June day in 1977 a Mr
Paul Stewart was bushwalking in scrub among the Adelaide Hills 25 km
from the city. As he walked along a track between two hills, a hairy
male creature emerged from bushes ahead of him. Standing 2m in height, the
brownish, long-haired 'manimal' stood barely 6m ahead of him, stared
at him for a moment, then crashed its way back into the scrub as the
bushwalker retreated in the opposite direction!
Fitzoy
River-Gogo District 1977
Pgymy
sized frizzy haired Natives
In 1977 an Aboriginal stockman
'Jimmy', was droving cattle on the Fitzroy River near Gogo when, on
a dusty track he met three pygmy size, frizzy haired natives, two males
and a female.
"I spoke to them in
my own Aranda tongue, and they seemed to understand me. The intimated they were passing
through from somewhere in the Grant Range further west, where their
tribe was situated. They were all no taller than 3ft 6inches to 4ft[about
1 to 1.2m] and the female carried a bark container with yams and other
bush tucker, while the men carried spears and stone knives.
All were clothed in kangaroo
skins," he told a policeman. Known in the Kimberley region
as the Jim Jim [among other names] to the Aboriginal people, these little
natives are often claimed seen by drovers on lonely bush tracks, by
parties of explorers, by telegraph linesmen and surveyors working in
isolated locations over a wide area of the Kimberley-Arnhem Land wilderness.
Jimberingga
1977
Massive
black-haired gorilla-like Monster
To the north of here lies
Jimberingga. This community bears a name which is actually another variant
of 'Jimbra' and it too is an area of Jimbra sightings in recent years.
It was about 10km north of
this community one day in 1977 that two young property workers, claimed
they saw a "massive, black-haired gorilla-like monster" emerge
from bushes onto a road, waving a large tree limb menacingly at them
and emitting loud snarling sounds. The young men retreated to
their truck and drove off in haste.
Willare
Bridge-Kimberley Region 1977
Dirty
looking hairy male Creature
In
1978 I received the following report from Mr Norm Brooks of Bunbury:
"At Willare Bridge over
the Fitzroy River in the west Kimberley region during January 1977,
I was camping overnight with two mates, Keith James and Laurie Sullivan."
"A about 8pm as we were
sitting by our campfire, situated 30ft from our tent, Keith thought
he heard something moving about in bushes close by." "There's nothing there"
I said after a glance in the direction of the sounds." "Then who's that standing
behind the tent?" remarked Laurie. "Sure enough, there
was a dark figure, very tall, about 7ft, visible in the dim glow from
our fire.
It then moved forward, around
the tent and into full view 30ft from us - a dirty-looking, hairy male
creature, his head very ape-like with a sloping forehead, his eyes set
deep inside big projecting eyebrow ridges, with a pushed in nose, hunched
appearance, with arms much longer than a normal human and he had big
feet."
"At this, Keith leaped
from the fire and dashed for our Landrover to grab one of our .22 rifles.
At this moment the man-ape startled, turned and bounded off into the
scrub. He did not return, but we stayed they all night with our guns
at the ready just in case."
Bunbury
1977
Hairy
apeish-looking male Creature
About October 1977 a family
at Bunbury, on the coast south of Fremantle had an unwanted visitor
from the nearby hills.
One night they were woken
up by their Collie Dog's loud snarls and barking in the yard. It then
bounded up the driveway and sounded as if attacking something. There
were loud yells from its prey. When the husband and wife
reached the front door they saw in the moonlight a 2.3m tall 'human'
figure fighting off the dog at the driveway entrance. Their daughter
appeared, torch in hand.
The torchlight revealed a
hairy, apish-looking male creature, which at that moment, got a grip
on the dog and hurled it over the next fence and ran off into the night.
The dog retreated under the neighbours house in fright. The next morning the occupants
of the whole street were agog with the news that two boys down the road
out late, had come face to face with a 'man-like monster' heading for
nearby bushland.
He ran right through them
screaming and snarling clutching his side [where the dog had apparently
bitten him]. "It was just like a
big hairy man", said one of the boys to a newspaper reporter. Aborigines up around Geraldton
warn people never to go out in the hills after dusk, as the "hairy
men", the Jimbras, might catch them, for it is at this time that
they emerge from their lairs to wander about, sometimes in groups, in
search of food - human or other wise!
Yinu
River China 1977
Droppings-flattened
grass-large Footprints
A Chi-Chi giant left droppings
and an area of flattened grass at a site on the upper reaches of the
Yinu River, which were found in March 1977 by Liu Minzhuang, a biologist
at Huadong Teacher's University, and executive chairman of the China
'Wildman' Investigation and Research Society.
Nearby Liu Minzhuang also
discovered a number of large footprints measuring 43cm in length. Casts
made from these show remarkable similarities with others from island
south-east Asia and Australia, and display human characteristics.
The Chi-Chi's are known to
construct crude shelters out of bamboo. Crude stone tools left by these
hominids where they have sheltered, sometimes alongside campfires, have
been reported found in caves and rock overhangs.
They resemble Homo erectus
tools similar to those associated with recently-abandoned campsites
uncovered in Australia, as reported in earlier chapters. Examinations of the droppings
left by Chi-Chi's show they subsist upon an omnivorous diet of berries
and other vegetable 'bush tucker' and meat.
Dusky
Sound Area New Zealand 1977
Freshly
flaked Maori-style stone Tools
During 1977 a deer hunter,
Brian Lyons was camped in the Dusky Sound area of this vast, inhospitable
region, when he came across a cave showing signs of recent occupation,
and a fireplace with still warm embers, about which were scattered freshly-flaked
Maori-style stone tools. The man had the feeling he
was being watched and left the area in haste.
People still claim sightings
of the mysterious "White Tribe". Who are these timid natives?
A remnant group of Patupaiarehe? Survivors of yet one more 'unknown'
pre-Maori race? Once more we seem to be posing questions for which at
present, there are no real answers.
Coromandel
Range New Zealand 1977
Hairy
red Man
Having carried out a number
of field investigations in New Zealand since 1980, and having tramped
the wild regions where these hominids are said to live, Heather and
I can easily accept the proposition that these creatures still survive.
Take, for example, the Coromandel
Range south of Auckland, one of the domains of the legendary Moehau
manbeasts.
Dubbed the "Coromandel
Man" by the local media, these hominids had been seen for generations
thereabouts, and their appearances during 1977 resulted in the kind
of ridiculous behaviour as described in the following news item, which
appeared in the Sydney "Sunday Mirror" of 20th March that
year.
Horsemen
Hunt the Mystery Hairy Red man.
An armed posse of 15 horsemen
is combing the rugged ranges near Auckland this weekend ....hunting
for the "hairy red beast. The hairy man - a towering,
manlike beast with flowing red hair covering most of its body - has
been sighted three times in recent months in the Coromandel Ranges 90km
south of Auckland.
The last attempt to find
the elusive creature was almost four years ago by a party of Australian
tourists - but they returned empty-handed. They sighted one of the hairy
man's footprints, with two big toes on each foot, but failed to sight
the strange creature. The recent sightings have triggered new interest.
A second group also plans
to track down the hairy man. Their leader, Mr Neville Mack, says he
had documented every reported sighting of the creature since 1932. He plans to interview
several people who claim to have seen the hairy man and one elderly
Maori, Hori Hepera, 94 who claims to bear the scars of a confrontation
with the hairy man.