Giants
From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality
Wadbilliga
National Park 1979
Three hairy Shapes
Further north
up the coast and inland from Narooma, thence westward along the Tuross
River, lies the Wadbilliga National park situated in typical south-coast
forestland. It was here
in this wild country late one afternoon in October 1979 that a ranger
"Steve" {name witheld on request}, was parked on a remote
four-wheel-drive road at a seldom-used picnic area while he checked
the surrounding forest for rubbish discarded by thoughtless people.
"The time was about 4 pm, and I was thinking it was getting late
and I had better leave as it was a long drive through the park back
to civilisation. I was working my way back towards the Land-Rover, some
300 yards away, among the gums in the quiet forest not a bird to be
heard when I heard some distant sounds of snapping foliage and strange,
gutteral sounds.
"Someone's
coming I thought."
Steve got the shock of his life and for a moment could not decide whether
to make a dash through the trees for the Land-Rover or hide where he
was. "At that moment, looking in the direction of the sounds across
a ferny clearing, I spotted three hairy shapes, one taller than the
a normal human, emerging onto the clearing about 200 feet away. In an
instant I thought only one word, 'yowie'-tales of which I had heard
before but never believed {but I do now!}.
"They had not seen me, and for obvious reasons by now I was down
behind some foliage, 'eating dirt'. There ahead of me were three hairy,
naked ape-like forms-I had glanced a quick look through the bushes-a
male of about nine feet tall, a female of size feet and a five-foot
juvenile male.
"I froze in disbelief, horrified that they might see me close by.
The big male was very thickset, the female slender. I saw little else
for I was too preoccupied in lying as close to the ground as I could
to avoid being seen and perhaps attacked and killed by these 'human
apes'. They wandered across the clearing away from where I lay. The
last I saw of them were their backs as they continued on into the forest
in the distance."
For a minute
or two, Steve remained where he was, just to make sure they were well
and truly out of sight, then... "I got to my feet and ran for the vehicle some distance away. {Surely
they must have noticed it,' I thought} Anyway, I damn well got out of
that forest and out of the park as fast as I could. "Some weeks
later I heard that two young blokes out camping thereabouts reported
finding big footprints in soil on the road near where I had my experience,
but heavy rain washed them away before anyone could return with the
boy's to inspect them.
"Steve" reported his story to me after publication of an article
about my research into the 'hairy man" of the south coast' in the
local press. It is by no means the only story of its kind to come from
those vast wilds.
Jamieson
Valley Runied Castle June 1979
The strange Beast
On Saturday
7th June 1979, Mr John Evbic and a mate, "Tony", were exploring
dense scrub on the Jamieson Valley side of the Ruined Castle rock formation.
Around midday,
as they rested on a rise overlooking a paperbark forest some 60 metres
below them, they observed a human-like shape moving on two legs among
the trees. As it came into full view , the men realised it to be no
ordinary human being but something more ape than man, and a good six
feet tall. It was covered in long brownish hair.
"The strange
beast moved to a paperbark tree and began tearing away large slabs of
bark, appearing to pick off and eat beetles it found burrowing underneath,
oblivious all the time to out presence," said Tony. The mysterious
man-beast then began moving off further into the scrub, continuing its
foraging. When it was lost from sight, the men did not follow it.