Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Braidwood 1980

Manlike Footprints

Further north and inland from Batemans Bay lies the town of Braidwood. It was her that the 'hairy man' made numerous appearances throughout the 1970's and early 1980's in a rash of sightings that recalled many old pioneer's tales among the locals.

In one incident, Mrs.Val Hanson, together with friends, was camped at a lonely spot on the Shoalhaven River outside Braidwood one day in 1980. In the course of exploring the river they came upon a number of manlike footprints, measuring 46 cm long by 25.5 centimetres wide across the toes, embedded in the river-bank.

The discovery made everyone feel a little uneasy, and later that night as they sat around their campfire they had the distinct feeling that they were being watched, although they never saw the maker of the giant footprints and it did not give any further indication of its presence thereafter. Even so, the group was eager to leave the area when daylight came.

Kanangra Walls 1980

Rain drenched gorilla-like Beast

One night in May 1980 a scout group was driving in a minibus from Jenolan Caves to Kanangra Walls when the weather turned bad. As the bus drove through heavy rain along the Kanangra dirt road, the scoutmaster who was driving was astonished by what he saw on the road.

There ahead of him in the rain, illuminated by the headlights and moving across the road, was a hairy, rain drenched gorilla-like-beast, a full 2.7 metres in height. The man-ape stood in the road as the scoutmaster applied the brakes. But the monster quickly moved off with a stooped and shambling gait into the undergrowth in the darkness. The scouts were alerted in time to get a quick look at the retreating manbeast.

Publicity about their encounter bought forth the tale of another scout troupe who, several years before, believed they had found a 'yowie lair". They were investigating rock overhangs for signs of animal life in the Jenolan range not far from the more famous Jenolan Caves when, in a deep gully near the base of the steep Kanangra Boyd mountains and above a creek, they found a bed of soft ferns placed in a rock shelter.

Nearby, deeply embedded in creek mud, they found a number of unusually large ape-like footprints. According to Aborigines, the yowies either wandered about the ranges in ones and twos or in small family groups, sometimes using the cave entrances and rock overhangs in the Jenolan Caves area as lairs long before the coming of the white man or the Aborigines.

It is a fact that, while early settlers accepted tales of the yowies at face value, many modern campers tend to take such traditions with a grain of salt-except, of course, those who have experienced 'close encounters' with the 'hairy man'.

Carrai June 1980

Trail of indistinct hominid Footprints

Since 1977, my wife Heather and I have mounted numerous field expeditions to the Carrai. On one occasion in June 1980, during a howling gale we followed a trail of indistinct hominid footprints, perhaps only an hour old, through rainforest soil, moss and leaf mould near Daisy Plains at the top of the range.

It was impossible either to have photographed or cast these tracks, but even in these adverse weather conditions we could detect a faint pungent odour about them. Once again the 'hairy man' had eluded us, for the lashing of the dense foliage and icy winds forced us to abandon our search.

An Update

Heather and I carried out another extensive field investigation on the NSW north coast in June 1980, beginning with a return visit to the Carrai Range. It was during a search deep in the Daisy Plains forest country, the highest point on the Carrai that I believe I came very close to seeing one of these elusive hominids. The weather had been sunny although very cold and windy as we drove up the dirt timber cutters road that crosses the Carrai Range.

By the time we reached Daisy Plains the weather had deteriorated and storm clouds were approaching. About this time, as Heather warmed herself in the car, I had begun casually exploring along an animal track in rainforest close to the orad. The ground was covered in a thick coating of moss. Suddenly I came upon the impression of a bare human-like footprint, then another and another, until I realised they continued on along this track deep into the forest.

I also realised that their maker could not have been very far ahead of me, for the trodden moss was rising up with the impressions. By now the wind had reached gale proportions and was becoming unbearably icy. I wondered what kind of human-like creature could survive in such inhospitable conditions.The ferns and tree branches were lashing my face, and making any further investigation impossible.

The camera I had with me lacked a flash unit and the dark conditions made photography of the footprints impossible. I also felt that, if I proceeded any further I could be walking into a trap. As I fought my way back to the road I had the eerie feeling that I was being watched by someone or something in that forest. Reaching Heather, I reported my find as we drove out of that wilderness for the town of Kempsey.

Ruined Castle 1980

40cm long Footprints

On Monday 19th May 1980, Sydney bushwalkers Peter Thompson and Louise Stokes went for a camping trip out to Ruined Castle, setting up their tent amid the gum forest on the eastern slope. Around 3 am they were suddenly woken from their sleep by something moving about the bushes outside the tent. T

hen the unseen intruder interfered with the tent flap. At this Peter, followed by Louise, scrambled for the opening, but the intruder, upsetting camp goods, quickly vanished into the forest. After a while they returned to their tent but kept a wary ear out for any unusual sounds. These were not long in coming. The sounds of snapping twigs as 'someone' walked around the tent made Peter once more scamble for the opening, but as he did so, the mystery intruder vanished into the darkness.

They got little sleep thereafter, and when daylight returned they were startled to discover, in the soil around their tent, man-like tracks besides their own shoe prints, a number of other, bare like tracks, only much larger than any normal human foot, being about 40 cm in length.

Oberon 1980

Mysterious Intruder

During the summer of 1980, Mr Siegfried Cousins, together with his friend, Mr Dave White and two other men, went camping on a shooting trip on Dave's grandfather's property at Oberon, in an area situated out in thick bush country. The men intended to camp there for three days, but their plans would be upset by a mystery visitor.

The men established their camp inside an old tin shack on the property and settled down for the first night. All was peaceful until late that night, when they became aware of something walking around the outside of the shack. Behind the shack and 16.2m away was a steep gully, and it was to this gully that the footsteps retreated. Then, after a while the men heard sounds of something scrambling up the gully to walk once more around the shack.

The men at first thought it to be some animal and had not bothered to investigate. This time however, they left the shack, peering into the darkness with their torches, but the mystery visitor was nowhere to be seen. However, coming from the gully they could hear the sound of crashing timber, as whatever 'it' was, retreated hastily below. At this point, they all suddenly noticed the area about them was covered by a foul garbage-like stench.

Throughout the night the men would be aware of the mystery intruder's presence at least five times, but each time they left the shack to investigate, the visitor retreated before they could get a look at it. Finally, in the early hours of the morning the men were able to fall asleep without any further disturbances.

Later that morning after breakfast, the men, rifles in hand, climbed down into the gully in an effort to try and find some trace of whatever it was that had made the repeated visits to their camp, and although they searched the gully for half a mile they found no trace of their mystery visitor whatever. Returning to their camp, the men left for some rabbit shooting in the surrounding hills.

"We were mystified as to what could have been visiting the camp, and how whatever it was could escape into that gully, which was too steep for us to climb without difficulty, and the scrub down there became far too difficult to penetrate after half a mile," said Siegfried to me later.

Each night the men remained there the mystery intruder returned, the sounds of it around the shack clearly heard, accompanied by the same foul rotting stench, by the time the men emerged from the shack, it would disappear back down the gully. On the third night about 1.30am, Siegfried was still awake as the others slept, keeping a vigil for the mystery intruder, which so far had not returned that night, when suddenly, peering at him through a rust hole in a sheet of wall tin, he spotted an eye.

At this instant the eye disappeared. Waking his mates they quickly dashed out the door of the shack only to hear the intruder scrambling back down the gully. The men flashed torches down into the gully but the mystery intruder was nowhere to be seen, so they returned to the shack. So far none of the men had attempted to shoot the strange visitor, but now they were keeping their guns loaded and next to their sleeping bags.

Siegfried sat with his rifle facing the door, determined to get a good look at whatever it was that had been repeatedly visiting their camp. It was not long before he heard the by now familiar sounds of something scrambling up the gully, then the sounds of footsteps as the mystery intruder approached the shack. Siegfried woke the other men carefully; all remained dead silent as the footsteps stopped at the door. The door began opening, Siegfried pointed his rifle.

The door was open barely an inch when Dave accidentally moved, making a sound barely loud enough to alert the mystery intruder. However, this time, before the visitor could retreat the men had scambled to their feet and were running out the door, torches and rifles in hand, in time to spot a dark shape running toward the gully, down which it disappeared with the men in hot pursuit.

Although they failed to get a good look at the visitor as it moved through scrub down the gully slope, they all later agreed it had definitely walked upon two legs, and was very hairy looking. In the torchlight Siegfried could still see the mystery man-like shape moving among bushes at the bottom of the gully 30m below, and fired a single shot at it, which hit the creature. It emitted a loud scream as it crashed its way through the scrub, to disappear into the darkness.

The men spent the rest of the night awake, discussing the series of events that had occurred since their arrival at the shack. Had their mystery intruder been an over-inquisitive Yowie, they wondered?

Winderoo 1980 Interview-1972 Encounter

Something between a monkey and a Man

During 1980 I interviewed Mrs Jane Little of Brisbane, about her encounter with a Yowie in 1972. She told me the following: "I was horse riding with my sister on the Albert River near Winderoo, just off the Beaudesert Road. As we rode past a sugar cane field we surprised a strange bipedal animal sitting on the edge of the field." "When it saw us approaching it stood up on two legs to a height of about 4ft [about 1.4m].

It was covered in long brownish hair, but none on the face, which looked something between a monkey and man in features." "As we rode by it stood looking at us, then bolted into the cane field [it had already startled our mounts]; but not before I noticed its arms, which were longer than a human's and its fingers, which were hairless and yellowish in colour."

"It is an interesting fact that no birds or other animals ever seem to inhabit this area. Horses even spook and refuse to stay there very long. This whole area of the Albert River is covered in little islands of swamp and scrub. It is an eerie region." "The man who owns the cane field where we saw the little creature has said that his father used to speak of a monkey-like 'hairy man' who inhabited the area many years before."

Aboriginal people believe that Junjdy inhabit the Carnarvon Range north of Roma. They say that little footprints have been found in the Murgon scrub, and also around Injune to the south of the Carnarvon Range within recent years. There is even a rumour that, during the mid-1970's, the skeleton of a pygmy-type native was found in this region. About the height of a normal six year old child, the jaws contained the teeth of a 60 year old.

Europeans have claimed sighting of Junjdy for generations, and such reports continue in modern times; and we must realise that there are some people reluctant to come forward with personal experience, fearful of ridicule from the less informed members of our community.

Innisfail 1980

Milla Milla monster-huge footprints Found

Further to the north of Townsville, near 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 rain forests 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 during the 19th century.

During January 1980, huge footprints of one of these monstrous manbeasts were found by two campers near Milla Milla, which for a time revived many of the old stories.

Macdonnell Ranges 1980-Interviewed 1983

Half a dozen "little black fellas' attack two Friends

Europeans don't generally take Aboriginal 'bush yarns' of this sort seriously unless, of course, they have such encounters themselves. Such was the case of Bill Manning and Robert Littlemore in 1980. Bill informed me in an interview in 1983, that he and his mate were camped in the Macdonnell Ranges on the Todd River, in sparse scrub one week while fossicking for minerals. Bill takes up the story:

"We were bedding down for the night on the ground in our sleeping bags, beside our fire on this particular night, when from out of the scrub we were suddenly attacked by half a dozen little blacks with wooden clubs, who proceeded to beat us as we struggled from our sleeping bags."

"We had to grab rocks and wooden stakes with which to fight them off all the while as they screamed and shouted at us, lashing out at us all the time." "Robert grabbed for a rifle and let fly two shots, wounding one of the blacks in the leg, at which they all dashed away into the scrub, the wounded one screaming in pain. We got out of the place pretty fast after that."

"We happened to tell our story to an old tribal elder at Alice Springs some months later." "You fellas were trespassing on their territory, that's why they attacked you. Them little fellas and their families keep to themselves in their own country," he told us.

Medog & Beibeng China 1980

The "Wild Women" Chi-Chi.

Some Chinese researchers believe these primitive fire-making hominids are surviving remnant populations of the Chinese Homo erectus, Beijing [formerly Peking] Man, and if so, these hominids are undoubtedly close relatives to the fire and stone tool-making "hairy people" of Australia.

Homo erectus had discovered fire-making by 1.6 million years ago in Africa, as revealed by recent archaeological finds at Kenya's famous hominid site of Koobi Fora on Lake Turkana. Perhaps older Homo erectus fire-making sites will yet turn up elsewhere in Asia, or perhaps in Australia. I believe this is inevitable.

Between the towns of Medog and Beibeng is an expanse of thick forest. On September 24th 1980, two 15 and 16 year old girls came up against a tall female Chi-Chi- with hair all over her body. One girl dashed away but the other was too frightened to move.

The "Wild Woman" however, did not harm her and moved off into the forest. The women of this region live in fear of being carried off by a "Wild Man", as this has been known to have happened in the past in many other remote parts of China where the "Wild People" are known to roam.