Ape-Men in Australia by Rex Gilroy Copyright (c) 2001 Rex Gilroy. This article is composed of extracts from my 2001 Yowie book: “Giants From the Dreamtime” -The Yowie in Myth and Reality. Copyright (c) 2001 Rex Gilroy, Uru Publications.

[Released in March, 2001, click here for Ordering Details]

The Australian Yowie Story

Yowies in Australia
Man-Apes of Eastern Australia

Excerpts From Chapter 16 Mysterious Australia 1995 - Rex Gilroy Parts 1-13

Click at End of each Article for Parts 2-16

Part 14-16 Is The Updated Version From the 2001 Yowie Book
" Giants From The Dreamtime - The Yowie in Myth & Reality."

Part 7

Further north and inland from Batemans Bay lies the town of Braidwood. It was here that the 'hairy man' made numerous appearances throughout the 1970s and early 1980s in a rash of sightings that recalled many old pioneers' 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 indications of its presence thereafter. Even so, the group was eager to leave the area when daylight came.

North from Braidwood lies Nerriga, home of the "Nerriga Giant. Often described as a "gorilla-like" beast both by whites and Aborigines (who also call it the Doolagahl), it has been claimed seen in the nearby Budawang Range. A farmer claimed to see a hairy male creature eating apples from a tree on his orchard near Nerriga in 1970. The man was too scared to approach the three-metre-tall monster and watched it feeding from the safety of his farmhouse until the man-beast walked away into scrub.

We turn now to the vast expanses of the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, where most of the 'classic' historical sightings reports of yowies originated 'in the early years following European settlement in this district. The early settlers learnt of many mysterious creatures from the Aborigines, but none created as much fear among the natives as the yowie which, they informed the settlers, were often enormous, fearsome manlike beasts that walked upon two legs with a stooped, shambling gait.

As described by tribespeople elsewhere across the country, these monsters were covered from head to foot in long hair. They had no neck, the head being sunk into the shoulders. Aborigines and lonely settlers feared the cry of the yowie, which they said would often come from the forest depths at night-a loud wailing, moaning sound, or sometimes a terrifying screeching, screaming sound, and even loud grunting. The Aborigines informed many settlers of the yowie's diet which, as elsewhere, consisted of vegetable matter such as certain plants, roots, berries, leaves and barks. Animals were eaten on occasion, as were any Aborigines unfortunate enough to be caught by one of these monsters.

The Blue Mountains continues to be a hotbed of yowie man-beast activity-a vast region of hundreds of square miles still containing inaccessible forest regions seldom if ever visited by Europeans. The "'Hairy Giants of Katoomba" are also known as the "Killer Man-Apes of the Blue Mountains" to many locals-and with good reason, as you will read soon.

About January 1961, two young women, Jacki" and "Helen", were frightened by a hairy male hominid creature which appeared from out of thick scrub near the top of Minna Ha Ha Falls in the north Katoomba bushland. The man-beast, they later told police, stood a good seven feet (2.3 metres) tall, had a sloping forehead and thick eyebrow ridges, was very muscular and had long arms with big hands. Screaming, the girls ran off up the track in the direction of the carpark. People to whom they told their story at the park returned to search the area but found no tracks of the creature due to the rocky terrain, although both women agreed the man-beast's feet were "very large".

In May 1974, a pony was found dead in thick bushland near the falls. Its neck had been broken, the head almost tom off, and portions of its back had been removed and eaten. Nearby were the ominous footprints of what must have been an enormous ape-like creature. News of the gruesome find revived memories of a similar occurrence some months before on a Mount Victoria farm where a sheep had been killed in much the same manner. Nearby, large ape-like footprints had been found.

Mount Victoria residents at the time recalled that, during the 1890s, early settlers believed, on the basis of sightings, that a 'family' of yowies lived in the bush on the Victoria Falls road three miles east of the township above the Grose Valley. It is said that in about 1910, two men were bushwalking in the Victoria Falls area when a three-metre-tall, hairy gorilla-like male creature charged at them from out of the dense scrub. He had a large rock in his hand which he hurled at the men, hitting one of them and killing him instantly. His companion somehow managed to run from the monster.

The next day, a party of men with guns and dogs returned to the scene with the survivor, but apart from some blood on the ground his companion's body was nowhere to be found. It was assumed his body had been carried off by the man-beast.

I receive many phone calls from people all over Australia who have something to report, and at all hours.

Click here for Part 8 of Man-Apes of Eastern Australia

Excerpts From Chapter 16 Mysterious Australia 1995 - Rex Gilroy Parts 1-13