New Theories on Human Evolution
This article is composed of extracts from the 2007 book:
“The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils From The Dreamtime".Copyright (c) 2007 Rex Gilroy, Uru Publications.
As the conservative picture of human origins correct? The amount of fossil hominid, particularly giant hominid footprints, coming to light across Australia not only demonstrate the presence of human ancestors here in times comparable to those of Africa, Europe and Asia, they suggest a whole indigenous variety of races occupied this landmass, not just in Pleistocene, or Pliocene times but much earlier!
The foregoing statement is heresy to the ears of hard-core university-based scientists indoctrinated with the ‘holy writ’ of the “Out of Africa” school of human origins. Yet there is plenty of evidence to overturn this time-honoured dogma. So what has all this to do with the subject of our book – the Yowie?
Indeed it has a great deal to do with these mysterious hominids, for the authors believe that, in order to learn the true identity of these beings, it is also very necessary to know their origins which lie in the dim past of humankinds’ beginnings.
In our previous book on the Yowie mystery “Giants from the Dreamtime – The Yowie in Myth and Reality” [URU Publications 2001] we presented our own up-to-date evidence of that time in the form of fossil hominid skull-types which prove beyond doubt that these beings, so commonplace to the ancient folklore of our Aboriginal people, were none other than Homo erectus, our immediate ancestor.
In the years that have followed the publication of “Giants from the Dreamtime” much new fossil material has come to light, which not only further confirms the Homo erectus origins of the traditional Yowie, or “Hairy Man”, but also that the very origins of our ancestor appear to lie firmly in Australia!
If indeed Homo erectus evolved right here in Australia, then what race did ‘he’ spring from? Who were ‘his’ parents? We believe that not only can we answer this question, but that certain fossil evidence now in our possession allows us to look much farther back in time, to reveal an hitherto unknown Australian primate fossil record [scant though it may be at present] which suggests that more than one primate species evolved here in Australia, from which, quite independent of Africa, there arose a group that left the trees for a terrestrial bipedal existence, and who gradually evolved into the earliest ancestral hominids, long before their African cousins began leaving the trees around 6 million years ago!
If the authors appear to be more concerned with fossil evidence in this book rather than modern-day encounters with primitive hairy hominids in the bush, giant or otherwise, which are all too commonplace to the overseas Yeti and ‘Bigfoot’ literature, this is quite true, for this book is an attempt to present an intelligent approach to Yowie [relict hominid] research in Australia and also in its near island neighbours where we find other close relatives of our ‘hairy man’. Photograph right: Aboriginal Girl wearing a Kangaroo hide Garment. Photographer Unknown. I will credit anyone who owns this photograph.
There are also other reasons for our ‘scientific’ approach. For one, in order to encourage a more open-minded view among Australian, and also overseas scientists on the ‘relict hominid’ mystery it is necessary to present the best SCIENTIFIC evidence. Only this will ever have any chance of winning this all-important support and this at a time when the subject has suffered considerable discredit in scientific circles, due to the antics of certain individuals already discussed in the Introduction.
Another, and very important reason to present scientific evidence, is not only to reveal the “fossil foundations” as it were upon which the Australian relict hominid theory stands, but also to encourage by our example, future young and enthusiastic, honest relict hominid researchers to penetrate the Australian bush, forearmed with research findings so as to know what they are truly searching for and thus know in advance how they are to research these ever elusive, mysterious survivors of our prehistory.
Besides the scientific evidence to be presented in this book, there will be sightings reports, even claims of close encounters, and finds of freshly made relict hominid footprints. This circumstantial evidence for modern-day Australian relict hominid survival will largely consist of evidence investigated by the authors and their field assistants, discarding many suspect cases that we have had to deal with over the years.
“The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils From The Dreamtime".
“The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils From The Dreamtime". Special Dedication. The Authors dedicate this book to the late Charles Melbourne Ward F.Z.S.; F.R.Z.S. known to his great many friends simply as ‘Mel’. Together with his wife Halley, he operated a natural history museum in the grounds of the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath for many years and also another established at Echo Point, Katoomba. It was ‘Mel’ who first taught me how to collect, record and study natural history specimens, beginning when I was aged 11 years old on holidays with my parents at Katoomba in 1954. Thereafter, every school holidays spent in Katoomba began with a visit to ‘Mel’ at his Medlow Bath Museum to inform him how my fledgling natural science studies were progressing!
As a result and after my parents moved from our Lansvale [western Sydney] home to Katoomba, the Gilroys and Wards became close friends. There was hardly a week which did not see me peddling my pushbike from our North Katoomba home up the Great Western Highway to see ‘Mel’ at his museum for more instruction. Mel Ward possessed a wide knowledge of the culture of the Australian Aborigines and that of the former local Blue Mountains tribes in particular.
He was also a firm believer in the “Hairy Man” and supported my researches in this regard. At my 21st birthday party, held at the Homesdale Function Centre, at Katoomba on Saturday night 8th November 1964, I well recall how my old friend, in front of a large gathering, congratulated me on my researches and the large natural science collection that I was forming and then said: “You’ve done a fantastic job Rex, BUT IT’S ABOUT TIME THAT YOU STARTED MAKING SOME BLOODY MONEY OUT OF IT” in a loud voice that brought the house down!
That following week, together with my father Mr W.F. [Bill] Gilroy, I began a search of local venues, which soon resulted in the acquisition of the lease from the Blue Mountains City Council of the Mt York Tea Rooms, outside Mt Victoria, the rest they as “is history”. Two years late, on October 6th 1966, Mel Ward was dead, having passed away in his sleep. He once said to my father that I was “the Mel Ward of Tomorrow” and I am certain that Mel would be pleased to know that I have indeed followed in his footsteps.
Mel led an adventurous life. The son of Hugh J. Ward, a famous Shakespearean actor of the early 20th century, Mel was encouraged to go on the stage by his father but Mel developed a passion for the natural sciences and his wealthy parents helped him become established. In his lifetime of achievement, Mel became recognised as a world authority on Crustaceans and an anthropologist. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales and was pleased when I too became a member of the Society in 1963. He encouraged me, not long before his death, to take on the Presidency of the Society’s Entomological section, where I served for three years from 1966 to 1969.
That he achieved so many things in the course of his lifetime researches is remarkable, because like this author, he was an amateur with not one university degree to his name! I am certain that my old friend would be delighted at the fact that, together with heather, I am now writing and publishing book on the subjects he loved and on the Yowie in particular. He taught me never to blindly follow the textbook and dare to question dogmas and not be told what to think! I have certainly followed his advice. Knowing Mel Ward as I did I know he would wholeheartedly approve of the scientific approach of this book, therefore “Mel”
This Book is for You!
Rex Gilroy - Australian Yowie Research Centre, Katoomba, NSW.
Monday 25th June 2007I also present sensible advice to any future would-be Yowie investigators. The reader will also be awed at the great many discoveries my wife Heather and I have made in all our years together in the field. I feel privileged to be the founder of Yowie research and to have encouraged other, sensible researchers to follow my example. The search for surviving relict hominids in remote, hidden regions of the world, has been called the “last great search”, and it is both a fascinating and exciting one. Rex Gilroy may be contacted at the Australalian Yowie Research Centre, PO Box 202, Katoomba. NSW 2780. Ph 02 4782 3441 or email New Email Address as of June 2009 randhgilroy44@bigpond.com on or visit our website : http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/ or http://www.australianyowieresearchcentre.com/ or http://www.rexgilroy.com/
Newspaper Articles on Rex Gilroy's Lifetime Search for the Australian Yowie
Newspaper Articles on Rex Gilroy's Lifetime Search for the Australian Yowie
Aboriginal/Koori Names for the Australian Yowie
To present the Yowie mystery in its proper context, relict hominid evidence from south-east Asia, New Guinea, other west Pacific Islands and New Zealand is revealed, demonstrating how the ancestors of these ‘manimals’ once spread out across the earth via land-bridges that formerly joined Australia/New Guinea/New Zealand with what is now island south-east Asia to the Asian mainland.
“Hairy man” was a name given by the Aborigines to any non-Aboriginal race with which they shared this continent, but the term centred primarily upon at least three basic forms. These forms were either the height of an average human being, an enormous man-like and also ape-like form. All were known by different names Australia-wide, but all meant either “hairy man” or “great hairy man”.
