The Australian Yowie Research Centre Est...1976 by Rex Gilroy for the sole purpose of Scientific Study of the Australian Hairy - man
The Australian Yowie Research Centre Est...1976 by Rex Gilroy for the sole purpose of Scientific Study of the Australian Hairy - man

Contents / About the Author / Dedications / Acknowledgements / Forward / Introduction

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 /
Chapter 11 Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16
/ Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21

Excerpts from 2001 Book On the Yowie - Imjim & Turramulli, Monster-Men of the Queensland Bush - Chapter 14

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For many disbelievers only a personal experience could ever convince them of the Yowie's existence.
I was convinced for many years before I had what may or may not have been three encounters with these hominids.

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Chapter 14

The rugged eastern mountain ranges of Queensland, extending from the Lamington Plateau and MacPherson Range of the south eastern border country all the way up to Australia's northernmost point, Cape York, still contain many vast regions of inaccessible forest country seldom, if every visited by man. It is from these high imposing rainforest-covered peaks and deep valleys that eerie stories of mysterious hairy man-like giants and pygmy folk have been emerging since the earliest years of European settlement in the 19th century.

And these traditions are by no means confined to the east coastal and far northern mountain ranges; for even in modern times people are reporting encounters with hairy hominid primitives in remote out-of-the-way regions of the central Queensland interior. To the old coastal Aboriginal tribes and also those of the interior, the land was inhabited by a host of hairy manbeasts. In the far west of the state Aborigines feared the Pankalanka people, the fire-making giants who delighted in roasting and eating Aborigines, while the tribes from the Gulf country to the Atherton-Cape York wilds lived in equal terror of the Turramulli manbeasts, and the slightly smaller 'neo-giant' Imjim creatures.

Further south to the border ranges of the Lamington and MacPherson country the tribes believed the forests were inhabited by the 'Wolumbin' and 'Widgee' giants. To further confuse matters the Cape York Aboriginal people feared the 'Wirri Wirri', a dwarf race whose men had pointed beards and carried spears barbed with snakes fangs, one prick from which meant death. There were also the 'Junjdy'. the "little hairy red men".

Obviously four races are involved.

The features of the Pankalanka people [average 2.6 to 3m in height] tend to link them to the Bulloo, Goolagah and Jogungs of western and eastern New South Wales Aboriginal tradition; whereas the Turramulli resemble the Gigantopithecus-like Jimbra of Western Australia.

The Imjim of far north Qld and Widgee of the southern border country were a primitive man-ape like race, better known further south as the Yowie.

The little Wirri Wirri and Junjdy creatures were one and the same people, the Negrito Aborigines of the north Qld rainforests.

The hairy beings with which our Aborigines populated the remote wilds of old Qld were no mere myths to the early European settlers, who on occasion came face to face with them, any more than they are to those people who in modern times, have had the 'meeting of a lifetime' with one of these relict survivors from the dawn of Man. In the course of many lengthy field investigations, carried out over a wide area of Qld by Heather and I, we have gathered a great number of 'hairy man' reports. The following are but a small portion of these encounters, with "Queensland's hairy giants"......

The 'hairy man' has been part of Qld settlers folklore since at least the mid-19th century.

In 1964 a Tweed Valley stockman, Richard Adams, was mustering a mob of cattle on horseback on a steep hillside, on the edge of rainforest, situated at the foot of the Lamington Plateau cliffs, when the cattle and also his horse suddenly took fright. It was at this moment that, barely 16m ahead of him, an enormous muscular, hairy man-like beast appeared on the edge of the forest, menacingly brandishing a large tree limb. The beast, whose face Richard later described as being somewhere between human and ape, stood its ground snarling, as the terrified stockman turned his mount to gallop off down the slope.

And in the same region, around 1935 residents of an isolated farm were startled one night by the frantic bellowing of their house cow. Their cattle dog tor off into the darkness, barking furiously. The dog attacked something, but suddenly let out an agonising yelp, then all was quiet. The farmer and one his farmhands went out armed with lanterns and guns. They found the corner fences down, the cow dead with a broken neck - its head almost torn off - and the dog crushed against a tree where it had been thrown. In the distance they could hear something crashing through the bush up the mountainside.

A search next day failed to explain what had killed the animals. However, many neighbouring farmers believed it was the work of one of the"Monster men of the Lamington Plateau". Aborigines refuse to enter the valleys hereabouts, for fear of these horrible manbeasts they believe still lurk these, and which they say would kill and eat anyone that crossed their path. Over the years people have disappeared without a trace in these wilds. Eerie cries are often heard at night, terrifying campers.

In March 1990, a Sydney based fossicker, Mr Craig Turner, was exploring a remote jungle creek in the Numinbah Valley, when he found over a dozen freshly made hominid footprints in the mud of the bank. Quickly obtaining casting plaster from a nearby town, he was able to make casts from three of the footprints. Measuring 40cm in length by 17cm wide across the toes and 15cm wide at the heel, they were spaced up to 1.5m apart and were embedded 4cm deep in to mud. The creature who left these footprints must have stood at least 2.6m tall and weighted around 250 kg.

Of all the manbeast tales from Qld's vast wilderness areas, few are seldom as terrifying as those concerning the notorious "Monster Men of the Lamington Plateau"; the wild, rainforest covered volcanic basalt massif rising 1,000 metres above the surrounding countryside, just north of the NSW border and Tweed Valley below to the south, and the Numinbah Valley and Gold coast hinterland on its eastern side.

It was due to warnings by the early Aborigines that the pioneers of the region took to carrying guns at all times when working in remote areas.

A banana farmer, Ken 'Stoney' Thomas, in the Glen Eagles district further north in 1976, claimed he had a visitation from a female Yowie. The female hominid emerged around sundown from out of forest on the edge of his farm as he was finishing work in a paddock. "She was about 1.8m tall, slender built, a little hairy, and long breasts that might have drooped about 8 or 9 inches [20 to 23cm] . Her forehead was sloping away from very protruding eyebrows and her face somewhere between an ape and a human in appearance," said Ken.

Ken retreated to his farmhouse, unsure if the weird female was liable to attack him. As he and his family remained in the house, the strange 'womanbeast' wandered around the house and other buildings before returning back into the forest. Next morning when he searched for signs of the previous night's visitor, he found a number of bags covering his bananas had been ripped from the trees and their contents eaten, or scattered along a track, where he found strange footprints leading up into the wilderness of Owongorella National Park, a region of steep escarpments and rainforests.

Aborigines of the region believe a sizeable population consisting of small family groups of hairy 'Widgee' beings still roam over a wide area between the Mt Tambourine, Lamington., MacPherson and Tweed ranges, southward into the forests of Lismore and Casino inland from the NSW far north coast. It is also the domain of the Wolumbin giants.

Evidence of the former presence of these 'megastralian' tool-makers came to light in 1979, when a farmer near Nimbin, south of Mt Warning, dug up a huge stone hand-axe on his property. It weighs 15.5kg and is reminiscent of similar examples unearthed near Bathurst in central western NSW.

The forests surrounding the Mundunjin Power Station in the Lamington district have been a frequent locale for 'Widgee' sightings for many years. It is a mist shrouded mountainous region rising 1,700m above sea level, and an eerie place from which many bushwalkers keep clear. "Bushes shake when it [Widgee] runs through trees in late afternoon. All wildlife leaves the area when any hairy people are around this place," says an Aborigine tale.

The nearby Focal Peak country is seldom visited by Aborigines. It forms part of the Mt Warning-Tweed ranges and they say, supports a large number of 'Widgee' [Yowie] and 'Wolumbin creature, which are also known by other names, a we will see.

The Wiangeriburra Aboriginal people, who for thousands of years wandered the Lamington Plateau, and the surrounding valleys, which included the Kerry, Tweed and Numinbah and the whole of the Gold Coast hinterland, believed that their territory was also shared by three other races; the Goomeejungmund tallanbana, or "Giant hairy men who come out of the swamps and forests", otherwise known as the Widgee [or Yowie]; the Goommund tallanbana, or "Giant men who tower over the trees"; and the Tamarramai eejungmund tallanbana, the Small hairy people who come out of the swamps and trees".

URU Publications LogoImjim & Turramulli, Monster-Men of the Queensland Bush URU Publications Logo

Contents / About the Author / Dedications / Acknowledgements / Forward / Introduction
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 /
Chapter 11 Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16
/ Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21

The Australian Yowie Research Centre Est...1976 by Rex Gilroy in for the sole purpose of Scientific Study of the Australian Hairy - man
The Australian Yowie Research Centre Est...1976 by Rex Gilroy in for the sole purpose of Scientific Study of the Australian Hairy - man
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