Jonathan Swift [1667-1745] in his book, “Gulliver’s Travels” [1726], described Australia long before the voyage of Captain James Cook RN [1770], with information which could only have come from ancient Chinese writings on the mysterious southern continent. He also described a primitive hairy race that inhabited that land as the Yahoos.

Jonathan Swift
Photo courtesy of the British Information Service, London UK.

The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils from the Dreamtime.

Copyright © 2007 by Rex Gilroy
All rights reserved
First Edition

Rex and Heather Gilroy are recognised internationally as Australia’s foremost relict hominid researchers. This book celebrates Rex Gilroy’s 50 years as the ‘father’ of Yowie research. Rex and Heather are also recognised internationally as one of the world’s foremost husband and wife research teams in the field of ‘Unexplained’ mysteries.

These daring and outspoken researchers are no friends of the Australian hard-core, narrow-minded scientific establishment, who would prefer that books of the kind produced by the Gilroys were prevented from publication.

When not carrying out field work, Rex and his wife Heather [a Registered Nurse/Midwife by profession] are at home writing books, surrounded by their huge reference library of books on all manner of scientific subjects. Besides their many and varied researches, Rex and Heather Gilroy are also involved in community service work as members of the Rotary Club of Katoomba.

Dead Horse Gap, near Thredbo. This wild region of the Snowy Mountains has been a “hairy man” locale since the first years of 19th century settlement hereabouts.

During June 1999 a stockman was riding his horse through wild scrub overlooking the road near where this photo was taken, when he spotted a number of “huge man-like footprints” in a mud patch.

Dead Horse Gap
Photo copyright © Rex Gilroy 2007

Excerpts from - "The Yowie Mystery" - Living Fossils from the Dreamtime.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE ‘REXBEAST’ MYSTERY

If all the old bushmen’s’ yarns of encounters in the wild with the ‘hairy man’ that were so commonplace throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, none are more fascinating to relict hominologists than those involving so-called “hairy giants”. Indeed Aboriginal folklore concerning the “hairy man” [which can get confusing at times] speaks of two forms of Yowie/Homo erectus; namely the “hairy man” and the “giant hairy man”.

It appears that, to their way of thinking, any Yowie of around 2.6m and over is a “giant hairy man”. Yet a comparison of the average size ‘modern’ foot of a Yowie/Homo erectus is smaller compared to the large footprints of the 2.6-2.8m tall form, although both are dwarfed by the massive tracks laid down by the true giants of the Australian bush, the “giant hairy man” proper.

These beings leave footprints [allowing for size distortion in sand etc] of from 90cm to 1m in length with a width of from 40 to 45cm or more. A comparison of footprints of all three forms revealed differences to the Gilroys in 2000 which we realised that everyone else had overlooked. The 2.6m form could not be younger members of the giant form, whom we judged to stand at least 3.66m [12ft] in height and of powerful muscular build.

Therefore, like any scientist naming a newly discovered species, we named this giant hominid ‘Rexbeast’. What follows are accounts of these giants, who in past ages must have roamed a far wider domain, when the interior was a lush environment in Ice-Age times.

Today they are said by our Aboriginal people to inhabit the vast interior of Australia’s eastern mountain ranges, and it was in these ranges that 19th century settlers were warned by the old tribespeople that they should never go, lest they would be caught, killed and eaten by the “giant hairy people”! For Heather and I our first encounter with one of these giant beings took place during our October-November 2000 south-eastern New South Wales Yowie field expedition.

‘Rexbeast’.

On Thursday 2nd November, early that overcast morning we were driving inland from Bodalla on our way to the Deua National park, when we crossed over the 3m high Eurobodalla bridge on the Tuross River. As I happened to look down at a sandbar on my [passenger’s] side I spotted, deeply embedded in the sand, a huge hominid foot impression. Pulling up on the north bank we walked back to the bridge’s centre, below which was the sand bar containing the huge footprint. The Tuross River is tidal, so that when the tide is out, the river hereabouts virtually dries up, exposing its sandy bottom in many areas, particularly at this spot. Below the bridge the sandbar was 9 metres or so in width by just over 18 metres length, the bridge cutting across its centre, with river water flowing eastwards to the sea. We could clearly see the track of a pushbike, made by a rider when pedalling over the moist sand the previous afternoon. There were also faint signs of children’s footprints and scratching around the bike tracks and a huge [right] foot impression, almost obliterated by the rising tide the night before. We could still faintly detect a trail of enormous footprints beneath the shallow water on the north side of the sandbar. The evidence suggested to us that children had been playing on the dried-up river bed, leaving the scene before dark, after which the monstrous hominid [surely a male] had emerged from nearby forest country to cross open farmland, entering the river on its north bank, then strode across the sand on a north-west to south-east course for some 30 metres to stop at the base of the 3 metre high bridge, then turn directly west. At this point this massive right foot had covered the bike track. Subsequently the tide had returned to cover or wash away most of the footprints but for what remained on this sandbar, which by the time we appeared on the scene, had become an island surrounded by [outflowing] water. But how big was the maker of the monstrous foot impression? The distances between the dozen or so almost obliterated [submerged] footprints showed a stride of about 1.8m. The foot impression, allowing for distortion, measured 1 metre long by 40cm wide across the toes and 35cm wide at the heel, its depth being up to 5cm; all of which suggested an individual of at least 4.6 metres in height and of powerful build and strength.

Giant Footprint
The Giant Foot Impression

Rex Gilroy
Australian Yowie Research Centre,
Katoomba, NSW
Monday 25th June 2007

Australian Yowie Research Index | Entire Web site © Rex & Heather Gilroy | URU Publications ® ™ Rex & Heather Gilroy. All Rights Reserved

Excerpts from - "The Yowie Mystery" - Living Fossils from the Dreamtime.
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Mysterious Australia | Entire Web site © Rex & Heather Gilroy | URU Publications ® ™ Rex & Heather Gilroy. All Rights Reserved

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