Post 1,040
‘A few days ago I saw one of these strange creatures… on the coast between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla… I should think that if it were standing perfectly upright it would be nearly five feet high. It was tailless and covered with very long black hair, which was of a dirty red or snuff-colour about the throat and breast. Its eyes, which were small and restless, were partly hidden by matted hair that covered its head… I threw a stone at the animal, whereupon it immediately rushed off…’
The very words written by famed naturalist Henry James McCooey, which sent shockwaves around the world. Folk had heard tales of Bigfoot, sure… but never in Australia. McCooey offered to capture the beast for the Australian Museum for £40, a couple of grand in today’s money. What McCooey had seen, however, was only unheard of outside of Australia. In fact, reports of these ‘indigenous apes’ had been around for hundreds and hundreds of years…
It’s said the Yowie is described in Aboriginal folklore, anywhere from seven to 12 feet in height. Large, Bigfoot-like feet adorn its mighty legs. Many label the beast shy and timid, but others have said it’s violent and often aggressive. Legend says these hairy wild-men roamed the land even before the Aboriginals, beasts to be feared. Some even say it’s been seen eating… humans. Well, that’s what happens when you throw rocks at it. It’s your own darn fault, if anything.
Throughout the 1800s, early colonial settlers were reporting a confusing menagerie of tales from the bush of the famed Yowie. Mystique surrounding the claims led many to fear there really was something strange wandering about in the vast and unending wilderness of Australia. ‘Australian gorilla’ accounts were all the rage, right up until the 1900s, with some sightings even reported in New Zealand, although primarily reported around New South Wales and the Gold Coast of Queensland.
An account of the ‘indigenous ape’ was featured in the Australian Town and Country Journal in 1876, coincidentally around the same time the first widespread reports of Bigfoot started to crop up. The Journal too reported on the strong beliefs of the Aboriginal people in the Yowie, beliefs of a ‘hairy man’ living in the woods. Whilst some doubt remains over just what the Aboriginals believed in and its connections to the Yowie, no doubt can be made over the growing panic and fear developing across Australia. The Yowie was big news…
On December 9th, 1892, McCooey’s article was published, only fanning the Yowie flames. In his paper, he talks of the cries of the Yowie. ‘When I first beheld the animal it was standing on its hind legs, partly upright, looking up at the birds above it in the bushes’, he wrote. ‘[It was] making a low chattering kind of noise… it would probably weigh about eight stone (50 kilograms). On the whole it was a most uncouth and repulsive looking creature, evidently possessed of prodigious strength, and one which I should not care to come to close quarters with. Having sufficiently satisfied my curiosity… [it] disappeared in a ravine which was close at hand.’
In 1912, an outbreak of sightings was reported across Australia. The Yowie appeared in Donald Friend’s Hilleniana, a collection of writings about the fields of gold near Hill End in New South Wales. His was just one of hundreds of tall tales in the late 19th century and early 20th century of the Yowie. Yet despite all this, the trail went cold. After all the excitement of Australia’s very own Bigfoot, no more was heard of it until 1977.
Residents on Oxley Island, near Taree, became convinced that a blood curdling scream heard over many nights belonged to a huge, black and furry creature other locals had seen wandering around the island. These numerous sightings were joined by voices of officials, with former Queensland Senator Bill O’Cheer reporting in an interview with the Gold Coast Bulletin that he had seen a Yowie whilst on a school trip in Springbrook. He did compare it to Chewbacca from Star Wars, but he was convinced it was no man in a suit. I’m fairly certain it was a man in a suit. But there we are…
Throughout the 1970s, Rex Gilroy wrote dozens and dozens of Yowie articles, bringing the strange creature back into the national spotlight. Soon, other ‘Yowie hunters’ joined in the quest for the truth and in the following decades, Graham Joyner, Malcolm Smith, Healy and Cropper, Dean Harrison, Gary Opit and a lovely chap named Tim the Yowie Man all joined in the hunt for the Yowie.
In 1978, Healy and Cropper published countless eyewitness accounts of the Yowie. One in particular came from Neil and Sandy Frost who spent many a day hunting for the Yowie in the Blue Mountains. I’m glad my trip to the Blue Mountains got called off last time I was in Australia. I don’t want to bump into a Yowie, if I’m being honest…
The Frost reports (titter) involve a prolonged history of sightings, discovery of strange tracks and other oddities, such as unusual bite marks in tree bark. Even strange ‘bangs’ on the side of their remote house. What makes the Frosts so interesting is that this kind of tracking is what they trained in, making them, for many, more trustworthy than your average hikers. Their sincerity certainly gives the Yowie much credibility.
The sightings continued, too. In 1996, a couple on holiday from Newcastle (Australia) saw a Yowie on the coast. A year later, several Yowie reports came from Acacia Hills, including one from mango farmer Katrina Tucker. In 2010, a Canberra man spotted what he thought was a Yowie in his… garage. Might have just been trying to force a divorce. “I’m married to Bigfoot!” and so on…
In 2014, two Yowie hunters claim to have filmed the Yowie in South Queensland using an infrared tree camera. They even collected samples of fur and found large footprints. Later in 2014, a man from Gympie told local media he had encountered the Yowie on many occasions, including teaching English to a large Yowie in the bush. Yes, I did just say that. I don’t know… maybe it was the guy in the Chewbacca costume. Maybe he’s been lost for the last 40 years. “HELP ME! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!”
So, to this day, Yowie sightings remain common. ‘Evidence’ and strange trails. Unusual footprints and the odd encounters. No conclusive proof and a disputed origin. It’s the story of the hairy hominids from all over the world, from the Yeti to Bigfoot, creatures like the Yowie continue to impress and baffle, and they probably always will…
Just what are people seeing? Historian Graham Joyner, despite years of searching, believes the Yowie does not exist. He thinks it came from a simple misunderstanding. He argues the phenomenon known as the Yahoo, a shadowy creature believed to be an undiscovered marsupial that went extinct in the early 20th century, could be to blame for the Yowie sightings. He points to Rex Gilroy who cited an Aboriginal figure named the Tjangara, making the claim that Australia was home to its own Bigfoot. But when Gilroy’s article went public in 1975, all this had become the Yowie, with drawings based on the Yeti. Joyner argues this confusion has led to the modern belief in the Yowie.
Others argue that Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ might be to blame. In the book, there are subhuman creatures named the Yahoos. It’s possible the early colonial settlers confused the Aboriginal word Yowie with the fictional Yahoo. Others argue it is so ridiculous that it shouldn’t even be taken seriously. These folk point to the ‘quiet phase’ between 1912 and 1977, where there were no sightings, as proof the Yowie can’t exist. Others argue that because Australia became highly urbanised during this time, naturalists became less active and rural news was ignored, thus reports dried up.
Others point to hoaxes as an explanation for the Yowie phenomenon. Even the hunters admit the evidence is scarce. Records are dubious at best and the films could be anything. Witness accounts are vague and feature little more than fleeting descriptions. Solid leads are rare and it’s these contrasts that have led many to believe the Yowie cannot possibly exist…
Do I believe in the Yowie? Probably not. I’ve seen it before with indigenous tales, becoming wrapped up in modern folklore and mystical tall tales. Grand men turning a fable into a trick for fame and fortune. And before you know it, every mysterious thing out there in that big and wild bush is the Yowie. Every shadow. Every unknown creature. Every single thing must be it, right? You heard tales of the beast from when you were a little child and now those beliefs have become rooted in your subconscious, not as a fable but as fact. That’s the power of Yowie and it’s a fascinating power nonetheless.
So I’ll give this cryptid a 93 on my patented Cryptid-o-Meter, putting it 52nd in the list of 79, with The Pope Lick Monster still bottom and The Beast of Gévauden still holding top spot.
The Yowie. A fascinating cryptid indeed.
Ciao :)(:
Image (Click on It to Enlarge)
1) The Yowie…
(credits: non-aliencreatures.wikia.com/wiki/Yowie)
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