Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center

The Australian Yowie Research Centre wrote: Yowie Reports 1970's

The1970's was a very active period for me in my Yowie investigations. It was the decade in which people at last began losing their fear of coming forward publicly with personal experiences with Yowies [and 'unknown' animal species generally], and suddenly I found myself having to deal with dozens of reported sightings and footprint discoveries over a vast area of eastern Australia, including Tasmania; but the region that produced the greatest number of reports was the northern NSW mountain ranges.

Ruined Castle 1970

Rex Gilroy's personal Sighting

It was on the afternoon of August 7th 1970 on the western slope of Ruined Castle, overlooking Cedar Valley, that I had my first encounter with a living "hairy man". However, I made the mistake of trusting the press, who quickly lampooned my initial newspaper report in the nationwide media.

The distortions created by the Australian press, radio and TV caused such embarrassment that I soon ceased repeating the story to people, and in the years ahead I rarely mentioned it, even at times denying it in certain quarters.

However, times change and also attitudes, so that I am at last able to relate my experience in my own words, and not as the media failed to report it.

The facts are as follows: I had been climbing Mt Solitary that day and returning from there along the 'saddle' track to Ruined Castle, I decided to go searching for fossils on the steep western slope of the 'Castle' above Cedar Creek. There is thick scrub here and as I picked up slate rocks containing fossil plants on that quiet afternoon, I heard the sounds of breaking foliage and twigs snapping underfoot further down the steep slope.

Chancing to look down among the foliage I saw, about 15 metres away a naked, darkish, hairy skinned male creature approximately 2m in height, moving across the slope from north to south oblivious to my presence. The hominid looked rather primitive, with big eyebrows and hairy arms, and long dark hair trailing down from its head. He appeared to be scavenging, as if looking for fern roots or other bush food.

I watched in silence as he disappeared into the dense scrub, heading southward down the slope in the direction of Cedar Creek. I glanced at my watch. The time was 3.30pm. The mystery hominid had been in view for barely 4-5 minutes. I climbed up the slope in haste to reach the track, as I knew I had to hurry to get out of the valley before sundown.

The hominid I saw was not the 4 ft [1.2 m] long-haired, gorilla-like monstrosity created by the newspaper artists, who in more than one instance claimed myself as the artist responsible for the drawing! Little wonder that today many eyewitnesses are reluctant to approach the media with their own experiences.

Geehi 1970

Hairy man-like Figure

During June 1970 at Geehi, north-west of Mount Kosciusko, two mountaineers, Ron Bartlett and Frank Sinclair, were camped on the edge of a stand of mountainside trees. Overnight, light snow had fallen. At daybreak they were preparing to abandon camp when Frank noticed some large, manlike tracks embedded in nearby snow. Both had heard tales of the giant hairy Doolagahl's said to inhabit the mountain country but had taken little notice of these 'bushmen's tales' until they saw these tracks.

The men also detected a strange odour and had the distinct feeling that they were not alone. Cautiously they worked their way down through the mountainside scrub. Suddenly ahead, they spotted a 2.6 metre-tall, dark, hairy manlike figure staring at them. It then vanished into the dense scrub. In the years following the outburst of sightings reports of the mid-1970's, many more incidents have occurred on and around Mount Kosciusko.

Nerriga Giant 1970

Feeding 3 metre tall Monster

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.

Lake Wells 1970

Extensive trail of giant-sized Footprints

Another similar hairy giant, stone tool-making hominid is Tjangara. An inhabitant of the vast Nullarbor Plain and the Great Victoria Desert country, between South Australia and Western Australia.

Tjangara received considerable Australia-wide media publicity in July 1970, following the discovery that month, of an extensive trail of giant-sized footprints by a Mr Peter Muir, an Agriculture Department dingo hunter, north of Cosmo Newberry near Leonora, and in the vicinity of Lake Wells, about 540 kilometres north-west of Perth. Each print measured 38 cm long, displaying a soft pad and opposable big toe.

Mr Muir estimated at the time that the creature who made the prints was bipedal and about 3.3m tall. Mr Muir, together with his Aboriginal wife, followed the footprints for four and a half kilometres until they entered the long spinifex grass to disappear in rocky terrain. At this point, Mrs Muir became "upset and a little terrified", and so the pursuit was abandoned. Mr Muir estimated that the lurching creature was only about an hour ahead of them.

Mr Muir, an experienced bushman, had never before seen such tracks and could not identify them. But local Aborigines he questioned recognised them immediately as belonging to the Tjangara, a 3.3m tall man-like beast. This legendary monster stalks the remoter regions armed with a big stone club, killing and eating anyone unfortunate enough to meet it, say the Aborigines.

Yet even Tjangara was dwarfed by the monster-men of South Australian-western Victorian Aboriginal legend, the Narragun. Probably the same race as the Illankanpanka of the Gulf Country, these were a race of 6.6m tall giant men and women who made huge stone tools and ate meat.

In the Mt Gambier region they were said to cook their food with fire obtained from volcanic lava flows; a habit also reported from western Victoria where Aborigines lived in fear of the monsters. Aborigines point to fossil giant footprints found in these districts as being footsteps left by the Narraguns.

Cox's River 1970

Flat and droney sound, Kaw-Kaw

A close friend of the author, Mr Robert Warburton, once had a eerie experience at a location long known for "hairy man" encounters, below the western escarpment of the Blue Mountains, on the Cox's River just north of Megalong Valley. As he related his experience to me in late April 1970, Robert and three other companions were camping at this particular location only a week before, on the evening of Monday 13th April. On the west bank opposite their camp there was a blackberry patch.

Trees still grow along the river's banks but not on the rolling hillside through which it flows. It is limestone country hereabouts and caves are to be found in the area. The area is very rocky with boulders lying everywhere. "About 2 am my friends and I were woken from our sleep by a noise - a drawn out flat and droney sound, 'kar-kaw'."

"The others thought it to be the sounds of a crow, but this was neither that or any other bird, even any nocturnal species. The sound began in the trees above the blackberry patch across the river, opposite our camp. It then began travelling across the river [which is actually only the size of a wide, shallow creek in the drier months. RG.], right around behind the camp within a radius of 25 yards, then back across the river, then the strange sounds ceased," he said.

Robert also observed that the area around their camp had been quiet the previous afternoon, no bird or even cattle sounds [from nearby farms]. Following their eerie experience the boys got little sleep wondering about the origin of the strange sounds. About 8 am six cows appeared through the trees, coming to drink at the river's edge and the sounds of birdlife had also returned.

It is a feature common to a great many reports that, whenever one or more of these hominids have been present in remote bushland areas, all bird and other native animal life fall silent for the duration of their presence.

Roper River Area-Arnhem Land 1970

Jim jim pgymy Tribe

In 1970 an American girl, Nina Vaughn, and a male companion 'Erich' were on a photographic expedition for an American magazine in the Roper River area of Arnhem Land. One night out in the scrub some distance from their camp, and wafting down river, they could hear the faint sounds of singing. Deciding to investigate, they crept though the bush with torches, to see in the distance a fire, and the dark forms of moving human figures.

Children they thought at first, because of their small features. As they watched hidden, they realised they were witnessing some kind of secret ceremony of small males, either naked or dressed in loin cloths of animal skins, dancing around in a circle. Nina and Erich decided to leave and crept back to their camp. Returning later the next day, they found the ceremonial site deserted.

When they eventually reached Mataranka, south-east of Katherine, they told their story to a local stockman, who surprised them by saying, they had probably witnessed a ceremony performed by one of the secretive little Jim Jim pygmy tribes said to roam the Gulf country.

Mildura 1970

Huge stone Megatools

Since an initial discovery by workmen near Mildura on the north-western border with NSW in 1970, numbers of huge stone megatools have been frequently unearthed by farmers, on properties bordering the Murray River into south Australia.

They are also turning up in the desert country west of Broken Hill in far western NSW. Aboriginal elders who have examined them claim the largest specimens were made by the Narragun, while those smaller [but still impossible for normal humans to lift and use] implements were those of the Tjangara.


Sentinel 1971

Freshly made large man-like Footprints

During 1971 a team of RAAF surveyors conducted a survey of The Sentinel, the great mountain overlooking the now almost deserted Glen Davis township, by landing on the summit in a helicopter. Rain had fallen on the mountain the day before their landing, so that the ground was still muddy in places.

I t was here the surveyors received what they later described as the "shock of their lives". For, upon the muddy ground they came across a number of freshly made, large man-like footprints; in fact, much too large for any normal human being. Following a somewhat hurried take-off, they landed in a field near the township and told their story to the baffled locals, enquiring if there might not still be wild Aborigines in the district.

This was unlikely, aside from the fact that the prints they found certainly discounted such a suggestion. The above story has parallels with another military helicopter crew's claim at a later date, in which they said that, as they flew at tree top level over Sentinel Mountain, they spotted a man-sized hairy beast moving swiftly through the scrub below them only to elude them among the rocks.

Carrai Ranges 1971

Hairy ape-like man-like Creature

During 1971, two prospectors were searching along a creek deep in the Carrai Range for signs of new gold deposits.

As they squatted at the creek's edge panning for traces of gold both men suddenly were gripped by the all too familiar feeling that they were not alone. Glancing a short distance down the creek, they saw standing upon a rock shoal a tall, hairy ape-like man-like creature watching them with apparent curiosity.

Then as the men crouched on the edge in mute amazement, they saw the strange figure glance in the direction of the nearby forest. The men realised, from the sounds of breaking foliage, that their strange companion was not alone. Then appearing from out of the forest came a female creature with pendulous breasts and the same height as the male, which they judged to be a good 7ft [2.3 m] tall. At this point the men bolted from the scene.
Hunter Valley 1971

A pungent-smelling huge Manbeast

One night during 1971 Mr Len Murray and a mate, Tim Hatton, were visiting Len's sister's farm in the wild Hunter Valley bush country south of Singleton NSW. The men arrived late. Driving up a dirt road to her property, they had to stop to open a cattle gate. Tim got out of the car to open it for Len. As he did so, he was suddenly grabbed from behind by what he later described as "a pungent-smelling, huge manbeast a good 2m tall".

This was verified by Len, who shone a torch on the creature. The monster was very powerful and Tim was in fear for his life. Grabbing a rifle from the car, Len fired a shot at the beast. His mate shoved and punched himself free and the men jumped back into the vehicle, as the manbeast vanished into the night. They both agreed that the creature's hands were a good 30cm in length, and its fingers reached around to Tim's belt buckle. It also had large feet. Tim later had to have a bath to rid himself of the small of the 'manimal'.

Hanging Rock Region 1971

Fossilised hand Found

The Hanging Rock region was alive with miners during the mid-19th century following the discovery of big gold deposits in the nearby Nundle/Peel River area, and it was not long before they learnt of, or saw Yowies while searching lonely forest-covered gullies for signs of the 'yellow metal'.

Aborigines of this region warned the prospectors and early settlers not to venture about this area alone or unarmed, otherwise they might be attacked by 'hairy men' or 'Coories who had inhabited the ranges hereabouts since before the appearance of the first tribespeople.

The Coories were cannibalistic also, and made stone tools and fire, and were either normal human-height or sometimes a bit taller.They also warned the settlers of other, much larger "great hairy men" the Goolagahs, the stone tool-making "giant hairy ones" who would kill and eat anyone they caught in the mountains.

Primitive hominids have certainly inhabited this district from very early times [see Chapter Four], as shown by the fossilised hand recovered at Nundle in 1971.

I quote an article of"The Central Coast Express"
of Wednesday 21st April that year:

Fossilised Hand found at Nundle

Prospective members of the Central Coast Lapidary Club, Pat and Bob Morris whilst holidaying at Nundle over the Easter break, discovered what appears to be a fossilised hand or foot.The report was featured on television and radio news programs and aroused great interest amongst the visitors to Nundle, including members of the C.C.L.C. - as it appears there is a similarity in the specimen to a human or ape-like hand, and the find could be of great scientific value.

The 'Nundle Giants' created considerable fear among many of the inhabitants of the outlying farms and timber mills in the old days, and still do among some people today, especially once darkness falls and these manbeasts emerge from their lairs to roam the forests and farmlands, disturbing stock, and leaving their tell-tale large footprints in the mud of waterholes and creek banks.
Paua New Guinea 1971

Giant ogre-dera Tauna

Bagana Mountain Bougainville 1971

Primitive Natives

About 1971 a giant 'Ogre', or was it a 'Dera tauna', carrying a big stone hand-axe, was reported seen by two natives as it emerged from jungle in the Eastern Sepik Province west of Wewak, to feed upon paw paws. It left tracks consistent with an 2.6m tall hominid.

In July 1971 retired Australian native cultures authority, former World War Two soldier and traveller, Mr Joe Manning, gave me an account of the primitive natives of Bagana Mountain which he had explored many years before.

"I have seen natives up on Bagana Mountain in Bougainville that are more ape-like than some apes. They have corns on their knees due to the fact that they go about on all fours if the distance is not too far away. They wear a leaf girdle like the Borneo natives and nothing else." "Their faces are similar to those black ringed tailed monkeys, and their kids play around with one another just like in the same manner as these mentioned monkeys."

"They are small; about 4ft 10ins for the women and 5ft 2ins for the males. They have no houses, and boy does it rain up on that mountain. These natives just have leaves leaning against a lump in the ground or a tree. The other natives in Bougainville have perfect villages in the Bronze Age style and live similarly to our ancestors in Europe in the Bronze Age; why do these little natives up on Bagana live like the apes?"

"Some say the Australian Aborigines are the most primitive. Those experts should go for a walk up Bagana way. Incidentally, these people did not seem to have bows either, maybe there is no timber suitable. Many small spears like long arrows were evident and some stone knives; they seem to have no skills." "I gave a gin a banana and she bit it through without peeling it and proceeded to eat skin and all."

Nelson Lakes National Park 1971

Large man-like Footprints

Further south in the Nelson Lakes National Park are beautiful placid lakes overshadowed by rugged mountain ranges covered in dark, dank beech forests that hold a secret. It is the reputed lair of giant manbeasts.

During the Spring of 1971 a ranger came upon large [45cm long] man-like footprints, leading across snow-covered ground on a hillside into a forest. He followed the tracks for some time through the forest, until the going got too tough and he gave up the search. By this time he had followed the tracks for a few hundred metres.


Yowie Research Organisation 1972

Huge ape-like Tracks

It was for the purpose of gathering possible physical proof of these manbeasts that in 1972 I established the Yowie research organisation which became "The Australian Yowie Research Centre" in 1976 PO Box 202, Katoomba. NSW 2780. Here all manner of sightings and other evidence from throughout Australia and the Pacific region is gathered for scientific assessment.

Letters arrive weekly containing sightings claims, or the discovery of Yowie tracks, by people living in widely-scattered and isolated regions of Australia. Or the phone will ring and I hear the voice of some farmer, prospector, camper or other, telling me they have just had "The encounter of a lifetime".

These reports, no matter how slender the chances of finding evidence might be, must be followed up; so my wife Heather and I are soon off into the wilderness on yet another field investigation. Our persistence has taken us deep into the Victoria/NSW Alps, the rugged wilderness of the NSW south coast, Blue Mountains, north coastal NSW and far north Qld jungles. We have carried out a number of searches in New Zealand in search of evidence of the 'Moehau monster'.

The search for Australia's 'Bigfoot' is not for the foolhardy or reward-hunting go-getter. The Australian bush soon swallows up the inexperienced; and the search for relict hominids is a twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, fifty-two-weeks-a-year investigation, and an expensive one guaranteed to discourage all but the most dedicated researcher.

And those who venture into the wilds with guns and hunting dogs under that often mistaken assumption, that "someone" will offer a big reward for a dead Yowie, are wasting their time, and breaking the law. The would-be investigator of the Yowie, or any other rare or 'unknown' species, as already said, needs to be silent in the Australian bush.

All native animal life quickly vanishes at the sounds of approaching large groups of people. It is now many years since that day in 1957, that I had my first meeting with the 'hairy man' in the Liverpool Boys High School Library with the Aboriginal myths and legends book. Since those early days of my search, I have never given up my enthusiasm nor my faith in the existence of these Australian survivors from the dawn of Man, and I hope that this book will serve as an encouragement to others who share my enthusiasm and dedication.

The available evidence, namely the Mudgee Homo erectus skull and recently manufactured stone tools revealed in this book, is enough to indicate that there really is 'something' lurking 'out there' in the vast, mysterious Australian bush in need of a proper scientific investigation.

From the mass of past and present-day sightings reports and fresh footprint discoveries, it should be obvious to university anthropologists that the Yowie mystery should be given more attention than it has had in the past. I would like to believe that some more open-minded scientist will read this book, and from the mass of circumstantial evidence I have presented, realise that there is a major anthropological mystery which has gone ignored for too long, by a scientific establishment which has hitherto made no attempt to investigate it.

Their attitude seems to be that, just because the Yowie is not included in the scientific text books, it can't possibly exist, ant that is final. Or, to put it another way; it is not supposed to exist so it mustn't.

Great Sandy Desert 1972

Several large Tracks

Further south of the Kimberley Plateau lies the vastness of the Great Sandy Desert, one of the fabled homes of the dreaded Jimbras, those monstrous 3-4m tall, powerfully built gorilla-like beings so feared by the Aborigines. The Gigantopithecus-like beings continue to remind us of their presence. Travellers in remote areas have claimed from time to time during the 1990's, to have found the huge footprints of these creatures.

Much earlier, during the 1970's there was a spate of claimed Jimbra footprint discoveries, such as that of Mrs Joan McKendrick, who while prospecting with here husband Tom near Lake Tobin, in the south-east corner of the Great Sandy Desert, one day in 1972, stumbled upon several, 45cm long footprints in soft soil.

"I nearly fainted when I came across these large tracks in the soil. I never thought such monsters ever existed outside Aboriginal myths," she said later to this author. To the north of here lies Jimberingga. This community bears a name which is actually another variant of 'Jimbra' and it too is an area of Jimbra sightings in recent years.

Oolea Range 1972

Enormous tall hairy male creature-stone club in Hand

Steve Moncreif, a fossicker, was exploring a dry creek-bed in the Oolea Range near Yarle Lakes on thee fringe of the Great Victoria Desert, one day in August 1972. Two years before, there had been a rash of reported encounters and discoveries of up to 50-cm-length footprints of the so called "Abominable Spinifex Man", better known as "Tjangara", but Steve was oblivious to these as he searched for gemstones in the dry earth.

Detecting a bad smell, he looked about him to see, standing upon the bank six metres away, an enormous 3.3-metre-tall hairy male creature, a large stone club in its right hand. Steve froze to the spot for a moment, man and sub-man-giant staring at one another; then, grabbing his small geologist's pick for protection, he rose and slowly backed away as the man-monster stood watching him.

"My Land-Rover was parked 100 yards away on a track. I figured if I could get there quickly enough I would be alright," he told a reporter later. However, the monster, uttering a snarling sound, proceeded to jump down onto the creek-bed and dash towards Steve who by now was bounding away as fast as his legs could carry him.

But the monster was closing in fast. I was out of breath. I turned, aimed and hurled the pick at the creature's face. The monster 'manimal' screamed in pain, clutching its face with both hands. I quickly staggered the last yards to my vehicle. I drove out of that place in a panic and I have never been back, "Said Steve.

Cudgegong River 1972

Human palate Impression

In February 1972, while fossicking on the Cudgegong River bank outside the central western NSW town of Mudgee, I spotted an oddly-shaped fossil impression on a small ironstone lump, cemented in a deposit of conglomerate. Digging it out I found the impression to be that of a human palate with dental arch, measuring 6 cm, the teeth marks clearly visible beneath the 1 cm high palate.

Western Midlands Highway 1972

Hairy man-like Beast

About 5am one April morning in 1972, Jack Andrews and Robert Turnbull, were driving along the Western Midlands Highway, when suddenly they were startled by a 2.6 m tall, hairy, manlike beast running across the road. Narrowly missing the creature, the men saw it disappear into roadside scrub.

"The creature was illuminated by the car headlights so we got a reasonably good look at it.""I am 6 ft in[1.83m] height, the creature we saw was considerably taller, at least 2.6 m tall, very thick set, probably around 200 kg in weight and it ran in big strides." "We scarcely had time to pull up without hitting the monster. It disappeared quickly into the undergrowth, before we could get out of the car for another look; that's if either of us dared", said Mr Andrews.

Lucknow 1972

Hairy man-ape Creature

At Lucknow, earlier in 1972 a man walking his two dogs in scrub and carrying a rifle with which to shoot rabbits, found he could not make his dogs walk past a large boulder. It was at this moment that he heard something moving behind the rock. As he was about to see what was disturbing his dogs, a large hairy man-ape creature walked into full view.

The man was too terrified even to raise his rifle to fire at the beast. However, as the dogs ran off in terror, the manbeast simply turned around and began bounding off into the surrounding scrub, leaving the terrified hunter wondering perhaps whether he was imagining what he had just seem.

Orange 1972

Man-like, ape-like Beast

Reports continued from Orange. One November night in 1972, at around 11 pm, Mr Robert Lloyd and another friend were driving a truck towards Orange. They were just a few kilometres from the town when suddenly, from out of the roadside scrub some distance ahead of their vehicle, and illuminated by the truck headlights, a strange hairy, man-like, ape-like beast came into view walking quickly across the road some distance ahead of their truck.

"The man-like monster appeared to walk rapidly across the road, disappearing into thick scrub on the other side. We were too dumbfounded, if not too scared to stop the truck and try to get a closer look with a torch at the monster, which was at least 2.3m in height. We just kept on driving," said Robert.

Aboriginal people of the Orange-Mudgee regions possess a great store of local 'hairy man' traditions. They believe that the Yowies would have to be the smartest creatures next to Man - they can think, they are intelligent - they would have to be, to have avoided capture for so long. The Yowies are capable, say the Aborigines, of making friends with a man, provided he is willing to leave food out for them. If he does, they will stick around, otherwise they will move on.

Aborigines have pointed out that the 'hairy men' have been known to use branches to sweep away their footprints and are scared of dogs when being pursued. They will defend themselves with large rocks or wooden clubs if cornered, and are very dangerous in this situation to ordinary humans.

Watsons Creek 1972

Attacking Yowie

At Watsons Creek, north -west of Bendemeer, in April 1972, a visiting Qld gold prospector, Frank Moore of Brisbane, came across huge footprints in creek sand on the water's edge. They appeared to be just minutes old. As he bent over them, in the water he was a reflection; a tall dark shape. Turning to see who or what was behind, he was suddenly struck a blow that sent him reeling into the creek.

Dazed, he felt himself being lifted up - powerful hands gripped his waist - then he was hurled several feet into rocks and shrubbery. He came to, bloodied and dazed. Staggering to his nearby station wagon he drove the short distance into town, where he related his experience to some startled locals while they tended his wounds.

But although they could not explain his bettered condition, few believed he had been attacked by some giant man-ape monster; at least until after some of them returned with Frank to the scene of his attack and saw the footprints.

Backyard Encounter

Then in August that same year a tall hairy male creature wandered into the backyard of a Watsons Creek area farm at sunset taking the family by surprise. At the moment the monster appeared from out of a nearby forest, the farmer, Wal Jones, was doing some wood work in the yard with his young son and daughter beside him; his wife Vera, was in the backyard septic tank 'loo'.

As Wal told me some years later, the family's two cattle dogs were first to raise the alarm with their furious barking. The children looked across the yard and screamed. Wal looked up from his work to see it too; a 2.6m tall, dark haired, very muscular, half-man, half-ape like beast, standing barely15m away, snarling at the barking dogs, who kept well away from the creature.

Wal yelled at Vera who dashed out of the 'loo', pushing his family inside the back door of the house, he grabbed his 12 gauge pump action shotgun. Then, charging back out the door, he saw the dark shape of the manbeast retreating into the bush. Firing off a couple of rounds at the shadowy figure, Wal ran to the far end of the yard hoping to get a better target, bu the manbeast had vanished. He never returned.

Albert River 1972-Interviewed 1980

Strange bipedal Animal

During 1980 I interviewed Mrs Jane Little of Brisbane, about her encounter with a Yowie in 1972.

She told me the following:

"I was horse riding with my sister on the Albert River near Winderoo, just off the Beaudesert Road. As we rode past a sugar cane field we surprised a strange bipedal animal sitting on the edge of the field." "When it saw us approaching it stood up on two legs to a height of about 4ft [about 1.4m]. It was covered in long brownish hair, but none on the face, which looked something between a monkey and man in features."

"As we rode by it stood looking at us, then bolted into the cane field [it had already startled our mounts]; but not before I noticed its arms, which were longer than a human's and its fingers, which were hairless and yellowish in colour." "It is an interesting fact that no birds or other animals ever seem to inhabit this area. Horses even spook and refuse to stay there very long. This whole area of the Albert River is covered in little islands of swamp and scrub. It is an eerie region."

"The man who owns the cane field where we saw the little creature has said that his father used to speak of a monkey-like 'hairy man' who inhabited the area many years before." Aboriginal people believe that Junjdy inhabit the Carnarvon Range north of Roma.

They say that little footprints have been found in the Murgon scrub, and also around Injune to the south of the Carnarvon Range within recent years. There is even a rumour that, during the mid-1970's, the skeleton of a pygmy-type native was found in this region. About the height of a normal six year old child, the jaws contained the teeth of a 60 year old.

Albert River 1972-Interviewed 1980

Enormous apelike Creature

During 1972, two experienced bushmen/explorers, Neil Lynham and Garry Brown were camped on the western side of Mt Finlayson, south of Cooktown. One morning while exploring on the mountain the men came upon a large pile of excrement, human-like in appearance, but far too large for any normal human's. The find puzzled the men, and they shortly after consulted a local Aboriginal bushman as to what kind of wild animal might have left such a 'pile'.

After inspecting the smelly mass, he declared that it belonged to one of the hairy Imjim man-like beings that his people believe, still roam the wild country beyond Cooktown He then hurried away, refusing to remain any longer on that mountain.

Neil and Garry however, were not that superstitious and continued camping on the mountain.

What happened next Neil later told me in an interview. He now takes up the story:

"One night we were sitting by our campfire talking, when we heard the sounds of snapping foliage, as some animal [we assumed] moved through the bushes not far from us. It was a dark night and we couldn't see a thing at first. Then this large, shadowy figure became just visible among the trees about 30 years from us."

"A Cassowary, we agreed, but then the figure moved closed and we could see in the dim glow of the fire, that it appeared to be human, or so we thought." "By now Garry had found his torch in his gear beside him and shone it at the figure. To say we were shocked at what we now saw is an understatement!" "Standing before us was an enormous, male apeish-looking creature about 9ft tall [about 2.7m].

Ape-like facial features with a flattish nose, and eyes set deep inside big, protruding eyebrows, whose head sloped back into a pointed skull dome [ie sagittal crest] with long brownish hair trailing over its head onto big, powerful, muscular shoulders almost 4ft [about 1.2m] across."

"His arms, from what we can recall, were very muscular, with big palms and long, thick fingers reaching down almost to knee level. The body was very hairy like his powerful thick legs, and his genitals were very large. His feet were enormous."

"The monster then just turned around and strolled away." "We spent a nervous night at that campfire, keeping some large stones and strong lumps of wood handy as weapons in case the monster should return, but he never did. At first light we left the mountain, hiking to our Landrover which was parked on a bush track a few kilometres away." "We pondered afterwards, how easily the monster could have harmed, even killed us, yet he had left us alone."

"We returned later with a couple of interested local bushmen to search for footprints of the creature, but these were not visible anywhere, owing to the stony ground and leafmould thereabouts." eil and Garry are now firm believers in the existence of the hairy man-like giants of the far north Qld bush!

Coromandel New Zealand 1972

Moehau

Back in 1972 there had been a real revival of interest in the Moehau and Coromandel residents found themselves the targets of city newspaper, television and radio journalists seeking every possible 'hairy man' encounter, real or imagined, that they could lay their hands on.

There was Mrs Ngahui Patrick, who warned the journalists that naturally there had to be more than one of these creatures inhabiting that wilderness; and Mrs Lorna Burns, who claimed she had seen one of these hominids just outside the town on a road, as it vanished into the dense bush.

And there was Eric Noble [60 years old at the time], who although he had not seen a Moehau, had seen a sketch of one of the creature's footprints, drawn by a man who had bound some in the Coromandels. Some locals had claimed to have heard the "blood-curdling screams of the Moehau".

Aside from the tongue-in-cheek media reporting, there had been caves discovered up in the hills, filled with bones of both animal and human origin, some obviously dating back to pre-European times and earlier, while others appeared more recent. Crude non-Maori stone tools were also found in these apparent 'Moehau lairs'.

Coromandel Range New Zealand 1972

Tall figure in Bushes

During the winter of 1972 Mr Trevor Silcox and another man were wild pig shooting in the Coromandel Range. As they explored along 'Razorback Ridge' on the top of the range, they happened to look across at another ridge 150 yards away, running parallel to them. Here they spotted a tall figure in bushes whom they at first thought was another hunter.

Trevor takes up the story:


"We decided to walk over the gully to have a yarn, but as we did so the figure moved away." "The 'man' had been standing next to a large tree at the time. When we reached the spot we found the figure's head had been level with a branch over 2m from the ground!" "The figure had appeared dark in colour at a distance. In fact, we thought 'he' had been wearing a 'Swandi' [ie a long type of hunter's coat covered in mohair]"

"However, we found footprints at the spot. These measured 35cm with the toes dug into the ground and the heel not as deep. The prints were 17-18cm wide at the toes. Four prints were found, leafmould obscuring the rest." "Most of that area is sandstone and dense scrub, so the mystery hominid was easily able to elude us. We detected a very strong musky smell about the area. The time of the sightings was late afternoon, about 4.30pm-5pm, just before dark began to fall. We returned to our camp feeling a little uneasy."

On another occasion some months after the above experience, Trevor was out hunting in the Urewera Ranges near Waikaremoana south of Gisborne.

"I had with me a Parker Hale 270 Winchester rifle for deer. During late afternoon again, just before sunset, I was contemplating the scenery across the river flat through bush, when I spotted a creature on the other side of the river 200 yards away.""I thought it was a deer at first due to the fact it was not standing upright, mouthing water.

I had a telescopic sight and decided to try and shoot it. I fired and missed it." "It then stood up, then I saw that it was a hairy bipedal animal, very tall. The creature turned and walked off quickly into scrub and disappeared. It had been standing in the water at the time. I realised later that the creatures seen on both occasions were the mysterious 'Coromandel Man'."

Such stories are typical of the many reports I receive from people across the Tasman Sea, who have had encounters with the 'Coromandel Man', better known as the 'Moehau Monster' of old Maori tradition; a race of primitive submen that they believe, have always inhabited the remote wilds of New Zealand.



Woods Well 1973

High pitched scream-rocking Vehicle

In 1973 down at Woods Well on the south-eastern South Australian coast, south-west of Tintinara, Mr. Kim Rayner and his wife Ellaine were camping in thick scrub. As they sat at their campfire around midnight they were suddenly startled by a high-pitched scream which lasted 15 minutes, ending in a gutteral sound. At this, the Rayners climbed into there utility and locked the doors. Rabbits they had with them in a cage outside on the ground were very agitated.

Suddenly something was pushing at the rear of their vehicle, rocking it up and down. All they could see through the back window was a huge dark shape. The rocking ceased after a minute or so, and their mystery intruder walked away into the encroaching scrub.

The Rayners remained in their vehicle for along time, before emerging to gather their belongings including the terrified rabbits, by torchlight and driving away. Within days, other campers in the same area reported finding enormous freshly-made manlike footprints in damp soil. At Tintinara a couple of weeks later, a minibus load of people was startled one afternoon when a 2.6 metre-tall hairy man-beast strode across a dirt road from out of bushland in front of the vehicle.

Innisfail 1973

A group of primitive looking Hominids

Further south, and north of Townsville on the coast, lies the town of Innisfail, many of whose inhabitants for the past 100 years or so have believed in the "Milla Milla Monster"-giant hairy hominids that Aborigines and early settlers alike believed inhabited the rainforests and mountains of the region.

The 'hairy men" of the Innisfail district have been known collectively as the Milla Milla Monster since the many reports of their activities that were rife in the 1800's. During January 1990 two campers found huge footprints of one of these monsterous man-beasts near Milla Milla, for a time reviving many of the old stories

Innisfail July 1973: earlier, In July 1973, Innisfail residents were alarmed when Bill Towns, a bushwalker, and "Mark", a mate, sighted a group of primitive-looking hominids, comprising a small male, a larger seven-foot male as well as a small female and a larger, seven-foot female, moving through a rainforest late one afternoon.

This is what happened in Bill's own words:

"We were hiking through forest on the edge of a sugar-cane field above an embankment next to a creek. Mark suddenly stopped me. 'Quick ahead of you,' he said." "There was something moving in the bushes near us next to the track. Then, barely a few feet away, a large hairy male creature emerged onto the track, pushing a side the foliage on either side of it as it did so.

"We were terrified and stood fixed to the spot as the creature, a seven-foot male with large genitals visible, looked at us then slid down the embankment and into the creek. As it stood in the creek it let out a loud howling sound towards the forest behind us.

"As he did so, a smaller male appeared of about five-foot {1.2 metres} height, and then a female of about seven feet {2.3 metres}, and a smaller five-foot female, all of whom assembled on the opposite bank of the creek, looked up at us, then ran off up the bank and into forest cover. The adult and smaller males then re-appeared and began screeching at us.

"By now we were looking about us for some large pieces of wood with which to defend ourselves. The big muscular male was by now screeching all the more and shaking a tree with rage. He then dashed back along the creek towards us, and we ran off in terror. However, he may have only wanted to frighten us, as he did not climb the embankment."

Brewarrina 1973

Modern stone-age Campsite

Brewarrina, on the upper Barwon River, 158 km south of the Qld border and west of Moree, was the scene, early in 1973 of the remarkable discovery by bushman Mr Bill Berrell, of an apparent modern stone-age campsite, from which he retrieved a number of freshly made stone axes and clubs.

It is significant that this region has long been claimed to be the habitat of a 'lost' tribe of still-wild Aborigines. Such tales are not entirely unlikely in this region.

Further west of Moree, in the Bulloo Channels country of north-western NSW, stories of 'lost' tribes of Aborigines date back over 70 years to the time when an Aborigine was found in the area who had never seen a white man before. The Bulloo Channels are in the Delalah district, an area where there have been a number of sightings over many years, sometimes of a group of more than three natives carrying spears and boomerangs or of single individuals.

Mr Berrell gave me a stone cleaver and other 'recent' stone tools found by him at the site. The Brewarrina area has also been another 'hairy man' locale since pioneer days.

Beenleigh 1973

Big hairy haired Figure

About half way between the Gold Coast and Brisbane lies Beenleigh. During 1973 people were reporting visitations by a "big hairy thing" hunched and walking upon two legs. Some people claim 'it' was man-sized, others much taller. Perhaps more than one creature was involved here.

Lake Meremangye Area 1973

Fresh hominid Footprints

I received a report of several monstrous, 50cm long, fresh hominid footprints found in a dry creek bed near Lake Meremangye, by a group of mineral surveyors. Some Aborigines differed over whether these tracks had been left by a Narragun rather than a Tjangara.

Mt Willougby-Oodnadatta area1973

Enormous man-like Footprints

However, there was no doubt over a number of tracks found one day in 1973, by a busman/explorer from Qld, Ken Francis.

In 1977 he gave me the following alarming report:

"I had found fresh dingo tracks at a waterhole at Mt Willoughby west of Oodnadatta and out of interest attempted to follow them. They led along a dried creek bed and at times I lost them among rocks. Then, when I picked up the trail again I found they crossed over a set of enormous man-like footprints heading down from a rocky hillside and then leading off in the same general direction. I estimated the footprints measured about 60cm in length.

They were no more than an hour old." "I was by now 3km from my 4-wheel drive vehicle, my camera and a .22 rifle with it, but I had my water bottle and decided to carefully follow the tracks." "They led on out of the creek across intermittent mulga and soil, becoming indistinct at times, until they reached a waterhole. Here in drying mud they were very clear. It was apparent the owner of the tracks had only recently left the scene.

There were impressions in the mud consistent with a large creature drinking on all fours." "From here the footprints led off over a hill of rocks and it took me some time to pick them up again on the other side. They led off across flat featureless country. And then I saw him - a tall black-haired figure - I estimated a height of at least 4m, lurching far across the plain.

He couldn't be more than 15 minutes ahead of me, I thought, but the fear of meeting up with such a monster, unarmed as I was, overcame me and I hastily re-traced my steps. I had covered about 6km." "I returned the following day with two men and an old Aboriginal tracker that I had met at a country hotel. The old black man took one look at the tracks and turned pale. "Narragun, Narragun alright", he said, and suggested we leave the area immediately."

Eastern Highlands New Guinea 1973

A smoked head of a Mabi

In 1973 natives informed Europeans at Goroka that, up in the mountains there was the smoked head of a Mabi displayed on a pole.

The story goes that a village elder observed that a male Mabi came regularly from out of the bush to drink from a creek at a certain spot, leaving his large footprints in the mud. One day the elder hid close by with a large rock. The Mabi appeared, and as he squatted down to drink, the man dashed forward and crashed the rock on the manbeast's head, killing him. He afterwards removed the head to smoke and display it at his village.

Captured Mabi

In another startling incident, claimed by natives to have taken place in the Mt Hagen region, but which was not reported until some years after the event, about 1965 a 1.8m tall female Mabi is said to have been captured by hunters and held captive in their village, where she eventually gave birth to a male child of one of the men.

As he grew older the boy looked completely unlike a normal human. He died of some disease about 1973. The beast woman had however long since wandered off into the bush never to return.


Mini Ha Ha Falls 1974

Ominous footprints-and dead Pony

In May 1974, a pony was found dead in thick bushland near the falls, its neck had been broken, the head almost torn 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 occurence 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.

Katoomba 1974

Mineralised Cranium

In November 1974, while bushwalking at Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, I chanced to find, protruding from hard-packed sandstone/ironstone soil, a strangely shaped lump of rock. Curiously dislodging it, I found it to be the heavily mineralised cranium of a primitive human.

The skull bones had been turned to ironstone, while the interior was filled with mudstone. The cranium had been crushed inwards on its right side. The fossil was missing the eyebrow ridges and displayed a slightly receding forehead. I later restored the crushed right side section [on paper] to its original shape, to reveal Brachiocephalic features.

The cranium measures 15 cm long by 10 cm wide in its distorted shape. With the right side reconstructed the full width would have been about 14 cm. Its depth is 8 cm.The fossil's situation was the site of an ancient swampland. Prior to surface exposure, the cranium had been subjected to considerable pressure from deep overlying deposits, which over a vast period of time had transformed the skull bones to ironstone.

Dr Harold Webber, who later examined the fossil, believed it had to be about the same age as the Tarana skulls. The Katoomba cranium is not anatomically primitive enough to be placed with Homo erectus; rather it stands somewhere between Homo erectus and the later early Homo sapiens.

If, as now seems certain, the first Homo sapiens evolved in Australia, their forefather, Homo erectus, would have to have entered the continent from Java at a considerably earlier period. From highly technical DNA research findings published in 1987, leading American geneticist, Dr Allan C Wilson [University of Hawaii], suggests genetic traits among the Australian Aborigines point to the earlier presence of Homo erectus on this continent.

He is joined by Oxford University, UK scientist Dr. Jeremy Cherfas, who suggests Homo erectus may have entered Australia by 400,000 years ago, to evolve into the earliest modern humans, who eventually spread out into the rest of the world.

To date , all that has been lacking to complete the anthropological gap in Australian human prehistory knowledge, to the satisfaction of scientists, has been the discovery of actual Homo erectus fossil remains. I believe I now have that evidence.

Barrington Range Area 1974-Interview

A so called Gorilla

A resident of the town, Mr Wayne Caban, had just reported an encounter with a Yowie he had experienced in the Barrington Range area, and we wished to interview him. Mr Caban had recently been attempting to secure photographic evidence of the Yowie on the Barrington Range without success.

Wayne's encounter with the Yowie took place while he was employed with a mining company, engaged in carrying out an exploration programme on the Gummi River, at the headwaters of the Manning River near Tomala in the Barrington Range area.

Wayne remained with the company from October 1973 to February 1974, during which time he learnt of many strange things in the area from among mining acquaintances. He said "When I began my employment I was asked by Barney Matthews, a contractor who hailed from Armidale, if I knew anything about a so-called 'gorilla' which was said to roam around the Tops area and had been seen from time to time by timber cutters".

One night in mid-January 1974 Wayne was to have an experience which was to bring back to memory the question which Barney Matthews had asked him. Wayne was left alone in the camp at the time as caretaker while the rest of the workforce went on their six-day leave period. The time was about 10pm on the third night of his lone vigil. Wayne lay on his bunk watching TV in the caravan which he and Barney had occupied together.

The night outside was pitch dark and pouring rain to boot. All seemed well until Wayne suddenly felt a mighty thump against the top side of the caravan, followed within seconds by the van being lifted as though something or someone was trying to push it over.

Wayne yelled loudly and the van was immediately dropped. The only light in the van was coming from the TV screen. Wayne jumped off his bunk and leapt the length of the van to grab and light a gas lantern, which was thankfully stowed in a cupboard at the time.

As he lit the lamp he heard a commotion outside and knew that something had tipped over a table left outside the van, and which was laden with cooking utensils. Then he heard guy ropes snapping on an annexe of the van behind, immediately followed by the same sound in the general direction of a six-man tent pitched a few yards from his caravan.

Wayne told us, "I knew it had not been a bull or steer for there was no noise involved, such as there would have been had a bovine been the culprit. It was dark and wet outside and I had no intention of going out to check on anything." Wayne grabbed and loaded the .270 rifle that he always kept in the van, and sat there waiting for whatever it was to hit the van again; for by now Wayne held fears that it was indeed the 'gorilla'.

But the 'thing', whatever it was, left the camp without further sound. Wayne said, "When daylight came I checked for damage. I found the table had been hurled some distance from its original position, with pots, pans and dishes scattered all around the camp. Some of the guy ropes on the annexe of the van behind were broken, as were a couple of the tent ropes."

Reluctant to think it was anything but a bovine he began to look for hoof prints but failed to find any. What he did find were enormous footprints in the mud about the camp grounds. When the crew returned to the camp Wayne told them fo his experience and showed them the footprints. They all agreed that the creature had indeed been the mysterious 'gorilla'.

Wayne had first heard about the Yowie from a young Aboriginal boy while working in the Armidale district some years previously.

The description of the Yowie by the Aborigine was:

"Man-like and covered from head to foot in long hair, and anything from 7 to 10 ft tall." He also informed Wayne that Yowies were said to frequent the Walcha Gorge. This was also supported by the boy's father, an old dingo shooter.

One story concerned an old Aboriginal man who had wandered into the gorge whilst drunk, and who was later found by a search party, which included the boy's father - propped up in a sitting position against a fallen tree. His head had been torn from his shoulders.

Wayne Caban began to spend a lot of time on the Barrington Range east of Scone, searching in the hope of finding evidence of the Yowie, and in the course of his searches came across a set of large, ape-like footprints in the mud of a mountain track high up in the forest country of the range.

Driving up the range Heather and I searched the area where the footprints had been found, but saw nothing. However, we experienced here the distinct feeling that we were being watched from a distance by 'something', a feeling we would experience again later, in the course of our search on the Carrai Plateau west of Kempsey.
Woodenbong 1974

Theres a monster in my Backyard

During 1974 a young woman, Wendy Burns, was one night baby-sitting her sister's young children at her home, situated on the outskirts of Woodenbong. On this particular night she had just put the children to bed when she heard the family dogs barking outside in the backyard.

She went to the back door to quieten the animals, only to be stopped in her tracks, dumbfounded at first - by the sight of an 8ft [2.4m] tall, dark hairy man-like creature, standing only a few yards away down the end of the yard [the dogs meanwhile had run off], visible in the glow from the back door light.

Slamming the door, she grabbed for the phone. "There's a monster in my back yard!" she screamed to the police but by the time two officers arrived the hairy hominid had retreated back into the bush.

Local Aborigines to whom she later spoke of her experience informed her that a tribe, the Wabeul [now extinct] called these creatures the 'Nimbin', described by them as a giant hairy race that lived in caves and rock overhangs on the Night Cap Range.

Papua New Guinea 1974-Reported 1981

Ape-like Calls

It is an unsettling fact to text book anthropologists, that members of the ape family, possibly relatives of Gigantopithecus were, and still are, known to primitive tribes of the New Guinea interior who, unless they had lived contemporaneously with such creatures, could not possibly have invented their description.

In 1981 Qld zoologists, Mr Garry Opit, provided me with a report concerning the calls of what he termed "unknown apes", heard in the course of an ornithological expedition in Papua New Guinea.

"On the 15th January, 1974 I and two other scientists began a three month long zoological collecting expedition for the Bishop Museum, Honolulu Hawaii, and the Wau Ecology Institute, PNG, exploring the Adelbert Mountains in the Morobe district behind Madang.

After much intensive observation, collections and study of the forest and its life forms, we reached Mt Mengam and set up camp at an elevation of 1,500m [6,000ft]." "From the 29th February until 22nd March 1974, we thoroughly studied this highest area of the Adelbert Mountains and had identified the calls of all the life forms that abounded there.

We knew all the mammals, birds and amphibians, reptiles and much of the insect life." "On four different occasions during this period my fellow ornithologists and I heard remarkable mammalian, ape-like calls that were repeated several times and carried long distances through the forest. The calls appeared to originate from distances of between half a male to a mile away and always during daylight."

"Later on a three day camping trip between the 25th and 27th October 1974 on Mt Missin, Wau with the same ornithologists and in an area where we had spent months studying the birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects we again heard these same calls at an elevation of 6,000ft [1500m] during daytime."

"We were able to identify the calls of all the birds, mammals and amphibians but once again were at a loss to identify this creature. Once again the calls sounded like mammalian, ape-like calls, and forced me to come to the decision that an unknown, and fairly large primate must inhabit these forests."

"The only bird whose voice we had not heard was the Mountain Owlet-Nightjar [Aegotheles albertisii], one of which we occasionally observed at the entrance of it's hole 80ft up in a rainforest tree. However, the strength and far-carrying qualities seemed far above the abilities of this small bird."

Actually explorers in the 1890's reported finding on a number of occasions, large ape-like, man-like footprints in this same region, and also up in the mountain tundras at about 10,000ft. Expeditions were despatched to search for the monsters, but these failed to turn up any further evidence of the mystery giants.

Madang Papua New Guinea 1974

Half-human, half-apelike female Creature

About 1974 several natives fishing offshore in a dugout canoe near Madang, on the north coast of PNG, captured a half-human, half-apelike female creature with black body hair. She was about 1.5m in height with normal breasts [ie non-pendulous], and normal length arms.

She had been wading for molluscs at the time of her capture. The men realised she was not a normal human female [ an 'Ogre' they thought] and fearing that bad luck would befall them if they kept her, released the strange hominid.

Ogres of one size or another are often confused with the other "hairy men/women" of the forests and are likewise regarded with fear. I have already mentioned the capture of a female 'Ogre' above by a native fishing party at Madang in 1974. It is obvious that the physical descriptions of many ogres as given by tribespeople, fit those of both the ape-like Masali and the more man-like Dera kiboni [or Vada ].

Goraka Papua New Guinea 1974

Hairy female Mabi

In 1974 two native men captured a hairy female Mabi about 1.5m in height, dragging her back to their village, where other men later beat and killed her. A few night later, terrifying cries were heard in the nearby forest. The next day the village was abandoned.

Some weeks later a few tribesmen returned to their village to find a number of huts torn down, and other materials smashed and scattered about the area.. It appeared to the men that several Mabi giants had taken their revenge upon the village for the death of their companion.

Bay of Islands & Auckland New Zealand 1974

Skeletal Remains

The Maori people also recognise another giant race, the Ruaeo, who reached 2.6 to 3m tall, and besides making stone tools also buried their dead.

Evidence of this giant people, now closely guarded as sacred relics by the Maoris, was found in the Bay of Islands in 1974, when a cave was uncovered containing an unknown number of large human skulls at least 2,000 years old, reputed to have belonged to people up to 3.3m in height, said by the Maoris to have been a fair-skinned, fair-haired race.

The Maoris recognise the Ruaeo people as having inhabited New Zealand long before the arrival of their ancestors.

More skeletal Remains

During 1974 further skeletal remains of a 3.3m tall people were uncovered on a property situated on an island near Auckland, when a farmer accidentally dug up the graves of six skeletons, ranging between 2.6 and 3.3m in length when exposed.

The man contacted university anthropologists, who, after examining the finds had the graves re-covered. The exact location of the finds is a closely guarded secret of the Maori people of that region. A local tohunga said at the time that the Ruaeo may have links with a similar giant people who also buried their dead in graves in the islands to the north, and whom the Tongans and Tahitians say, inhabited a wide area of the Pacific long ago.

At another location south of Kaitaia, on the west coast of North Auckland, are several 'tapu' [taboo] caves where burials of a non-Maori people are known. These consist of skeletons of 1.8m to 2.1m in length layed out on the cave floors. Are they further remains of the mysterious Ruaeo people?

Coromandel Peninsula New Zealand 1974

Enormous hairy man-like Beast

Earlier, in 1974 Mr Gino de Costa and a mate drove up to Coromandel Peninsula one day and camped overnight .

To quote Gino:

"As we sat at our campfire later that night, we were surprised by an enormous looking, hairy man-like beast over 2m tall, that emerged from bushes nearby." "The monster then ran past our fire in big strides."

"Although we were armed with rifles for hunting thereabouts we decided not to attempt to pursue the beast, especially at night." "The creature had actually climbed down a steep 30ft rock face to reach our camp." "The following day we told a local farmer of our experience, He informed us that the same creature had been reported seen near our campsite 4-5 times within recent months."


Thredbo 1975

Large hairy biped Creature

In July 1975, a group of skiers claimed they saw a large, hairy biped creature at least 2.3-2.6 m tall, moving up a snow-covered mountainside near Thredbo, soon after a snowfall. The following winter a long trail of large footprints were found in snow and mud outside the town.

Mt Kosciusko 1975

Tall hairy ape-like Beast

Modern interest in these hairy manbeasts was reawakened in July 1975, when a skier near Mt Kosciusko spotted a tall, hairy ape-like beast walking across a snow-covered hillside. Thereafter it was the press which came up with the name "Abominable Snowman" and "Kosciusko Snowman" for the creatures, attempting to link them with their more notorious Himalayan 'cousin'.

Barrington Foothills 1975

Several small Aboriginal-type Natives

In 1975 Mr Craig Francis, while mending a property fence in the Barrington foothills one day, spotted a group of small figures huddled in nearby bushes. He immediately realised he was being watched by several small Aboriginal-type natives, both males and females, some clothed in animal skins.

"I had no sooner spotted them than they turned and dashed off into the scrub," Craig told me. ome stockmen often have the uneasy feeling of being watched while mustering cattle in this scrub, and some farm hands after experiencing this feeling have often refused to work unaccompanied in lonely areas.

Aborigines of the Coffs Harbour district still claim that tribes of little black people continue to inhabit the nearby coastal forest-covered mountain ranges and similar tales are told by Kempsey district Aborigines, of the "little hairy fellas" who share the nearby vast, rugged Carrai Range with the yowies.

Poatina Foothills-Tasmania 1975

Long-armed female Beast

In another incident, during 1975 , in the rugged Poatina foothills of central Tasmania, which have been the scene of a number of eerie 'hairy man' encounters over the years, two bushwalkers, Fred Ball and Andrew Bradshaw, were exploring dense hillside scrub. Entering a clearing they suddenly froze in their tracks.

Standing barely 29 ft [6.1 m] from them, and looking straight at them in a stooped position, was a long-armed, female beast 1.8 m in height.

In a 1978 interview with me, Fred described the eerie 'woman beast':

"One of the first things we noticed about here was her face; something both human and ape in appearance' her eyes deeply set inside the big, protruding eyebrows, and she had a receding forehead. Her head appeared to be sunk into the shoulders, and this gave her a stooped posture.

Her breasts were small, and her body was covered in long, dirty-looking dark brown hair. Her arms and big hands reached down to below her knees and she had large feet." "We had barely enough time to make these observations, because as we stood there stunned at what we had come up against, she just bolted off into the scrub, and we were certainly not going to chase after her."

"We were shaken to say the least, and left the place immediately." "We have often discussed our experience and are sure the creature was just as surprised to see us as we were to see her, but we feel sure that she did not want to harm us," said Fred.

Wollongambie Wilderness 1975

Enormous ape-like Tracks

East of Lithgow, deep in the Wollongambie Wilderness, during June 1975, a group of soldiers were on a field operation when they came upon a number of enormous, ape-like tracks, freshly embedded in swamp mud.

About that time a 17 year old boy, part of a large group of campers, came across similar large Yowie-type footprints in creek mud, when he strayed from camp exploring bushland thereabouts. In both cases, the tracks displayed the characteristic opposable big toe.

Hill end Road 1975

Hairy man-ape Creature

One morning in 1975, young Mrs Hillary Montgomery, was driving a school bus packed with children on their way to school outside of town on the Hill End Road.

As they passed a roadside stand of trees, Mrs Montgomery spotted a hairy man-ape creature squatting on the edge of the trees beside the road. She alerted the children, most of whom also saw the strange manbeast. As the bus passed him, the 'manimal' rose up upon both legs to a height of 2m and ran off into the trees.

Tailem Bend 1975

Hairy man-ape Creature

Earlier in June 1975 at Tailem Bend, motorists were stunned at the sight of a 3m tall giant hairy 'man-ape' walking by the orad carrying a fire stick late at night. It was followed by a further three sightings reports of giant hairy manbeasts in that district that month which had the local residents in a stir.

Tall male Creature

The following month a 2.6m tall male creature was claimed seen scavenging food scraps at an isolated picnic ground outside the town.

Hairy Creature

Then one day soon after this incident motorists in the same area reported seeing a hairy creature which could have been the same hominid crossing a field just off the road.

Large Shape

In another incident that occurred at this time, a family camping at a Tailem Bend tourist ground were woken late one night by their caravan being violently shaken. The husband and wife looked out the windows but could not see what was shaking the van. When their daughter had a look a large apish face appeared at the window. As the father opened the door a large shape was seen to disappear into nearby scrub.

Wyndham-Ord River 1975

Group of little black men & Women

During the mid-1970's there were a number of sightings claims of "little hairy people" by Aborigines and others in the Wyndham-Ord River district of the Kimberley, west of the Northern Territory border.

In one incident, which took place in 1975 a group of stockmen rounding up a mob of cattle in the Carr Boyd Range south of Ivanhoe near the Ord River, were startled when they noticed that they were being observed by a group of little black men and women in nearby scrub. When one of the horsemen approached them through the trees the little group scattered.

Digoel River-Indonesia 1975

Male ape-like Creature

On the Digoel River, inland from de Jongs Points in 1975 two Indonesians, part of a larger group of explorers, claimed they spotted a "2.8m tall male ape-like creature", tearing bark from a tree trunk, apparently in search of grubs and other insect food.

The man-ape moved on but the frightened men left the scene to return hastily to camp. They later returned to the spot with other men to find scratch marks on the tree trunk up to 5m above the ground.

Descriptions of these 'Devil-Men', as they are also known across New Guinea, reveal two forms, as I have pointed out.

The first is the 'Maslai', whose head and general body description, with long powerful arms and big hands reaching down to the knees, resembles a gorilla-like creature [ie Gigantopithecus].

Also known as "Masalai igat gras" or 'Lauma' in the Motu tongue, these creatures are both herbivorous and cannibalistic; as is our second giant, the more man-like, tool-making 'Drea tuana' or 'Vada', also known as 'Dera kiboni'.

But what do these names mean in plain English?

Returned Papua New Guinea Assistant District Commissioner, the late Mr HE 'Lynn' Clark, once informed me that the above names are Melanesian 'Pidgin' talk. 'Masalai', which means 'Devil', also stands for 'fiend' or 'demon'. The word 'gras' means 'hair', so that 'Masalai igat gras' translates as "Devil with hair". "Luama' means 'ghost', and 'dera' is 'hairy'; 'Dera tuana' is 'hairy man' and 'Dera kiboni "Hairy Devil man'.

Doubtless these are many more names for these 'sub-men' still to be uncovered by the dedicated researcher, but with at least 700 different languages throughout New Guinea to unravel, this would be a difficult task to say the least! New Guinea is also a land of considerable racial variation, where a 1.2m tall pygmy folk often share a district with more than one large racial type.

All rear the hairy man-giants, who they agree are quite distinct from ordinary people, due to their great height and general physical appearance. I have studied the Duk Duk, a secret society of men who wear disguises up to 3m in height. Known widely to Papue New Guinea tribespeople, they are principally of New Britain origin.

The Kaiva Kuku, another secret society, wear similar disguises of up to 3m height around Kemema in the wester Papuan Gulf country. Both costumes appear to have been based upon giant man-like beings in their folklore.

Goroka District-Paua New Guinea 1975

Six hominid type Creatures

In June 1975 a native man and woman were sitting atop a ridge overlooking a gully in the Goroka district one afternoon when, below them they observed a group of no less than six hominid-type creatures, two of which were child size [1-1.2m in height].

There were two female of around 2m tall and two male of around 1.8m and 2.1m height and were very muscular in appearance. The strange hominids [by now being observed by the couple from behind foliage] wandered about below, apparently scavenging for beetles and vegetable food. The group was in view for some minutes before moving on to disappear into the jungle.



Kakadu National Park, Arnhem Land 1976

Scuffle with hairy Creature

A few years before, in 1976, Brian had been camping one night on the creek when a man-sized hairy figure stepped out from nearby bushes and grabbed him."We fought all over the ground as I tried to get out of his powerful grip. When I did, I grabbed a piece of wood next to the fire and struck the creature over the head.

Screaming, the creature retreated into the scrub, leaving behind a strong, rotting smell and a greasy feeling all over me," he said. Elders believe he had fought off a young male Pankalanka.

Wild dog Mountains 1976

Hairy ape-like Creature

During 1976, a camping group of two dozen men and women established camp in the Wild Dog Mountains south-west of Narrow Neck behind "Packsaddlers". Nothing happened during the night, but in the early hours of the morning something strange visited the camp.

One of the girls awoke to see "a 2.7-metre-tall, hairy ape-like male creature" examining the camp cooking equipment and other goods. She screamed and the commotion aroused the group. The monster threw down what it was holding and dashed off into the scrub.

Tumbarumba Times 1976

Koscisusko-abominable snowman seen Again

Modern interest in these hairy manbeasts was reawakened in July 1975, when a skier near Mt Kosciusko spotted a tall, hairy ape-like beast walking across a snow-covered hillside. Thereafter it was the press which came up with the name "Abominable Snowman" and "Kosciusko Snowman" for the creatures, attempting to link them with their more notorious Himalayan 'cousin'.

For example, the "Tumbarumba Times" of September 15th, 1976 wrote:

'Kosciusko "Abominable Snowman" Seen Again.

Reports in recent weeks of mysterious large ape-like footprints found in the snow and sightings of a huge man-like hairy beast in the Kosciusko district have intensified interest in a theory that a relative of the Himalayan "Abominable Snowman" inhabits the Snowy Mountains.

The "Kosciusko Snowman" has been the subject of a nation-wide search by a well known naturalist who maintains the creature's existence.

The Naturalist is Mr Rex Gilroy, Director of the Mt York Natural History Museum, Mt. Victoria NSW.

Mr Gilroy said this week on Sunday, August 15th, a man had discovered an extensive set of large man-like tracks in the snow near Kiandra, which he followed for half a mile until they entered a forest. He said there had been a number of reports of large footprints having been found in recent months. One set was found crossing the backyard of a farm near Cooma.

Mr Gilroy said early Aborigines had a name for the beast - the "Yowie" [for "Great Hairy Man"], a large 7-8 ft tall hairy man-like creature what walked on two legs with a stooped gait.

Mr Gilroy, who has studied reports of the creatures over a wide area of Australia, many dating back to early last century, believes the Yowie to be a relative of the Himalayan 'Abominable Snowman' and North American 'Bigfoot', creatures which evolved from a pre-ice age man-like ape fauna which spread out over a land-shelf which formerly linked Australia and America to mainland Asia many thousands of years ago.

Similar beasts are known to inhabit the jungles of Malaysia and New Guinea, Mr Gilroy said. Mr Gilroy said that reports of large footprints in the snow in the Mt. Kosciusko district had been as frequent as sightings of the "Kosciusko Snowman" themselves.

In July 1975 a skier spotted a large 7-8 ft tall hairy man-like beast moving up a snow covered hillside near Mt Kosciusko and a month later what may have been the same creature was sighted again by a group of skiers in the same area following a snowfall.

The press reports of large ape-like footprints found in the snow and sightings of "Abominable Snowmen" around Mt Kosciusko, and elsewhere in the snowfields were greeted by scientific scepticism.

To quote the "Canberra Times" of 4th September, 1976:

'Nonsense' tales of hairy beast.

"Reports of sightings and prints of a "huge, man-like hairy beast' during recent weeks in the Kiandra, Tidbinbilla, Cooma and Kosciusko district were nonsense," the chief of the CSIRO division of wildlife research, Dr. H.J.Frith, said yesterday. "There is no such animal", he said. "Some responsible person would have seen it by now. The whole thing is far-fetched."

The Director of the Mt York Natural History Museum, at Mt Victoria, NSW Mr Rex Gilroy, said in a statement issued recently that he had been searching for the creature, known as the Yowie, for several years. There had been sightings dating back to1795 at scattered areas of inland eastern Australia.

Sightings had been reported near Cooma and Kiandra this winter. He described the Yowie as being about two metres tall, covered in long hair, stooped and walking on two legs with a loping gait. Mr Gilroy has established "The Australian Yowie Research Centre" at his museum. Mr Gilroy said the Yowie had existed in eastern Aboriginal folklore for thousands of years but, as an anthropologist pointed out yesterday, so had the mythical bunyip.

Batlow Area 1976

Three Large Footprints

During 1976 Mr Tony Martineer was apple-picking on the property of a Mr Speers about 10 km out of Batlow.

One day around sunset he was walking through a state pine forest when, in a partly dried patch of mud he found three large footprints. They were spaced man-size and about 23cm in length.

They displayed splayed-out toes and a narrow heel which went deeper into the ground [about 4 cm] than the rest of the foot. The arch was narrow and showed a big toe almost as deep as the heel. Hearing a crashing sound in nearby bush Tony left the area in haste.

Was the maker of these giant-size footprints still lurking nearby?

Grose Valley-Springwood Creek 1976

Black haired man-Ape

During the bad Blue Mountains bushfires of 1976, a National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger and pilot in an Iroquois Helicopter were circling over the Grose Valley, observing the course of a fire in the valley below, when, while passing over a rocky outcrop, the ranger spotted below, a black-haired, 'man-ape' like creature climbing over rocks fleeing from the blaze.

As the bushfire was their priority they could not turn back for another look. The sighting occurred near Springwood Creek.

Wild Dog Mountains 1976

Hairy ape-like male Creature

During 1976 a camping group of two dozen men and women established a camp in the Wild dog Mountains south-west of Narrow Neck. Nothing happened during the night, but in the early hours of the morning one of the girls awoke to see "a 2.3 m tall, hairy ape-like male creature" examining the camp cooking equipment and other goods.

She screamed and the commotion aroused the group; the monster threw down what it was holding and dashed off into the scrub.

Orange District -Mt Conobolas 1976

Large Footprints

In July 1976 a number of large, 15 inch [38cm] length footprints displaying ape-like features, were found in forest soil west of Orange by a farmer.

Tall hairy naked man-like Beast

About this time another farmer informed Orange ABC Radio reporter, Leo White, of Radio Station 2CR that he had seen a tall, hairy naked man-like beast while exploring bushland near Mt Canobolas. He told Leo that the nearest thing he had ever seen to this creature were the ancient 'hairy man' rock paintings of Arnhem Land Aborigines, many years before.

Barrington Range 1976

Large reddish-long haired manlike Beast

High up in the Barrington Range in 1976, six men on a rabbit shooting excursion got the shock of their lives. While shooting in thick scrub on a hillside they decided to stop for a rest, and prepared a campfire to "boil the billy". Leaving their 'kill' of several rabbits on an old tree stump, they walked down to nearby creek to get water.

While here they heard a sound coming from above them near their fire, and turned to see a large, reddish, long-haired man-like beast a good 10ft [3 m] tall, standing on the edge of scrub near their fireplace. The manbeast picked up the rabbits from the stump, turned and walked off with them into the scrub. The men stood, too petrified to d o much else than watch the man-monster disappear, before grabbing their rifles and gear and leave the spot as quickly as possible.

Two types of giant creatures appear to have been described here; the Morrell 'man-ape', an apparent vegetarian, bears Gigantopithecine features; while the rabbit-stealing hominid appears more human-like, and very likely one of the giant tool-making people once claimed by local Aborigines to inhabit the region.

Nowendoc Ranges-Inland Taree 1976

Big greyish-haired Animal

One night in 1976, Mr Errol and a mate were spotlight shooting for kangaroos on a property situated on the foothills of the Nowendoc Ranges, 35 miles inland from Taree. They had driven their vehicle across a paddock and were moving their spotlight about the area, when suddenly the beam caught a big, greyish-haired 'animal' lying on the ground some 200 yards away.

Then the creature rose up upon two legs to a height of about 3.3 m and ambled away into the darkness. The men were too stunned to shoot. Old Aboriginal legends of the Taree district say the 'hairy men' lived side by side with the Aborigines. They were even known to move in and occupy abandoned humpies after the Aboriginal occupants had moved out.

They were so tall [said Aborigines to early 19th century European settlers] they had to bend over to enter the settler's doorways!

Woodenbong 1976

Two ape-like Creatures

The following stories were reported in the Lismore Northern Star newspaper that month, after an earlier article in that journal concerning a search I planned to conduct in the Woodenbong district.

The first of these concerned the experience of Mrs Thelma Crewe of Richmond St, Woodenbong, who late one November night in 1976, saw two ape-like creatures about 1.2m tall, and covered in tan coloured hair, standing in her front yard just off the street.

"The hair on their arms was about 15.3cm longer than on the rest of their bodies, and their heads seemed to be sunk into their shoulders," she told Gary Buchanan, a Lismore Northern Star reporter. She watched the strange hominids through her kitchen window for five minutes before they walked away down the dimly-lit street into thick scrub.

They had obviously wandered around her backyard, inquisitively surveying the house prior to Mrs Crewe seeing them, as evidenced by the indistinct tell-tale footprints found there later. Following publication of Mrs Crewe's experience, another Woodenbong lady, who requested her name to be withheld, contacted the Northern Star with her own hairy-raising tale.

Yowie crushing Dog

Mrs X, as she wished to be known, lived in Lindsay St., which is only 270 metres from Richmond St. According to Mrs X, she was lying in bed about 2.30am on the morning of Wednesday 10th August but not asleep, when she heard her dog, an Australian terrier, start to yelp.

The following is her story in her own words:

"The yelping was mixed in with high pitched screaming sound which could not have been made by the dog. At first I thought a dog might have been killing my Siamese cat." "I jumped out of bed and race out onto the back verandah where I switched on the light. As the light was fitted with a strong 200 watt bulb it threw a good glow into the backyard."

"I went down the steps and ran into the backyard when I suddenly saw the creature directly in front of me. I was within 6 feet [1.8m] of the jolly thing and I think I stopped breathing for a moment because of the fright." "It was sitting on its haunches and had my dog crushed up against its chest. The dog was almost completely covered by the creature's arms which were wrapped around the dog, one above the other. It looked as though the creature was trying to crush the life out of her."

"The creature looked straight up at me for a few moments, then dropped the dog, which I thought was dead at this stage, because she fell to the ground and did not move." "The creature then held its arms away from its body and slowly stood up. It then backed away from me towards the grape trellis, but it never took its eyes off me. It backed away to the left side of the post and wrapped its right arm around the trellis post.

The creature stayed there for a few moments making these strange, deep grunting noises. The noises were very loud."

"It then ran off to the right, down the side of the house between the garage, and disappeared towards the front street [Lindsay St]" "As it ran the creature's arms hung by its sides. They were swinging, but not touching the ground." "The facial features of the creature could only be described as ape-like."

"Its head was very small compared to the rest of its body, and the hair was close cropped and fell down over its forehead. The rest of the face didn't seem to have much hair over it." "When the Yowie held out its arms after dropping the dog I noticed that it had long gingery coloured hair hanging from the bottoms of its arms." "The hair seemed to be very well groomed, and flowing like a girl's would. The hair over all its body seemed to be pretty closely cropped except on the arms and over its shoulders The hair was dark brown with a greyish tinge."

"The creature had a wide chest and seemed to have very strong legs, while the arms were long, slender and hairy." "One of the things I particularly noticed about the Yowie was the horrible stench. The only thing I could compare it with would be a ferret. The dog still stank of the stench the next morning so I had to wash her in Dettol."

"I examined the dog after the creature had disappeared and found that it was bleeding from scratch wounds to the chest and back of the neck. I though the next day the dog was going to die. She could hardly walk, and if you moved her too much she would yelp. I also noticed that she was badly bruised on the chest. Also, her hair was very greasy to touch before she was washed."

"Later, my daughter found three distinct footprints along the side of the house where the creature disappeared. These measured about 22cm long by 11cm wide. The five toe impressions were clearly defined and did not appear to have been made by a human foot. All the toe impressions appeared to be the same size and laid out in a half circle, rather than falling away from the big to the small toe."

"The overall impression also seemed to be stubby in comparison with the wide front pad of the foot." In the course of investigating Mrs X's experience, Lismore Star reporter Gary Buchanan and staff photographer Darcy McFadden later examined an area of grass behind a tin shed adjacent to the grape trellis.

Mrs X said the grass had been undisturbed prior to the incident, but the men found the grass trampled down. They also found three long strands of hair caught in a splinter of wood on an old post behind the shed. The three strands were about 17cm in length and a gingery brown in colour.

Gary Buchanan sent the hair samples to Professor B Rigsby, Professor of Anthropology at Queensland University, Brisbane. The Professor's reply was typical ...... "I suggest you go looking for a guy in an ape suit. There is no reliable recurrable evidence for Yowies, abominable snowmen, yetis, Bigfoot or wild men of the woods or whatever they are called.

I believe you simply won't find a human primate of this sort in Australia." Professor Rigsby did however promise to have the hair samples analysed.

However, it appears the University tests failed to classify the hairs, and like so many other 'embarrassing' specimens not recognised in the scientific text books, the hairs were simply "swept under the carpet" of scientific dogmatism in the hope that the whole matter would soon be forgotten!

Footnote: Mrs X's dog recovered from its injuries.

Sandy Hollow Area-Muswellbrook 1976

Large Figure

Westward from the Mt Royal Range lies Muswellbrook, where eerie happenings are frequent in the mountains of the eastern fringe of the town, such as the following: A Mr Warren King and another man were driving in a Land-rover, checking out trails in the Sandy Hollow area while on a shooting trip. The time was early summer in 1976.

Following a particular trail for a few hours they came to a dead end in a valley with a steep sloping rise at one end. They decided to camp here and set up their tent. Around midnight they were woken by the sounds of crunching bracken underfoot, coming from the steep slope. The noise stopped at the edge of the scrub for a short while, then proceeded towards the tent. The men could make out the shape of a large figure about 3m tall.

They had a torch next to them but were afraid to use it. They had set their tent 10 metres from the Land-rover. The men remained in their tent scared of the beast that now walked around outside, even more so as they realised they had left their rifles in the vehicle. After walking around the tent the mysterious creature then walked away to retreat back up the slope down which it had come.

After about five minutes the men dashed for their vehicle, threw their gear into it and drove off. An interesting sideline to this story is that it was at the above location that the remains of an old campfire was found by the men.

Two years previously a Pasture Protection Board officer, who was checking the country hereabouts, and had camped there overnight, came back to Sandy Hollow Hotel, looking very scared. He never said a thing to the locals at the hotel but telephoned his boss, to inform him that he was quitting his job after an undisclosed, terrifying experience up in the hills. This was a man who had worked in the bush for twenty years.

Glen Eagles District 1976

Female Yowie

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.


Thredbo 1977

Kosciusko Snowman

Then in 1977, a 2.6 m tall, hairy muscular man-like creature appeared early one morning in the back yard of an isolated farmhouse, terrifying the occupants. Little wonder that, since the mid-1970's, 'Yowie' has been replaced by 'Kosciusko Snowman' in local parlance!

Jimberingga 1977

Massive upright-walking-black haired gorilla-like Monster

To the north of here lies Jimberingga. This community bears a name which is actually another variant of Jimbra, the other local name for these monsters, and it, too, is an area of 'hairy man' sightings in recent times.

One day in 1977, two young property workers, brothers Vince and Trevor Collins, were driving a truck along a bush track about 10 kilometres north of Jimberingga when they heard a loud crash on their cabin roof, then another on the back of the vehicle. Stopping to check, they realised two large rocks had been hurled at their vehicle from roadside scrub. Looking back along the road, they beheld a horrifying sight.

"A massive, upright-walking, black haired, gorilla-like monster emerged from the bushes onto the road, waving a large tree limb menacingly at us and making an unearthly, terrible, loud snarling sound. "He was only 100 yards away and beginning to stride towards us, all the time brandishing the tree limb at us.

We could make out his sex and that he was very hairy, and had a large gorilla-like head-a nightmarish, ugly brute. By now we were frantically climbing back into our truck, and as I increased speed, he had already begun running swiftly in long strides towards us, waving the tree limb and screaming.

Our last sight of him was from a distance as we drove off along the road. He stood there for a moment watching our escape, threw the limb aside and strode off into the trees," said Vince in an interview with me in 1979.

South Of Cape York 1977

Twenty Pgymy-size Natives

In 1977, a small Army group made contact with a party of 20 pygmy-size natives who threw spears at them while exploring an area about 80 km south of Cape York. At another location further south they later stumbled upon an abandoned camp site. Here the men found several small bark humpies. They also retrieved a number of small stone implements scattered about the soil.

Barrington Tops Area 1977-Related 1982

Twenty Pgymy-size Natives

In 1982 Mr Ralph Kelly of Sydney, NSW related to me the following story: "I was in the company of a group of bushmen exploring deep in the Barrington Tops [inland from Taree] in 1977, when the men found a huge strip of bark, 30 cm in width, which had been torn off a tree trunk up to a height of 10 m.

This had in turn been stripped of its fibre which had then been rubbed into balls, in the same manner as Aborigines did, in order to make string for basket weaving". "There was a musty smell about the site, and it soon became obvious to us that the string makers had left the spot in haste at the sounds of our approach".

Ralph Kelly also informed me that he has been in the Barnard River area, 100 km north of Glenrock Station [Scone district] which is in the Hunter region at the southern end of the New England Ranges. In this area he once had the feeling of being watched while attending to grazing cattle in an isolated, lonely bushland area. In the same area on another occasion, a stockman was rounding up cattle when he suddenly realised he was being watched by two naked little black natives from behind nearby bushes.

They fled into the scrub when he became startled.

Bushmen living in the Barrington Tops district, on the western [Muswellbrook] side of the range in the 19th century, claimed pygmy-sized Aboriginals had been seen roaming the forests of the high country, sometimes watching cattlemen mustering stock.

It was these early bushmen who first gathered information on the culture of the pygmy folk. They knew, for example, that these natives were more primitive that the Aboriginals, lacking the spear-thrower and boomerang, and various other tools of their neighbours.
Suggan Buggan 1977

Naked hairy man-like Creature

One day in 1977 Mr Tom Brown was driving his car north of Suggan Buggan, on the Victorian side of the Snowy Mountains. As he drove at a moderate speed along the road through scrubland, his attention was suddenly drawn to a man-sized figure some distance ahead of him, as it emerged from roadside tree cover on the right hand side, and proceeded to walk across the road as the car approached.

As Mr Brown approached the figure, he observed it to be a naked hairy man-like creature of 2 m height. The manbeast at this instant stopped in the middle of the road, forcing Mr Brown to pull up quickly. By this time he was within 8.3 m of the strange beast.

The man-like creature stood looking rather inquisitively at Mr Brown and his vehicle for an instant, then turning it bolted on two legs for the safety of the roadside scrub. Mr Brown was left momentarily in a state of mild shock. Recovering quickly he drove on looking back for another glimpse, but the creature was gone.

[Note: It was in this same area that the Aboriginal couple, Big Charlie and his wife, had their experience with a Doolagarl, while driving a Wagonette through bushland one day a few years prior to World War One, as reported in Chapter Two].

Springwood N.S.W 1977

Naked hairy man-like Creature

During December 1977, Mr and Mrs Cecil and Iris Baker were visited at their Heather Road, Springwood home by two brothers, Alan and Ken Clarke. When they left to go home upon climbing into their car, parked outside in the street, they heard a strange wailing sound coming from nearby roadside scrub. A few days later Iris spoke with a Mrs Emma Robson, who lived near the St Columba's College.

Mrs Robson told her that her two dogs woke her up the night before with their barking. When she went to see what was troubling the dogs, from the scrub near her back door she heard an eerie wailing sound. By this time, she said, every dog in the vicinity had begun barking and running around the houses. People emerged from their homes checking their yards and surrounding scrub with torches.

A few people later claimed to have seen a tall, hairy, man-like creature moving about in the nearby scrub.

Lithgow 1977

Unseen Presence

One day in 1977 Mr and Mrs Michael and Helen Lodge were picnicking with their dog in bushland at a remote Lithgow picnic ground. The time was about 5pm when as they sat on the ground, their dog suddenly began running erratically and sniffing all over the place, then growling at the bushes near where they sat. Some unseen presence was moving about in the scrub, breaking twigs underfoot.

Then the dog took fright, its hackles raised. This was enough to encourage the Lodges's to quickly pack their belongings into the car and leave the area in haste.

Enormous man-like Footprints

Later, other picnickers were to report having found enormous man-like footprints embedded in soil in that same area.

Cullen Bullen-Capertree Area 1977

Several enormous man-like Footprints

One April weekend in 1977, two men, Keith Grove and Garry Norton both of West Pennant Hills NSW, were on a weekend camping excursion to Cullen Bullen in the Capertee area. They had brought their trail bikes with them and were spending the daylight hours exploring the rugged forest trails of the district.

However, after the evening meal, as they settled down in their sleeping bags around their campfire near their car, they were startled by a loud, mournful cry coming from the depths of the forest. A loud eeeooo-eeeooo! The sounds died away and the men returned to sleep.

Then around 3am they were both awakened again, this time by loud screaming howls, and the sounds of crashing timber. Flashing their torches in the direction of the sounds across a nearby creek, they could see nothing. However, the sounds were enough to make them remain awake until daylight.

After daybreak the men went down to the creek bank to get water for the billy, at the same time wondering what had made the terrifying sounds during the night.It was then that they found, embedded in the mud of the creek bank, several enormous man-like footprints, far too large for any normal human being, at least 40 cm in length and 20cm wide across the toes.

The feet had been deeply impressed into the mud, the ball of the foot at least 7cm deep, with the instep almost the same depth, with all five toes also deeply impressed.It appeared to the men that the tales they had heard of the Yowie were no laughing matter, and that their camp had been visited by such a creature during the night.

They searched the surrounding scrub to find further, though indistinct footprints embedded in the leafmould-covered forest floor. On their trail bikes they explored all day the nearby back roads and tracks, but failed to find any further traces of the mystery visitor.

The men spent the Sunday night sleeping in the car without further incident, but they were taking no chances, and drove out of the area the next day. Over the years Keith and Garry have returned to the same spot but have never again found any trace of the 'monster-man' of Cullen Bullen.

Abercrombie Caves Road-Bathurst Area 1977

Several enormous man-like Footprints

During December 1977 Mr Stephen Drambacs was rabbit shooting in the hills along the Abercrombie Caves Road south of Bathurst, when he had a meeting with a "hairy man".

The following account of his experience was related to me by him some months later. "I was heading for home at the time as it was getting late. the time was 7.30pm so I thought I had better take a short-cut through the scrub to get to my home.""I was working my way through one of the bush-covered properties hereabouts, all of which are intersected with gullies."

"Suddenly, hearing a noise behind me I turned around - and got the shock of my like - to see, standing at the bottom of a nearby gully, a hairy 'man-ape' like creature, which immediately began scrambling up the embankment and moving in my direction." "As I ran I realised that I had rifle on me [why I never thought to use if before I don't know], so I turned around and fired three shots in the direction where the 'man-ape' had gone into the bush, at least to scare him away."

"In the brief view I was able to get of the creature, I can say 'he' was 5ft [1.5m] tall and was stockily built with dark black hair. The face was also dark coloured." "The man-ape didn't seem to be covered with long hair all over the body, but the hair on its head was quite long. Because of this I couldn't make out definite features, but I thought the creature had a human-like nose and not pushed in like that of an ape's."

"There were also indistinct feet and hand prints in the mud at the bottom of the gully when I returned to inspect the scene the next day, but rain soon disintegrated these before I could cast or photograph them."

Summer Hill Creek-Ophir 1977

Ape-like Beast

Mrs Pauline Yeates says that one day during 1977, a group of hikers saw a 2.4m black haired, ape-like beast moving through the scrub near the third crossing of Summer Hill Creek.

Central Western Daily-Orange 1977

Double Sighting

The period 1977-1979 saw countless [and too often tongue-in-cheek] newspaper reports concerning the Yowie. I quote the following:

CENTRAL WESTERN DAILY [column] [Orange NSW] - 12th October, 1977.

According to a Wellington Man, the Yowie really does exist. The who prefers not to be named, said he saw it when driving along the Wellington-Yeoval road at night. He saw it twice, in fact, within a half a mile of the original location. It was big, about seven feet tall, wide and bulky, and he is convinced it is a link with the ice-age. He wants a party to scale Mt Wellsley to Mt Arthur to flush it out as he's convinced that's where it is. He has warned people passing the area to watch out.

Turon River-Hill End 1977

Hairy ape-like Beast

Mr and Mrs George and Janice Gibbs of Sydney went camping with their big Doberman dog in January 1977 on the Turon River at Hill End, at a spot on the river where a well known bridle track crosses the river at the second to two weirs. Their next four nights here would be unforgettable.

On the first evening, coming on dark, they were seated next to their tent beside their campfire cooking tea. About this time George got the feeling that "something was watching them". He asked Janice to look over his shoulder and tell him if she could see anything, because at the same time they could both hear the crackling of breaking branches on a rise among the trees on the other side of the Turon River [which is not very wide - about 10m in width].

Janice looked but could not see any thing. George then looked across the river and spotted the head of 'something' moving back and forth behind a tree trunk. George did not do anything about it that night and could not explain what he had seen. They slept that night without any disturbance. The next day also passed without incident, that is until evening [and the next evening] when, about the same time as the previous evening the same thing happened again, [around sundown ie 6-7pm].

"We just studied it, and it studied us, as it were", said George, when relating this story to me in 1983.

On the third night however, they decided to use their spotlight which was attached to the car for shooting trips. When the 'intruder' reappeared about 10pm, George said quietly to Janice, who was by now working it from inside their car, "now turn on the spotlight". As she did so, George fired a 15 shot magazine with his Winchester rifle at the tree trunk, behind which the strange visitor was hiding as before, hoping to lure him out into the open.

"I fired the shots in a row down the side of the tree trunk, at which the mystery visitor suddenly let out a deep breathing, asthmatic rasping-type sound," added George.

Everything then went dead quiet, the mystery intruder had vanished.

One thing the Gibbs' later realised was that, at all times of the intruder's visits, there were no other animal sounds to be heard in the area. A feature common to other Yowie encounters. The next day a man and a woman, both in their late 40's, arrived on the scene intending to set up camp for a week. George and Janice told them nothing of their strange experiences, but the couple would be gone the next morning without telling George and Janice, for reasons no doubt to do with the events that were to follow.

That night about 1am, George was woken up by the whimpering of his big Doberman, which he had tied up on top of the car - a Valiant Fiji 1971 model - by a tow bar chain long enough for her to wander around. George could hear her whimpering and the chain going 'crash' about the car.

He woke up Janice and grabbed his Winchester rifle and left the tent to see what was wrong. He found the dog whimpering under the car. She was still shaking as he dragged her out from underneath the vehicle. Janice meanwhile remained in the tent.

It was then that George suddenly froze! There 5m away and standing 2.5m tall, looking down at him [George is 1.6m in height] was a "hairy, ape-like beast". George was so terrified that he could not pick up his rifle [which had already dropped to the ground], and the dog was still trying to get out of his arms. The creature, George observed in the available light, appeared like a "human with fur [hair], not plump or hefty like a gorilla".

He could not see the eyes for the darkness, but the face appeared flattish. The head appeared fuzzy [ie hairy], and the moon, which up till now had been out, was just going under clouds so this was all he could see of the 'manbeast'. The manbeast turned, stooped in posture, its hands at its side, then it began walking away from George and his terrified dog. George, still shaking, picked up his rifle and not thinking, called out "stop or I'll shoot!" to the strange manbeast.

At this moment the creature began walking in longer strides than before, its arms still hanging at its side. The manbeast then broke into a run towards the tent of the other couple. Their tent was located 30m or so down the river to the west, so George could not fire at the creature for fear of hitting the couple [who were still asleep]. The beast ran directly for their tent but side-stepped around the back of it and disappeared into the trees.

After this incident George and Janice put their Doberman dog in their tent with them. Said George to a by now terrified Janice; "If that animal wanted to hurt us, it had ample opportunity, so don't worry about it." They spent an uneasy, sleepless night, the Winchester by George's side just the same. The next morning they found that the other couple had left without as much as a goodbye. George and Janice decided to break camp and left soon after.

A couple of weeks later, at the end of January, George and Janice returned to the scene of their encounter with the hairy hominid, this time with three mates from George's Sydney workplace. The men, having heard George's account of the weird events, wanted to see for themselves what the area was like where the mystery creature had appeared.

During their first night camped at the site, these men claimed they heard strange sounds coming from the opposite side of the river. Thereafter, for the next two days that the group camped there, the three men remained inside their tent at night, so frightened did they become at the prospect of meeting up with the "hairy man of Hill End", as the locals call the creatures.

George's mates were relieved when he and Janice informed them they were breaking camp. "Red Jack Ellis", a local identity, told George and Janice on another occasion that he could take them into areas where the monsters have been claimed seen.

Mt Barrington 1977

Hairy ape-like Beast

In 1977 a friend of this author, Mr Louis Morrell and a mate, Ian McLaughlin were at Mt Barrington near the Chalkstone Caves of Mt Egmont, exploring along a dirt orad in Louis' Datsun Station Wagon. Rain began falling as they crossed a brook. At this moment they both spotted a "2.2m tall, man-like, ape-like beast", standing observing them from among roadside forest scrub.

"What do you think that is?" Louis asked Ian. "We could smell a strong formic acid type stench about the area," Louis later told me. He continues: "The manbeast had long arms and big hands and was covered from head to foot in long hair. 'He' began emitting low, somewhat plaintive grunting sounds at us, then turned around and ran off in big leaps into the forest."

"Soon from the depths of the forest we heard loud wailing sounds. I recall now that the beast's head had a receding forehead and thick protruding eyebrow ridges. The head appeared very thick," he said. After the creature had gone the men discovered that there were wild watermelons growing about the site, most of which had been smashed and their contents eaten. Tree bark had also been removed, as if the creature had been searching for insects.

Rangers in the Barrington Tops region claim there have been many other reports of 'hairy people' from the Caves area. According to Rangers, the early copper miners who entered the Tops over 100 years ago, claimed to have seen 'apes' frequently, as did their counterparts on the rugged Carrai Plateau west of Kempsey.

Barrington Range Area 1977

Yowie Encounter

In mid-April 1977, together with my wife and fellow researcher, Heather I carried out a major search of the NSW north coast districts in pursuit of evidence of the Yowie. For quite some time I had been hoping for some really authentic photographic or other evidence to turn up, which might at last convince understandably sceptical Australian scientists of these creatures existence.

The question was, which area was the most likely one where this kind of evidence might be obtained. I decided, on the strength of the prolific number of reported encounters with primitive 'man-ape' hominids in the Carrai Range, to concentrate most of our efforts there.

However, we first made a visit to scone, in the northern end of the Hunter Valley, and on the western side of the Barrington Range.

A resident of the town, Mr Wayne Caban, had just reported an encounter with a Yowie he had experienced in the Barrington Range area, and we wished to interview him. Mr Caban had recently been attempting to secure photographic evidence of the Yowie on the Barrington Range without success.

Wayne's encounter with the Yowie took place while he was employed with a mining company, engaged in carrying out an exploration programme on the Gummi River, at the headwaters of the Manning River near Tomala in the Barrington Range area.

Wayne remained with the company from October 1973 to February 1974, during which time he learnt of many strange things in the area from among mining acquaintances. He said "When I began my employment I was asked by Barney Matthews, a contractor who hailed from Armidale, if I knew anything about a so-called 'gorilla' which was said to roam around the Tops area and had been seen from time to time by timber cutters".

Oxley Island 1977 Interview

Large black man-like Shape

We had been unsuccessful in securing any photographic evidence of the elusive Yowies of the Carrai, or finding any fresh footprints. Yet we had obtained a large number of new reports from Kempsey district residents, enough to encourage us to continue investigations here in the future.

Saying goodbye to George Gray we headed southward to Taree, there to investigate the claims of the Gee family of Oxley Island, several kilometres south of town and close to the mouth of the Manning River.

Arriving at the Gee's farming property on May 5th, we interviewed the family, inspected and photographed the respective sites that figured in the following story:

About 11am one morning in early February 1977, while alone on the farm, Mrs Gee was standing at her back door looking south across the nearby Manning River a good 300 years away towards family wharf, which was situated over a rise of ground 1.5m high. Suddenly a large black manlike shape appeared, half visible over the rise.

As the rise of earth partly obscured the figure, Mrs Gee estimated the full height of the manlike creature to be about 3.3m. At this point the telephone rang and Mrs Gee went to answer it. Shortly afterwards she returned to find the mysterious beast gone. A search of the wharf area later revealed large man-ape like footprints in the surrounding mudflats.

Mrs Gee recalled for me how, three night before her sighting the family dogs had barked each night, perhaps aware that someone, or 'something' was on the property. One week following Mrs Gee's sighting of the strange figure, neighbours on a nearby farm had heard a high-pitched screaming sound some time after 11pm. When they went to investigate they detected a very foul-smelling odour about the back yard.

One week later the Gee family awoke one morning to find an old 1500 gallon water tank and its stand in the backyard had been pushed over during the night. Leading up to the tank they discovered numbers of large footprints. A search for more soon resulted in the alarming discovery, that the seemingly enormous beast who had made them had come up from the river, crossed newly dug cornfield into a shed, through which they passed until they reached the water tank.

Around the whole area Mr Geoff Gee and his son Geoff junior smelt a foul odour just like their neighbours had detected a week before. Geoff Gee junior found he had smelt the same odour further up Oxley Island on the same night the screaming sounds were heard by their neighbours. Mr Gee himself later smelt the odour on a dirt road near his farm. It remained there for three days when it could still be detected about the cornfield.

Tall hairy ape-like Beast

About this period a woman tennis player reported seeing a tall, hairy ape-like beast in roadside scrub as she was driving home from a game in Harrington. Also residents of Mitchell Island [just across from Oxley Island], reported seeing what could have been the same creature seen by Mrs Gee.

Was it possible the creature seen by Mrs Gee had been able to cross the Manning River at low tide, to emerge at the Gee property, and if so, had it crossed the full extent of Oxley Island, to yet another river barrier to reach the Harrington area?

The Manning river at its mouth is very deep, except at low tide, where it could be possible for a 3.3m tall creature to wade across in certain places. It might have found it easier to cross the next river barrier to reach Harrington from where it could have, by crossing farmland, vanished back into the coastal mountain belt from which it had originally wandered.

The investigation of the Gee's Gigantopithecus-like manbeast ended our 1977 north coastal NSW search, and the many new reports we had gathered were more than enough to encourage us to make future field investigation throughout this region.
Torrington North N.S.W 1977 Letter

Large black man-like Shape

The following information was contained in a letter from Mr Charles Elliott of Kyogle NSW dated 14th September 1977.

It confirms the story of Mrs Burton concerning Rex Clifford:

"Recently while on a holiday with my parents at Torrington in the north of NSW we were discussing recent publicity about the Yowie, when my mother mentioned that a dead animal of a similar description had been found in the area some years ago."

"I interviewed a Mr Lance Burton of Torrington. He informed me that some 15 years ago a Mr Rex Clifford, a tin miner, from Emmaville, found the body of an animal at what is known as The Gulf which is an area of rugged granite ridges to the north-west of Torrington."

"Mr Clifford described the animal as being about the size of a ten year old child, covered in brown hair and he said the animal had teeth similar to that of a human being, this being the main feature of the body that caused him to examine it more closely. Mr Clifford showed the body to Mr Lance Burton's father, Mr Roy Burton of Torrington."

"Mr Lance Burton said that "someone" from Emmaville had contacted "someone" either from Sydney University or the University of NSW and a man had come to Emmaville and interviewed Mr Clifford about the finding. When he was informed that it was about 13 miles ride on horse to view the body the man returned to Sydney without further investigation."

"Mr Lance Burton further stated that his father and mother had seen unusual footprints in The Gulf area but they said they were different to those described as those of the Woodenbong 'Yowie'. Because of limited time I was unable to interview Mr Clifford or Mr Roy Burton to verify the story about the alleged finding or ascertain if it would be possible to locate the skeleton of the body."

"Your description of the sounds made by the Yowie brings to mind another incident in Torrington area. Some years ago two brothers, Mr Bill Sherratt and Mr Fred Sherratt were camped at Pyres Creek which is to the north-east of Torrington.

They said one night they heard a noise that started like a pig grunting and rose to a scream. They did not sight the animal that made the noise. Although there are many wild pigs in the area now, at that time wild pits were unknown in the area. Both men, who have spent many years camping in the bush in the Torrington area, stated they had never heard anything in any way similar to that noise before."

Mt Connor 1977

Unexpected Visitor

South-east of Alice Springs and east of Ayers Rock stands Mt Conner, home [according to the Aborigines] of the Mimi people, a 4ft [1.2m] tall pygmy-size race. One night during May 1977 a lone fossicker, Peter Fitzgerald, was camped near here next to a waterhole beside his 4-wheel drive vehicle, when he had an unexpected visitor to his campfire.

"She was stark naked, 4ft tall, young with nubile breasts, and had little hair at all on her body but for the shoulder-length reddish hair of her head. She just stood next to some bushes observing me some yards away." "I tried enticing her to the campfire with some bread I cut from a loaf, but she would not approach any closer. Then I threw it to her and she dashed forward, grabbed it, put it to her mouth, then proceeded to eat it."

"Then she turned her head to look away, in the direction of rustling sounds coming from nearby bushes. I realised she was not alone. She then ran off into the darkness. I heard the sounds of more than two other creatures running off with her." "Shaken, I spent the rest of the night inside my vehicle. Next morning I counted six sets of child-size human footprints in the sand around my camp.

I remained here for most of the day before heading off, and although I saw no more of the little female or her companions, I more than a few times had the feeling I was being watched, as I fossicked about in a nearby creek."

According to a local Aboriginal, Barney Cameron: "These little people live in fear of the Pankalanka [also known as the Pungalunga] giants. These Pankalanka people are really terrifying. They use big wooden or stone tools and make fire, with which they roast any Aborigines they catch.

They eat white people too if they get them. They are like the Dinagabbie further west and both these people are giants up to two or three times the height and weight of any Aborigine or white man." "It is eerie country out there at night. Aboriginal people keep clear of certain areas as we know the little hairy Mimi lurk in wait for unwary travellers," said Barney.

Europeans don't generally take Aboriginal 'bush yarns' of this sort seriously unless, of course, they have such encounters themselves.

Adelaide Hills 1977

Hairy male Creature

One June day in 1977 a Mr Paul Stewart was bushwalking in scrub among the Adelaide Hills 25 km from the city. As he walked along a track between two hills, a hairy male creature emerged from bushes ahead of him. Standing 2m in height, the brownish, long-haired 'manimal' stood barely 6m ahead of him, stared at him for a moment, then crashed its way back into the scrub as the bushwalker retreated in the opposite direction!

Fitzoy River-Gogo District 1977

Pgymy sized frizzy haired Natives

In 1977 an Aboriginal stockman 'Jimmy', was droving cattle on the Fitzroy River near Gogo when, on a dusty track he met three pygmy size, frizzy haired natives, two males and a female.

"I spoke to them in my own Aranda tongue, and they seemed to understand me. The intimated they were passing through from somewhere in the Grant Range further west, where their tribe was situated. They were all no taller than 3ft 6inches to 4ft[about 1 to 1.2m] and the female carried a bark container with yams and other bush tucker, while the men carried spears and stone knives.

All were clothed in kangaroo skins," he told a policeman. Known in the Kimberley region as the Jim Jim [among other names] to the Aboriginal people, these little natives are often claimed seen by drovers on lonely bush tracks, by parties of explorers, by telegraph linesmen and surveyors working in isolated locations over a wide area of the Kimberley-Arnhem Land wilderness.
Jimberingga 1977

Massive black-haired gorilla-like Monster

To the north of here lies Jimberingga. This community bears a name which is actually another variant of 'Jimbra' and it too is an area of Jimbra sightings in recent years.

It was about 10km north of this community one day in 1977 that two young property workers, claimed they saw a "massive, black-haired gorilla-like monster" emerge from bushes onto a road, waving a large tree limb menacingly at them and emitting loud snarling sounds. The young men retreated to their truck and drove off in haste.

Willare Bridge-Kimberley Region 1977

Dirty looking hairy male Creature

In 1978 I received the following report from Mr Norm Brooks of Bunbury:

"At Willare Bridge over the Fitzroy River in the west Kimberley region during January 1977, I was camping overnight with two mates, Keith James and Laurie Sullivan."

"A about 8pm as we were sitting by our campfire, situated 30ft from our tent, Keith thought he heard something moving about in bushes close by." "There's nothing there" I said after a glance in the direction of the sounds." "Then who's that standing behind the tent?" remarked Laurie. "Sure enough, there was a dark figure, very tall, about 7ft, visible in the dim glow from our fire.

It then moved forward, around the tent and into full view 30ft from us - a dirty-looking, hairy male creature, his head very ape-like with a sloping forehead, his eyes set deep inside big projecting eyebrow ridges, with a pushed in nose, hunched appearance, with arms much longer than a normal human and he had big feet."

"At this, Keith leaped from the fire and dashed for our Landrover to grab one of our .22 rifles. At this moment the man-ape startled, turned and bounded off into the scrub. He did not return, but we stayed they all night with our guns at the ready just in case."

Bunbury 1977

Hairy apeish-looking male Creature

About October 1977 a family at Bunbury, on the coast south of Fremantle had an unwanted visitor from the nearby hills.

One night they were woken up by their Collie Dog's loud snarls and barking in the yard. It then bounded up the driveway and sounded as if attacking something. There were loud yells from its prey. When the husband and wife reached the front door they saw in the moonlight a 2.3m tall 'human' figure fighting off the dog at the driveway entrance. Their daughter appeared, torch in hand.

The torchlight revealed a hairy, apish-looking male creature, which at that moment, got a grip on the dog and hurled it over the next fence and ran off into the night. The dog retreated under the neighbours house in fright. The next morning the occupants of the whole street were agog with the news that two boys down the road out late, had come face to face with a 'man-like monster' heading for nearby bushland.

He ran right through them screaming and snarling clutching his side [where the dog had apparently bitten him]. "It was just like a big hairy man", said one of the boys to a newspaper reporter. Aborigines up around Geraldton warn people never to go out in the hills after dusk, as the "hairy men", the Jimbras, might catch them, for it is at this time that they emerge from their lairs to wander about, sometimes in groups, in search of food - human or other wise!

Yinu River China 1977

Droppings-flattened grass-large Footprints

A Chi-Chi giant left droppings and an area of flattened grass at a site on the upper reaches of the Yinu River, which were found in March 1977 by Liu Minzhuang, a biologist at Huadong Teacher's University, and executive chairman of the China 'Wildman' Investigation and Research Society.

Nearby Liu Minzhuang also discovered a number of large footprints measuring 43cm in length. Casts made from these show remarkable similarities with others from island south-east Asia and Australia, and display human characteristics.

The Chi-Chi's are known to construct crude shelters out of bamboo. Crude stone tools left by these hominids where they have sheltered, sometimes alongside campfires, have been reported found in caves and rock overhangs.

They resemble Homo erectus tools similar to those associated with recently-abandoned campsites uncovered in Australia, as reported in earlier chapters. Examinations of the droppings left by Chi-Chi's show they subsist upon an omnivorous diet of berries and other vegetable 'bush tucker' and meat.

Dusky Sound Area New Zealand 1977

Freshly flaked Maori-style stone Tools

During 1977 a deer hunter, Brian Lyons was camped in the Dusky Sound area of this vast, inhospitable region, when he came across a cave showing signs of recent occupation, and a fireplace with still warm embers, about which were scattered freshly-flaked Maori-style stone tools. The man had the feeling he was being watched and left the area in haste.

People still claim sightings of the mysterious "White Tribe". Who are these timid natives? A remnant group of Patupaiarehe? Survivors of yet one more 'unknown' pre-Maori race? Once more we seem to be posing questions for which at present, there are no real answers.

Coromandel Range New Zealand 1977

Hairy red Man

Having carried out a number of field investigations in New Zealand since 1980, and having tramped the wild regions where these hominids are said to live, Heather and I can easily accept the proposition that these creatures still survive.

Take, for example, the Coromandel Range south of Auckland, one of the domains of the legendary Moehau manbeasts.

Dubbed the "Coromandel Man" by the local media, these hominids had been seen for generations thereabouts, and their appearances during 1977 resulted in the kind of ridiculous behaviour as described in the following news item, which appeared in the Sydney "Sunday Mirror" of 20th March that year.

Horsemen Hunt the Mystery Hairy Red man.

An armed posse of 15 horsemen is combing the rugged ranges near Auckland this weekend ....hunting for the "hairy red beast. The hairy man - a towering, manlike beast with flowing red hair covering most of its body - has been sighted three times in recent months in the Coromandel Ranges 90km south of Auckland.

The last attempt to find the elusive creature was almost four years ago by a party of Australian tourists - but they returned empty-handed. They sighted one of the hairy man's footprints, with two big toes on each foot, but failed to sight the strange creature. The recent sightings have triggered new interest.

A second group also plans to track down the hairy man. Their leader, Mr Neville Mack, says he had documented every reported sighting of the creature since 1932. He plans to interview several people who claim to have seen the hairy man and one elderly Maori, Hori Hepera, 94 who claims to bear the scars of a confrontation with the hairy man.


Packsaddlers 1978

Hairy ape-like Creature

One December day in 1978, Mr. Steve Delainy was bushwalking in Megalong Valley, when, as he worked his way through the dense undergrowth of a forest in the vicinity of "Packsaddlers", he spotted a six-foot-tall, hairy ape-like creature moving among nearby bushes. It was enough for young Steve to turn around and return the way he had come, but at a much faster pace.

Kanagra Wall 1978

Long armed man-like Creature

In March, 1978, another group-Ted Graham, Peter Collins, Jean Bailey and Betty Nile-were camped below Kanangra walls while exploring the valley. Walking along a track about 4 pm they saw, 133 metres ahead of them, a long-armed manlike creature 2.4 metres in height.

"It seemed to walk with a stooped gait, its arms moving about as it did so. It stopped, turned and looked in our direction, then moved off." Ted said.

Currumbin Creek August 1978

Enormous dark Shape

Our investigations switched to Currumbin Creek. One night in August 1978, Len Rowe and his wife Glenda were camped by this creek, when they were woken by a loud splashing sound 20 metres away down the creek.

They caught sight of an enormous dark shape disappearing into the jungle, accompanied by sounds of crashing foliage. They then detected a foul stench about the area. This strong stench turns up repeatedly in sightings reports, and, as I have already pointed out, appears to be a world-wide occurence in regard to the Yeti, Bigfoot, and so on.



Wadbilliga National Park 1979

Three hairy Shapes

Further north up the coast and inland from Narooma, thence westward along the Tuross River, lies the Wadbilliga National park situated in typical south-coast forestland. It was here in this wild country late one afternoon in October 1979 that a ranger "Steve" {name witheld on request}, was parked on a remote four-wheel-drive road at a seldom-used picnic area while he checked the surrounding forest for rubbish discarded by thoughtless people.

"The time was about 4 pm, and I was thinking it was getting late and I had better leave as it was a long drive through the park back to civilisation. I was working my way back towards the Land-Rover, some 300 yards away, among the gums in the quiet forest not a bird to be heard when I heard some distant sounds of snapping foliage and strange, gutteral sounds.

"Someone's coming I thought." Steve got the shock of his life and for a moment could not decide whether to make a dash through the trees for the Land-Rover or hide where he was. "At that moment, looking in the direction of the sounds across a ferny clearing, I spotted three hairy shapes, one taller than the a normal human, emerging onto the clearing about 200 feet away. In an instant I thought only one word, 'yowie'-tales of which I had heard before but never believed {but I do now!}.

"They had not seen me, and for obvious reasons by now I was down behind some foliage, 'eating dirt'. There ahead of me were three hairy, naked ape-like forms-I had glanced a quick look through the bushes-a male of about nine feet tall, a female of size feet and a five-foot juvenile male.

"I froze in disbelief, horrified that they might see me close by. The big male was very thickset, the female slender. I saw little else for I was too preoccupied in lying as close to the ground as I could to avoid being seen and perhaps attacked and killed by these 'human apes'. They wandered across the clearing away from where I lay. The last I saw of them were their backs as they continued on into the forest in the distance."

For a minute or two, Steve remained where he was, just to make sure they were well and truly out of sight, then... "I got to my feet and ran for the vehicle some distance away. {Surely they must have noticed it,' I thought} Anyway, I damn well got out of that forest and out of the park as fast as I could. "Some weeks later I heard that two young blokes out camping thereabouts reported finding big footprints in soil on the road near where I had my experience, but heavy rain washed them away before anyone could return with the boy's to inspect them.

"Steve" reported his story to me after publication of an article about my research into the 'hairy man" of the south coast' in the local press. It is by no means the only story of its kind to come from those vast wilds.

Jamieson Valley Runied Castle June 1979

The strange Beast

On Saturday 7th June 1979, Mr John Evbic and a mate, "Tony", were exploring dense scrub on the Jamieson Valley side of the Ruined Castle rock formation.

Around midday, as they rested on a rise overlooking a paperbark forest some 60 metres below them, they observed a human-like shape moving on two legs among the trees. As it came into full view , the men realised it to be no ordinary human being but something more ape than man, and a good six feet tall. It was covered in long brownish hair.

"The strange beast moved to a paperbark tree and began tearing away large slabs of bark, appearing to pick off and eat beetles it found burrowing underneath, oblivious all the time to out presence," said Tony. The mysterious man-beast then began moving off further into the scrub, continuing its foraging. When it was lost from sight, the men did not follow it.