The Yowie Story
By Rex Gilroy
Australia's Leading Authority on The Yowie
"I nearly fainted when I came across these huge ape-like tracks in the soil. I never thought such monsters existed outside Aboriginal myths and legends," said one lady, Mrs Joan McKendrick, when she came across several two-foot-six-inch-long footprints while prospecting with her husband Tom near Lake Tobin in the south-east corner of the Great Sandy Desert., one day in 1972.
All the Following Yowie Evidence is Gathered for Scientific Research at the:
The Australian Yowie Research Centre and Australasian Relict Hominid's Research Center Katoomba
Established in 1965
All Images and Reports Copywritten 1965-2002 and beyond: The Author Rex Gilroy
Unless Otherwise Stated
Jimberingga: 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.
Hairy Man-Beasts of the Australian Bush
From My First Book
Mysterious Australia 1995
Chapter 16
Lake Ballard, Kalgoorlie: During 1970 I interviewed an old fossicker from Adelaide who, about 1960, in the company of another mate had experienced a meeting with a Jimbra family that they would be most unlikely to forget.
Andy Hoad and his mate Brett Taylor left their wives for a couple of days' prospecting out from Kalgoorlie where they all lived at the time. The men used a tin hut up in the Lake Ballard area to the north. Andy's story follows:
"We had just arrived, and unpacked our truck this particular weekend when we noticed a bad, rotting-type smell about the shed. No dead animal anywhere in sight, so we wondered what had caused the stink. "We went off later with our equipment to work a favourite location on a dried-up creek-bank-always good for gemstones there. Anyway, my mate soon got the feeling we were being watched. He kept on looking over his shoulder, and soon even I got the same uneasy feeling.
"There was a stand of scrub further along the creek and it was from here we suddenly heard voices-gutteral sounds is a better description. Looking over in that direction, we could see dark shapes moving in the tree cover. Thinking it was people, Brett called out 'who's there?', at which a seven-foot, dark brownish-haired, long-breasted female 'ape' emerged, standing in a stooped upright position, to be joined by a younger female of about six feet. then, to our further horror, a huge nine-foot male appeared.
The nearest creature you could compare them with would probably be the gorilla. "We had no firearms, only our picks and shovels for protection. regaining our composure, we kept the picks and ran back along the creek. Ahead of us were the sounds of crashing and screeching tin sheeting, and we knew something was happening to our hut. In the distance we could see another hairy gorilla-like monster, about 10 feet in height, pulling our roof and walls apart.
The building was not all that sturdy so it was easy for the creature to dismantle most of it. "We were not being pursued but hid in scrub, waiting for the chance to dash to the truck. The manlike 'ape' soon strode away and we made good our opportunity to escape. "Aborigines in Kalgoorlie later told us we should never have been there, for it was the territory of the Jimbra, huge hairy animal-men who have inhabited the land since the Dreamtime. You know, we never did go back there."
Woods Well, South Australia: 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 minibusload 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.
Oolea Range: 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.
Both groups saw the creature which strode off along the bank and out of sight into the scrub. The shocked bush-trekkers held a roadside discussion, compared physical descriptions, agreed it was a male, and the men in the party decided to try to track it with their rifles at the ready; but by the time they returned to the crossing and set off on foot, the man monster had escaped.
Katherine River, Arnhem Land: We now journey into the Northern Territory, land of the "Pankalanka", the name by which these horrific, hairy monster hominids are known to Aborigines and whites alike hereabouts.During August 1968, a 2.6 metre-tall giant hominid, long white hair trailing from his head, surprised a young woman on a camping trip while she was walking her dog near the Katherine River, inland from the town of Katherine in Arnhem Land.
"The monster just appeared from out of bushes in front of me. He grabbed the dog and hurled it against a boulder killing it. I ran away screaming for my parents at our camp nearby, The man-beast all the time was yelling and snarling and at first began pursuing me, but as I approached the camp and he saw my folks and our vehicle, he stopped and retreated into the scrub. I recall he had large genitals, very hairy muscular arms and large hands with long finger nails," she told me in a 1973 interview.
Kakadu National Park, Arnhem Land: Brutish, hairy, ape-like monsters are said by many people to inhabit Arnhem Land's Kakadu National Park. People who have penetrated this wild country in Land-Rovers have been known to return to civilisation with stories of giant footprint discoveries or claims of sightings of large hairy male or female creatures. The monster hominids are depicted in local Aboriginal cave art as tall, hairy figures beside smaller Aboriginal figures for size comparison.
In 1982: there was one incident when a camping party awoke one morning to find enormous manlike footprints embedded in the mud of a nearby waterhole. Later that day one of the group, Miss Judy Clark, was terrified at the sight of a three-metre-tall, bad-smelling male creature with long whitish hair. Carrying a large jagged stone knife, he stood watching her from nearby scrub.
She later related her experience to a Tennant Creek Aboriginal elder who introduced her to a young Aboriginal man, Brian Gumballa. 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.
The often overpowering smell of these man-beasts is a worldwide feature of these relict hominid reports and is not yet fully understood {but then these 'manimals' don't necessarily wash themselves like normal folks!} Hominid researchers don't yet know enough about these creatures, but with every passing year there is mounting evidence for their existence and more is becoming known about their habitats.
We now come to the vast, mountainous expanses of eastern Australia and the mass of reports that have these wilds synonymous with the 'hairy man' since pioneering days.They are known by many fearsome-sounding nicknames: The "Kosciusko Snowmen", the "Hairy Giants of Katoomba", and "Monster Men of the Lamington Plateau". By these names and more they were known to the early settlers-and still are by the modern-day inhabitants of these regions where they have always been most frequently encountered.
We begin our eastern Australian search with the Australian Alps.
Mount Kosciusko: During July 1975, a group of skiers near Mount Kosciusko saw a large hairy apelike creature, at least 2.6 to 3 metres tall, moving up a snow-covered mountainside.
In fact, for the past 100 years or so there have been some very strange happenings recurring over the vast and inhospitable Australian Alpine region: tall hairy figures sighted by mountaineers, skiers and isolated farmers; mystery footprints found in the snow; and strange, eerie cries heard at night from the forest depths.
1860: European interest in the mysterious creatures could be said to date from 1860 when a small group of explorers sighted a tall, hairy gorilla-like beast moving through snow on a steep mountainside near Mount Kosciusko. However it was following press reports of the 1975 skiing incident that many people finally decided to come forward with other stories which they had kept secret for fear of of ridicule.
1968: For example, one night in March 1968, a motorist, Mr John Noyce, was driving on the Mount Kosciusko road when what he thought was a large bear, standing upright, appeared on the roadside ahead of him, illuminated by the car headlights. The creature was much taller than a man and was covered in long hair. However, before Mr Noyce could get a good look at the beast, it had walked off into the roadside scrub.
1970: 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 occured on and around Mount Kosciusko.
1990: In October 1990, Dereck Holmes was camping on a bank of the Snowy River source below Mount Kosciusko. One morning he awoke at first light and peered from his tent. As he did so, he caught sight of a 1.6 metre-tall, hairy female creature standing nearby amid granite boulders. As he emerged, bewildered at the sight, she bolted away, disappearing over a granite outcrop. It was hereabouts back in 1948 that a party of campers had sighted a tall hairy figure, about 2.3 metres tall, moving up a mountainside through snow at a distance of about 100 metres.
1991: In January 1991 my wife Heather and I made an extensive visit to the Snowy Mountains, during which we climbed Mount Kosciusko to investigate the locations of many reports I have received from this region over the years. it is a barren, desolate, windswept and generally inhospitable place for humans to be trapped in. How, then, are our Australian man-beasts able to survive among the rocks of this rugged massif? It may seem unlikely but they do.
The Snowy Mountains region has produced a great many hairy man-beast encounters. Observations reported to me by property owners of the Providence Portal area near Cabramurra have confirmed my own research findings which show that many of these reports occur about June, following the first winter snowfall, when the animal life of the high country migrates into the lower regions to escape the excessively cold conditions of the mountain tops. It is at this time that sightings of man-beasts or discoveries of their footprints, often on snow-covered ground, are most prevelant.
1990: In January 1990, two young women, Susan Townsend and another girl, and their boyfriends were camped on the shore of Lake Jindabyne. Late one afternoon while the others went wood-collecting in the surrounding forest, Susan was busy getting the campfire started. Detecting a powerful odour and hearing twigs snapping underfoot, she turned and screamed with fear as a hairy 2.3-metre-tall, muscular, giant male creature, almost ape-like in appearance, emerged from trees a mere 10 metres away. He approached the girl, but hearing the others returning he bolted in big strides into the forest.
The boy's hearing Susan's frantic account of what she had just seen, gave chase up mountainside scrub, thinking the intruder was some weird hermit. Loud snarls and large rocks hurled at them convinced the boys to end their pursuit. Locals to whom they later told their story said they probably saw the Doolagahls that old Aborigines claim still live up in the mountains.
Mysterious Australia Extracts {1995}
From Chapter 16
Click Next for the Following Articles
Click here for Individual Pages
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Yowie Stories 1
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Yowie Sightings
Apeman In Australia / And Then There Were Giants / Gorilla-Giants Of Katoomba
Eastern State Yowies / Yowies Of Katoomba / Western New South Wales Yowies
Yowies Fair Dinkum / Yowie Goldcoast
