Stone Age Titans
Extracts from Mysterious Australia 1995
Written by Rex Gilroy
A confrontation between a giant hominid and Aborigines in Ice-Age Australia.
Aboriginal traditions tell of battles fought with such monsters for the domination of the continent in the long-ago Dreamtime.
Sketch Copywritten By Rex Gilroy
Australia's Leading Authority on The Yowie
They accept the presence of such beings in Pleistocene Java and China, for their massive fossil jaws and teeth are known from there; but otherwise, nothing short of such fossil evidence from Australia will ever convince these scientists that giant hominid forms once roamed this continent-not even evidence of their huge fossil footprints which, together with those of other, smaller hominids, have turned up in every Australian state!.
Australasian Relict Hominid's Research Centre Katoomba Established in 1976
All Images and Reports Copywritten 2001: The Author Rex Gilroy
Unless Otherwise Stated
From My First Book
Mysterious Australia 1995
Chapter 15
Cowra, Central Western NSW: Embedded in a shoal of mudstone on a hillside near Cowra in central western New South Wales are two half intact, enormous manlike footprints. Measuring almost one metre in length by 45 centimetres width across the toes, local Aborigines claim they were made by a giant man who stood 7.6 metres tall and who lived around Cowra in the long ago Dreamtime.
If such height for any giant hominid ancestor seems unbelievable to some people, I might add here that I have found the Aboriginal descriptions of extinct giant marsupial and other mega fauna of the last ice-age extremely reliable. And, as I have said, giant-sized fossil hominid tracks are found Australia-wide.
Penrith, New South Wales: Take, for example, the six 61-cm long by 46-cm wide manlike fossilised footprints discovered in mudstone in April 1970 near Penrith at the base of the eastern escarpment of the Blue Mountains of NSW. The size of the tracks, spaced two metres apart, suggested the monster that made them must have been at least four metres tall.
Bathurst NSW: Identical fossil tracks have been found in the Bathurst district to the west of the Blue Mountains in the vicinity of the giant megatool discoveries of mine. Could we be looking at the fossilised tracks of Meganthropus, or as I have suggested earlier, a 'home-grown' race of giant people?
Townsville-Rockhampton Queensland:Another giant fossil footprint, identical to the Penrith and Bathurst examples and measuring 61 cm long by 46 cm wide across the toes, was found near Townsville, Queensland , in 1952. More fossilised giant manlike footprints of these dimensions have been found in the Mount Isa district of Queensland. In the same region, according to Aborigines, a race of monsterous four-to-five-metre-tall giant men and women-the "Kalkadoons"-once lived during the Dreamtime.
These monsters are reminiscent of the "Illankanpanka" of Rockhampton, Queensland, Aboriginal lore-10-to-12-metre-tall giant beings. Are all these monster hominids representative of a single race? Given Aboriginal size exaggeration over vast distances, there nonetheless exists some truly monsterous stone implements, such as a number found sometime ago on a property outside Rockhampton, that are far, far larger and heavier than any I have found near Bathurst.
Monster hominids of the six-to-eight-metre-tall variety could help explain some of the truly unbelievable large manlike fossil footprints to be covered in this chapter. Were they from outside Australia? Or, as Aborigines claim, did they originate on this continent? Townsville Aborigines claim the huge fossil tracks found there in 1925 was made by a member of the "Narragun" race.
Roper River {Northern territory} Aborigines have left rock carvings of giant-sized footprints, measuring up to 38 centimetres and more in length., which represent those made by the legendary giant "Nagarun" people who, during the Dreamtime walked from the east coast of Arnhem Land down the Wilton River to the Roper, and then eastward to the Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Prehistoric ochre cave art in Arnhem Land depicts giant marsupials, among other animals.
Wullagun, a tribal elder, once described them.
Similar traditions are built around the charcoal painting of two five-metre-tall figures depicted upon the side of a rock overhang near Townsville, representing two Illankanpanka giant men who wandered mountains thereabouts in the long ago Dreamtime.
Orange NSW: South-west of Orange, NSW, embedded in a 3.6-metre by 6.6 metre lump of solid mudstone is an apparent giant manlike footprint, an astounding 1.6 metres long by one metre wide across the toes. The question is whether the footprint is an actual fossilised track or an example of ancient weathered rock art depicting a footprint of the Bulloo, the giant men and woman known to the Aborigines of western New South Wales in ancient times.
Apart from the fossil footprints of manlike beings, there are also fossil tracks of giant creatures that appear more ape-like than manlike. Could these tracks be those of Gigantopithecus, the giant manlike ape that roamed mainland Asia and Java half a million years ago? Much smaller, although still quite large ape-like tracks are preserved in mudstone near Jenolan Caves south-west of Katoomba and resemble the much larger Gigantopithecus-like footprint fossils.
But how are footprints fossilised? Scientists have demonstrated that most footprint fossils have been preserved through the action of volcanic eruptions, a layer of ash covering the tracks to cool and solidify them quickly, thus protecting them over thousands of years, weathering disintegrated the solidified volcanic ash covering to expose the now fossilised tracks. The problem with dating many tracks is in determining exactly when volcanic eruptions ceased in the areas where fossil footprints have been found.
Huge fossil tracks said by Aborigines to have been left by the "Narragun giants" near Mt Gambier, South Australia, come from volcanic deposits which could be anywhere up to a million years old. Volcanic eruptions in ice-age Victoria, on the other hand, have produced hominid evidence preserved by much recent lava flows.
For example, the lava flow from the Scoria Cone at Mount Buninyong, about 10 kilometres south-east of Ballarat, covered a lake deposit from which, in 1864, the disputed Buninyong bone implement was found at a depth of 80 metres together with the remains of an extinct Kangaroo. The implement is part of a rib of a 'Nototherium', and has been cut to an irregular point from opposite sides. The Buninyong remains are dated at least 200,000 years old.
The most extensive series of giant-and smaller-sized, volcanically-preserved fossil hominid footprints and handprints so far discovered at any single Australian location are embedded in mudstone deep in the Carrai Range, which rises up to 1,300 metres above sea level, 60 Kilometres west of Kempsey on the New South Wales north coast. My wife Heather and I discovered the tracks during the course of a yowie field research expedition which we made to the Kempsey district in April 1977. Early sightings reports from last century led us to explore the Carrai Range, and it was during an inspection of cliffs overlooking a remote gully that we stumbled upon the fossil tracks.
They are embedded in two huge, obliquely-tilted slabs situated either side of a deep cutting overlooking a wide, deep gully. Although, it is difficult to visualise now, the whole area once had been swampland. Groups of giant creatures and thier children had walked, squatted and sat upon the edge of this swamp, Then, soon afterwards, the peace was shattered. Volcanic ash and lava poured out of a nearby crater and forced the giants to flee for their lives, covering the tracks. In great ages past, a river cut its way through the swamp, gradually cutting a deep into the Earth below the layers of lava and ash and forming a deep gully.
Heat and rain gradually re-exposed the tracks, while wind and erosion cut away at the base of the nearby cliffs, hollowing out deep rock shelters beneath the fossil tracks. This gradually had the effect of splitting the rock above, which eventually resulted in two huge sections containing the fossils falling into the cutting created by erosion. Volcanologist's are divided on when the volcanic eruptions hereabouts ceased, but it is certain that this event took place no later than about one million years ago!
Since the initial fossil/handprint discovery, two further mudstone track sites have been discovered nearby, bringing the total fossil impressions to about 90 tracks! The footprints range from child-sized examples measuring 20 cm long by 10 cm wide and 26 cm long by 13 cm wide, to monsterous tracks 62 cm long by 33 cm wide across the toes, and one truly monsterous half-intact track of 42 cm width across the toes by 60 cm length to the mid-foot where the track breaks off. Had this track been complete it would have reached up to 120 centimetres in length!
There are handprints of various sizes, from 13 cm length by 23 cm width, to one monsterous left-handprint measuring an astounding 41 cm width from outstretched thumb to little finger, by 35 cm length from mid-finger to palm! Some footprints look like giant human tracks, whereas others are more ape-like, but it is obvious that the monsterous beings who made these tracks in the sands of time stood anywhere from 4 to 6.6 to even 8.3 metres tall.
Aborigines who have seen the fossil tracks and handprints say they were made by two different races of giant beings: the giant "Goolagah:, and the half-man, half-animal forefathers of the yowies. The evidence suggests that giant hominids shared the region with Gigantopithecus-type creatures in the beginning of the last ice age when volcanic eruptions were commonplace in northern New South Wales.
Blacktown NSW: On Thursday 27th, July 1989, my wife Heather and I stumbled upon two fossilised giant-man tracks preserved on two mudstone slabs a few metres apart from one another upon a creek-bank near Blacktown, west of Sydney. One is a modern human foot and measuring 53 cm length by 19 cm width across the toes. The second example, a right foot, is 44 cm long by 22 cm wide and is obviously distorted due to it having been impressed into softer mud than the other track. Were the tracks those of two seperate hominids or a single individual? Even allowing for size distortions in the original soft mud, the creature or creatures who left these tracks must have been of considerable size-at least three metres in height. The mudstone itself is at least 200,000 years old.
Penrith NSW: The former presence of the Goolagah is preserved in the rock art of the old Dharuk people of the Penrith district. Upon a vertical rock-face near the town is the pecked rock carving of a large "mundoe" or manlike foot, indicating the Doolagahs once inhabited the area. It measures 35 cm length by 17 cm in width across the five toes. According to the former Blue Mountains Aborigines who related these tales to European settlers in the 1800's, the Goolagah monster men and women were gigantic in every physical feature, with large heads, thick arm and leg muscles, and feet much larger than any normal Aborigine. Males were big-chested and very hairy, while the females had less hair and long pendulous breasts far larger than those of any lubra!
These monsterous beings lived and hunted throughout the Sydney region. In what is now the western suburbs area, the giant men, women and their children were a commonplace sight, hunting monitor lizards with their large stone or wooden clubs and spears. The Aborigines lived in fear of the Goolagah, whose powerful forms must have been an awesome, terrifying sight to any lone tribesman crouching in fear behind bushes as they passed by.
As Aboriginal traditions across Australia tell of battles fought with the giant creatures, it is obvious that they were wiped out around 40,000 years ago-although some present-day Aborigines maintain that in some far-off unexplored mountainous areas some of these giant people linger on.
Blue Mountains Aborigines claimed the Doolgahl wandered the mountain-tops hunting the giant kangaroos, giant monitor lizards and other creatures, killing them with spears and stones. They were/are said to inhabit the New England region of northern New South Wales where fresh campsites could be found.
Brewarrina: I know of stories even from Europeans, telling of giant-sized stone and wooden tools and weapons found in north-western and northern New South Wales today-such as one freshly abandoned campsite found by a prospector near Brewarrina in 1973.
Tweed Valley: Giant man-beasts with large wooden clubs have been claimed seen in the Tweed Valley on the Queensland side of the NSW-Queensland border even in the 70s.
Giant Aboriginal People: And then there are the traditions of a form of giant Aboriginal people, claimed by their smaller, modern counterparts to have survived in remote regions. If such Astraloid giants existed, they were, like their monster hominid neighbours, the result of genetic mutation caused by various environmental factors. A population of giant Aborigines were said to have once roamed the central west of NSW, side by side with the other giant hominids. Old Aboriginal tales of a giant race having roamed the Pilliga region near Coonabarabran were perhaps vindicated in 1969 with a farmer's discovery near Coolah, east of Coonabarabran, of a reputed giant-sized Endocast fossil hominid skull, said to be not unlike the Bathurst Skull No. 1 described in Chapter 14.
We have seen how skulls and footprints can turn to stone, but what of entire bodies?
Marble Man, Caleula: One day in May 1889, Mr Frederick Sala, an Orange, NSW quarryman, was digging at the Caleula quarry, about 50 kilometres out of Blayney, when he unearthed what he thought at first was an ancient statue of a normal-sized male body encased in marble. Thinking it might also be the fossilised body of some prehistoric human, he lifted it with some difficulty into a large crate on his cart and journeyed into Orange to show off his find to the amazed locals. The figure, he thought, had to be that of a freak fir it had seven toes on each foot, one eye and no arms, and one leg was thinner than the other.
The arms had probably been lost in the course of the fossilisation process. The marble in with the figure was found with a molted colour, wheras that of the corpse was pure white. Doctors who subsequently studied the 'marble man' thought him unique because of the perfect preservation of such features as water humours of the eye and the cartilage of the nose which, in normal human remains, dry up after death. The one remaining eye was well-formed, but there were an unequal number of ribs on each side of the figure's chest.
A Sydney based scientist, Dr C. W. McCarthy, declared the 'marble man' to be an actual petrified human corpse. It was obvious the 'marble man' was a form of Endocast, which would explain certain irregularities of the figure due to geological pressures over untold thousands of years. The "Marble Man of Orange" was soon taken to Sydney for public exhibition at two shillings admission, attracting large audiences of inquisitive people. Sculptors who examined the figure declared it was definately not a statue as some people had suggested.
The 'marble man' was undoubtedly of very great antiquity to have first been buried in lime-impregnated sediments and gradually to have become fossilised in the way 'he had'. However, the mystery remains unexplained because after the exhibition 'he' was sold to an antiquarian dealer and shipped to Europe where the remarkable fossil disappeared.
Marble Man, Gympie Queensland:Another 'marble man', seven feet tall in height, was discovered by miners outside Gympie, Queensland, in 1914. They had just used explosives to blast a quantity of limestone at an open-cut operation. As one of the workmen began clearing away some of the rubble, his eyes fell upon a large human-looking head which had completely turned to limestone. Meanwhile, other miners began finding pieces of arms, legs, a torso, etcetera, until finally, after a detailed search of the rubble, they had collected an entire body-a seven-foot-tall giant male. The fossil giant was obviously another Endocast and of immense age.
It is said the fragmented hominid was crated down to the Brisbane Museum but subsequently, once there, all trace of it was lost. Such remains which question long-accepted indoctrination's of our ancient past seldom see the light of day once they fall into the hands of such institutions. As I mentioned earlier, the Endocast process is along one and can take up to 250,000 years. But if mudstone and limestone endocasting can preserve remains up to this age, then how old might an agatised hominid skull be?
Moree: About 1971, a fossicker working on a property near Moree, northern NSW, dug up from a gravel bed a fossilised, primitive-looking hominid skull reminiscent of my Bathurst Skull No. 2. it was completely agatised, showing teeth and empty sockets. This Wadjak-type skull is surely of Pre-Astraloid age, but just how old it might be remains a mystery, for agatisation of a fossil must take considerably longer than mudstone endocasting.
Once again, as with the skull-types already dealt with, as well as the fossilised hominid ape-like footprints preserved in volcanic ash-flows uncountable years ago, we are faced with the obvious conclusion; in comparison with these and other early hominids, the Australian Aborigines, while they undoubtedly evolved here, were mere latecomers on the Australian landscape.
Inverell 1993: On Friday September 1993, yet one more giant-sized hominid fossilised footprint was added to such a list of such 'Titan tootsies' coming to light across the continent. My wife heather and I were exploring scrub country outside Inverell in Northern New England, about 140 kilometres east of Moree, when quite by accident we stumbled upon a shoal of weathered mudstone. Here, embedded in the rock, we found and measured a single large hominid footprint impression.
The track is that of a right foot, probably distorted in the original soft mud, and is 44 cm in length by 30 cm across the toes. There were signs that other tracks had been embedded nearby, but these have gradually weathered away 'till hardly any trace of them remains. perhaps they were originally covered by a volcanic ash flow. Signs of volcanic activity are to be found all around the Inverell district, and weathered basalt nearby the fossil footprints suggests that this and the other tracks had originally been covered by volcanic activity.
Maybe this single surviving weathered giant tracks belonged to one of a whole group, perhaps a family of giant hominids, fleeing from the eruption which subsequently covered their tracks-in a similar way to those more famous normal-sized hominid tracks, found in 1974 by anthropologist Dr Mary Leakey at Laetoli in Tanzania, which proved to scientists at the time that early hominids were already walking fully upright like modern humans three and a half million years ago.
The Inverell 'megaman' and his relatives obviously walked the landscape hereabouts a very long time ago. If the Carrai range fossil tracks are any guide, then we could be safe in assuming the Inverell fossil is of the same antiquity-that is, preserved by a lava flow that occured no later than a million years ago! The monster hominid whose single footprint still survives must have been enormous, at least four metres in height and of great weight and strength.
Aborigines of later times across Australia, particularly the New England district, kept well clear of these hairy giants unless they were well-armed and in sufficient numbers to oppose them. According to traditions of the New England tribes, they eventually killed off the giant race in the long ago Dreamtime. Old settlers' tales of the Inverell region speak of other, earlier giant fossil footprint discoveries hereabouts-so perhaps more await discovery, or re-discovery, in the scrub country of this ancient landscape.
Extracts from Mysterious Australia 1995
