Paranormal and

Psychic Australian April 1978

Eastern State Yowies

By Rex Gilroy

Yowies {Carrai Plateu Kempsey}

For some years I had considered making a major search of the NSW north coast districts in pursuit of the Yowie. The question was which area was the most likely one where there would be a good possibility of obtaining photographic evidence of the Yowie. Finally, basing my decision upon my most up to date information, I decided upon a search in the mountains of the Carrai Plateau that lie to the west of Kempsey. To lead our party while on the plateau would be George Gray, well known local bushman and a man who himself had a personal encounter with the Yowie. George Gray related to us stories of sightings of often enormous hairy ape-like beasts thereabouts by miners of the last company to work the area.

As recently as 1971, he said, two prospectors were searching sites downstream for signs of new areas for the company to exploit. As they squatted at the creeks 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 bank they saw standing upon a rock shoal a tall hairy ape-like manlike beast. The strange creature was watching them with apparent curiosity.

Then as the two men crouched on the creek edge in mute amazement they saw the strange figure glance in the direction of the nearby forest. The men, from the sounds go breaking foliage, realised 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 7 ft tall.

Scone Yowies

Our first stop was to be Scone, situated on the western side of the Barrington Range. here we were to meet Wayne Caban who was to direct us to an area on the nearby Barrington Range where he had been attempting to secure photographic evidence of the Yowie without success. Wayne had an earlier experience with the Yowie while he was employed with a mining company engaged in carrying out an exploration program of tee 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 Barry Mathews, 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 Barry Mathews had asked him. Wayne was left alone in the camp on the third night on his lone vigil. Wayne lay on his bunk in the caravan which he and Barry Mathews occupied together watching television. 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 television screen. Wayne jumped off his bunk and lept 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 sounds in the general direction of a six-man tent pitched a few yards from his caravan.

Wayne Caban said, " I knew it has not been a bull or a 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 intentions 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 too 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 another sound. Wayne Caban said, "When daylight came I checked outside 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 of his experience and showed them the footprints. They all agreed that the creature had indeed been the mysterious "gorilla".

Aboriginal Description

Wayne Caban had first heard about the Yowie from a young Aboriginal boy while working in the Armidale districts 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 told 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 in 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 {Barrington Ranges}

Wayne Caban began to spend alot of time on the Barrington Ranges 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. He was able to photograph the tracks, but although now in my possesion they are too indistinct for publication. Driving some 4,000 feet up the range my wife 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 in the course of our search on the Carrai Plateau west of Kempsey.

George Gray {Kookaburra}

George Gray had more than a passing in our search. Eight years before George had fought for his life with a young 4 ft tall Yowie that attacked him as he sleep in his bed. The incident took place at the lonely saw-milling settlement of Kookaburra which has since been torn down, on the Carrai Plateau about 80 kilometers west of Kempsey. The night was moonlit and very cold when he climbed into bed in his two bedroom hut. In the other room were his two sons, Robert and Dennis. Some time between midnight and 1 am George was suddenly jolted from his sleep by something weighing on his chest. He woke to find a creature which he described as being somewhere between an ape and a man. George grabbed an arm of the strange little creature and found it quite greasy. In the 10 minutes that George Gray wrestled with the creature in his room he was able to get a reasonable description of the assailant.

He said, "It was no more than 4 ft tall and had a face somewhere between that of an ape and a man, with hair all over its body between 5-6 inches long and grey in colour. The creature began to drag George out of the hut in the direction of the back door, the way it had probably first entered the hut. George called to his two sons repeatedly but the boys became too terrified to help, remaining in their room. Finally, George was able to release himself from the clutches of the strange beast, which immediately fled out the back door and into the darkness. The next morning he told the story to his boss, who then asked George to keep his experience a secret from the rest of the work force lest the men pack up and leave the camp.

George Gray related his story to us as we drove deeper and deeper into the Carrai rainforest along a rough dirt road seldom used by the general public. Arriving at the now abandoned former site of Kookaburra, George showed us the spot where his hut had once stood. George's hut stood on a rise above the flat area where the sawmill had once stood. Next to this was the continuation of the dirt road, and beyond that all pervading impenetrable rainforest which surrounded Kookaburra. Nobody enters that country, even today. Here no sun penetrates this green world of vines, swamp, and jungle, a land where time seems to stand still. The full extent of the vastness of this green jungle world fully hit us as we stood on a mountain top. Looking in every direction across the horizon there seemed nothing but mountain and jungle everywhere we looked.

Early Settlers {Carrai Plateau}

How the early pioneers were able to penetrate this "green hell" was beyond me, yet these hardy settlers had done exactly that. As early as 1842 they had reached the Carrai Plateau to establish farms now long vanished with the advancing jungle. It was not long before the settlers began finding strange footprints around the creeks where they took their cattle to drink. That same year children of the settlers were frightened by what they described as a tall hairy manlike beast who came towards them from out of nearby scrub one day as they sat playing in a clearing, forcing them to flee for their lives. A search party was organised soon afterwards. Some days later the strange beast was seen again near cattle and was this time pursued. However it eluded its pursuers among the dense jungle.

1848 Yowies {Early Settlers}

In 1848 at least two of the mysterious hairy creatures were seen by the settlers on seperate occasions. On the second occasion the cattlemen pursued the beast up a mountainside where they appeared to have it trapped. Before anyone could shoot it, the mystery creature climbed down a cliffside to disappear once again into the forest below.

Yowies {Alluvial Gold Mining Camp}

Hereabouts Paddy melons must number in the thousands and we were continually trying to dog them as our two vehicles, George's Landdrover and Heather's Torana, drove deeper inland. Crossing my mind was the excuse often offered by academia that the "Yowie myth" can be attributed to early miners having released pet monkeys on the Carrai Plateau last century, which seems a most unlikely tale to me. Our destination this time was a deserted alluvial gold mining camp situated on the banks of Middle Creek. Hereabouts the country begins to change a little from rainforest jungle to rugged granite-covered dense gum tree terrain.

But still very much the sort of country where if you wander too far from the roadway you will most likely never be seen again. Reaching the deserted tin buildings of the gold camp, abandoned in 1971 when the alluvial gold played out, we established our camp, unloaded the photographic gear as well as my plaster-casting equipment in anticipation of finding fresh footprints of the elusive Yowie. No sooner had our party alighted from our two vehicles that we were overcome by an uncontrollable feeling that something out there in the undergrowth was watching our every move. With one eye on the mud flats around the creek hoping to find footprints of the Yowie, and the other eye trained on the nearby bush, we searched the area.

Yowies {Carrai Foothills, Kempsey}

There were good reason to keep our eyes peeled for signs of Yowies. Sightings of the creatures in that area dated back to the late 1800's when old-time gold and copper miners worked the area. Farmers around Kempsey, especially in the Carrai foothills, are frequently in the habit of carrying rifles with whenever they check their stock. They recall only too well incidents that have occured over the years of Yowies who have strayed from their rain forest mountain habitat to enter farming properties.

The story is still recalled how in 1965 a husband and wife left their remote farm situated near the Carrai foothills, to drive to Kempsey for shopping. Their 15 year old daughter was left alone in the house ion their absence to do the housework. She had tidied up about the house and was in the backyard feeding chickens when the family dog, chained up near the house, began barking furiously then cringing, crawled inside its kennel.

The girl, suddenly feeling that something was behind her, turned, dropped the bag of chicken feed she had been holding, and screamed in terror. There standing several feet from and towering over her frail 5 ft height, was an enormous hairy manlike beast a good 8 ft tall, and showing a ferocious look in its eyes, which she later recalled were set deep inside big eyebrows. Large teeth showed from its partly opened mouth.

The beast moved towards her, but the girl although terrified regained her senses enough to turn and rush up the backdoor steps into the house, slamming and bolting the door as she did so. For some minutes she later recalled, the beast seemed to pace the house emitting a loud grunting noise, then all went silent. She was beside herself with terror by the time her parents returned a couple of hours later, and although she could describe exactly what she had seen to her parents and later to police, nobody in authority took any action. No search was organised to attempt to track the mysterious intruder due to the vastness of the nearby forest.

Yowies { Kempsey Expedition}

We had been unsuccessful in securing any photographic evidence of the elusive Yowie of the Kempsey district, still we had obtained a large number of new reports, enough to convince us that further investigations thereabouts are going to have to be mounted.

Yowies {Taree,Oxley}

Saying goodbye to George Gray we headed southward to Taree, there to investigate another report, that of Mrs.Betty Gee of Oxley island several kilometers east of the town, and close to the mouth of the Manning river. Arriving at the Gee's property on 5th May 1977, we proceeded to interview the Gees family and to inspect and photograph respective sites that figured in Mrs. Gee's story. The Gee Yowies report goes as follows.

About 11 am one morning in early February 1977 while alone on the property was standing on her back door looking south toward the nearby Manning river a good 300 yards away and in direction of the family wharf, which was situated over a rise 5 ft high. Suddenly a large black manlike shape appeared half visible over the rise.As the rise of earth half obscured the figure, Mrs. Gee estimated the full height of the beast to be about 10 ft. At this point the telephone rang and Mr. Gee went to answer it. Shortly afterwards she returned to find the mysterious beast gone.A search of the wharf area later revealed large apelike footprints in the surrounding mudflats.

Mr. Gee recalled for me how three night before her sighting, the family dogs barked each night, perhaps aware that someone {or "something"}was on the property. One week after Mrs. Gee had seen the strange figure, neighbours on a nearby farm had heard high-pitched screeching sounds some time after 11 pm. When they went to investigate they detected a very foul-smelling odour about the back yard. One week later, the Gee family awoke that morning to find an old 1500 gallon water tank and its stand had been pushed over during the night. leading up to the tank they discovered numbers of large footprints.

A search for more soon resulted the alarming discovery that the seemingly enormous beast who had made them had come up from the river, crossed a 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 the same foul odour that their neighbours found a week before. Geoff Gee junior found he had smelt the same smell further up Oxley Island on the same night the screeching sounds were heard on their neighbours property. Mr Gee himself later smelt the same odour on a dirt road nearby his farm. It remained there for three days, when it could still be smelt about the cornfield.

Ape-Like Beast {Harrington}

About the same time that these incident were transpiring a woman tennis player reported seeing a tall apelike beast in roadside scrub as she was driving home from a game at nearby Harrington. Also residents on Mitchell Island which is just across from Oxley Island, reported seeing what could have been the same beast seen by Mr. Gee. Was is possible that the creature seen by Mr. Gee had been able to cross the Manning River 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 creature of 10 ft stature 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 farming land, vanished back into the coastal mountain belt from which it originated. This seemed to bee the only possible solution to the Gee Yowie puzzle. The investigation of the Gee's Yowie ended our north coast search, but the results were enough to convince us that that somewhere up there on the Carrai Plateau 80 kilometers west of Kempsey, Yowies still live hidden from man in impenetrable jungle that too this day still remain largely unexplored by white man.

Paranorma and

Psychic Australian May 1978

Katoomba UFO Encounters

By Rex Gilroy

Katoomba UFO Encounters