Database: Sightings & Evidence 1980-1989

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Braidwood 1980

Manlike Footprints

Further north and inland from Batemans Bay lies the town of Braidwood. It was her that the 'hairy man' made numerous appearances throughout the 1970's and early 1980's in a rash of sightings that recalled many old pioneer's tales among the locals.

In one incident, Mrs.Val Hanson, together with friends, was camped at a lonely spot on the Shoalhaven River outside Braidwood one day in 1980. In the course of exploring the river they came upon a number of manlike footprints, measuring 46 cm long by 25.5 centimetres wide across the toes, embedded in the river-bank.

The discovery made everyone feel a little uneasy, and later that night as they sat around their campfire they had the distinct feeling that they were being watched, although they never saw the maker of the giant footprints and it did not give any further indication of its presence thereafter. Even so, the group was eager to leave the area when daylight came.

Kanangra Walls 1980

Rain drenched gorilla-like Beast

One night in May 1980 a scout group was driving in a minibus from Jenolan Caves to Kanangra Walls when the weather turned bad. As the bus drove through heavy rain along the Kanangra dirt road, the scoutmaster who was driving was astonished by what he saw on the road.

There ahead of him in the rain, illuminated by the headlights and moving across the road, was a hairy, rain drenched gorilla-like-beast, a full 2.7 metres in height. The man-ape stood in the road as the scoutmaster applied the brakes. But the monster quickly moved off with a stooped and shambling gait into the undergrowth in the darkness. The scouts were alerted in time to get a quick look at the retreating manbeast.

Publicity about their encounter bought forth the tale of another scout troupe who, several years before, believed they had found a 'yowie lair". They were investigating rock overhangs for signs of animal life in the Jenolan range not far from the more famous Jenolan Caves when, in a deep gully near the base of the steep Kanangra Boyd mountains and above a creek, they found a bed of soft ferns placed in a rock shelter.

Nearby, deeply embedded in creek mud, they found a number of unusually large ape-like footprints. According to Aborigines, the yowies either wandered about the ranges in ones and twos or in small family groups, sometimes using the cave entrances and rock overhangs in the Jenolan Caves area as lairs long before the coming of the white man or the Aborigines.

It is a fact that, while early settlers accepted tales of the yowies at face value, many modern campers tend to take such traditions with a grain of salt-except, of course, those who have experienced 'close encounters' with the 'hairy man'.

Carrai June 1980

Trail of indistinct hominid Footprints

Since 1977, my wife Heather and I have mounted numerous field expeditions to the Carrai. On one occasion in June 1980, during a howling gale we followed a trail of indistinct hominid footprints, perhaps only an hour old, through rainforest soil, moss and leaf mould near Daisy Plains at the top of the range.

It was impossible either to have photographed or cast these tracks, but even in these adverse weather conditions we could detect a faint pungent odour about them. Once again the 'hairy man' had eluded us, for the lashing of the dense foliage and icy winds forced us to abandon our search.

An Update

Heather and I carried out another extensive field investigation on the NSW north coast in June 1980, beginning with a return visit to the Carrai Range. It was during a search deep in the Daisy Plains forest country, the highest point on the Carrai that I believe I came very close to seeing one of these elusive hominids. The weather had been sunny although very cold and windy as we drove up the dirt timber cutters road that crosses the Carrai Range.

By the time we reached Daisy Plains the weather had deteriorated and storm clouds were approaching. About this time, as Heather warmed herself in the car, I had begun casually exploring along an animal track in rainforest close to the orad. The ground was covered in a thick coating of moss. Suddenly I came upon the impression of a bare human-like footprint, then another and another, until I realised they continued on along this track deep into the forest.

I also realised that their maker could not have been very far ahead of me, for the trodden moss was rising up with the impressions. By now the wind had reached gale proportions and was becoming unbearably icy. I wondered what kind of human-like creature could survive in such inhospitable conditions.The ferns and tree branches were lashing my face, and making any further investigation impossible.

The camera I had with me lacked a flash unit and the dark conditions made photography of the footprints impossible. I also felt that, if I proceeded any further I could be walking into a trap. As I fought my way back to the road I had the eerie feeling that I was being watched by someone or something in that forest. Reaching Heather, I reported my find as we drove out of that wilderness for the town of Kempsey.

Ruined Castle 1980

40cm long Footprints

On Monday 19th May 1980, Sydney bushwalkers Peter Thompson and Louise Stokes went for a camping trip out to Ruined Castle, setting up their tent amid the gum forest on the eastern slope. Around 3 am they were suddenly woken from their sleep by something moving about the bushes outside the tent. T

hen the unseen intruder interfered with the tent flap. At this Peter, followed by Louise, scrambled for the opening, but the intruder, upsetting camp goods, quickly vanished into the forest. After a while they returned to their tent but kept a wary ear out for any unusual sounds. These were not long in coming. The sounds of snapping twigs as 'someone' walked around the tent made Peter once more scamble for the opening, but as he did so, the mystery intruder vanished into the darkness.

They got little sleep thereafter, and when daylight returned they were startled to discover, in the soil around their tent, man-like tracks besides their own shoe prints, a number of other, bare like tracks, only much larger than any normal human foot, being about 40 cm in length.

Oberon 1980

Mysterious Intruder

During the summer of 1980, Mr Siegfried Cousins, together with his friend, Mr Dave White and two other men, went camping on a shooting trip on Dave's grandfather's property at Oberon, in an area situated out in thick bush country. The men intended to camp there for three days, but their plans would be upset by a mystery visitor.

The men established their camp inside an old tin shack on the property and settled down for the first night. All was peaceful until late that night, when they became aware of something walking around the outside of the shack. Behind the shack and 16.2m away was a steep gully, and it was to this gully that the footsteps retreated. Then, after a while the men heard sounds of something scrambling up the gully to walk once more around the shack.

The men at first thought it to be some animal and had not bothered to investigate. This time however, they left the shack, peering into the darkness with their torches, but the mystery visitor was nowhere to be seen. However, coming from the gully they could hear the sound of crashing timber, as whatever 'it' was, retreated hastily below. At this point, they all suddenly noticed the area about them was covered by a foul garbage-like stench.

Throughout the night the men would be aware of the mystery intruder's presence at least five times, but each time they left the shack to investigate, the visitor retreated before they could get a look at it. Finally, in the early hours of the morning the men were able to fall asleep without any further disturbances.

Later that morning after breakfast, the men, rifles in hand, climbed down into the gully in an effort to try and find some trace of whatever it was that had made the repeated visits to their camp, and although they searched the gully for half a mile they found no trace of their mystery visitor whatever. Returning to their camp, the men left for some rabbit shooting in the surrounding hills.

"We were mystified as to what could have been visiting the camp, and how whatever it was could escape into that gully, which was too steep for us to climb without difficulty, and the scrub down there became far too difficult to penetrate after half a mile," said Siegfried to me later.

Each night the men remained there the mystery intruder returned, the sounds of it around the shack clearly heard, accompanied by the same foul rotting stench, by the time the men emerged from the shack, it would disappear back down the gully. On the third night about 1.30am, Siegfried was still awake as the others slept, keeping a vigil for the mystery intruder, which so far had not returned that night, when suddenly, peering at him through a rust hole in a sheet of wall tin, he spotted an eye.

At this instant the eye disappeared. Waking his mates they quickly dashed out the door of the shack only to hear the intruder scrambling back down the gully. The men flashed torches down into the gully but the mystery intruder was nowhere to be seen, so they returned to the shack. So far none of the men had attempted to shoot the strange visitor, but now they were keeping their guns loaded and next to their sleeping bags.

Siegfried sat with his rifle facing the door, determined to get a good look at whatever it was that had been repeatedly visiting their camp. It was not long before he heard the by now familiar sounds of something scrambling up the gully, then the sounds of footsteps as the mystery intruder approached the shack. Siegfried woke the other men carefully; all remained dead silent as the footsteps stopped at the door. The door began opening, Siegfried pointed his rifle.

The door was open barely an inch when Dave accidentally moved, making a sound barely loud enough to alert the mystery intruder. However, this time, before the visitor could retreat the men had scambled to their feet and were running out the door, torches and rifles in hand, in time to spot a dark shape running toward the gully, down which it disappeared with the men in hot pursuit.

Although they failed to get a good look at the visitor as it moved through scrub down the gully slope, they all later agreed it had definitely walked upon two legs, and was very hairy looking. In the torchlight Siegfried could still see the mystery man-like shape moving among bushes at the bottom of the gully 30m below, and fired a single shot at it, which hit the creature. It emitted a loud scream as it crashed its way through the scrub, to disappear into the darkness.

The men spent the rest of the night awake, discussing the series of events that had occurred since their arrival at the shack. Had their mystery intruder been an over-inquisitive Yowie, they wondered?

Winderoo 1980 Interview-1972 Encounter

Something between a monkey and a Man

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.

Europeans have claimed sighting of Junjdy for generations, and such reports continue in modern times; and we must realise that there are some people reluctant to come forward with personal experience, fearful of ridicule from the less informed members of our community.

Innisfail 1980

Milla Milla monster-huge footprints Found

Further to the north of Townsville, near 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 rain forests 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 during the 19th century.

During January 1980, huge footprints of one of these monstrous manbeasts were found by two campers near Milla Milla, which for a time revived many of the old stories.

Macdonnell Ranges 1980-Interviewed 1983

Half a dozen "little black fellas' attack two Friends

Europeans don't generally take Aboriginal 'bush yarns' of this sort seriously unless, of course, they have such encounters themselves. Such was the case of Bill Manning and Robert Littlemore in 1980. Bill informed me in an interview in 1983, that he and his mate were camped in the Macdonnell Ranges on the Todd River, in sparse scrub one week while fossicking for minerals. Bill takes up the story:

"We were bedding down for the night on the ground in our sleeping bags, beside our fire on this particular night, when from out of the scrub we were suddenly attacked by half a dozen little blacks with wooden clubs, who proceeded to beat us as we struggled from our sleeping bags."

"We had to grab rocks and wooden stakes with which to fight them off all the while as they screamed and shouted at us, lashing out at us all the time." "Robert grabbed for a rifle and let fly two shots, wounding one of the blacks in the leg, at which they all dashed away into the scrub, the wounded one screaming in pain. We got out of the place pretty fast after that."

"We happened to tell our story to an old tribal elder at Alice Springs some months later." "You fellas were trespassing on their territory, that's why they attacked you. Them little fellas and their families keep to themselves in their own country," he told us.

Medog & Beibeng China 1980

The "Wild Women" Chi-Chi.

Some Chinese researchers believe these primitive fire-making hominids are surviving remnant populations of the Chinese Homo erectus, Beijing [formerly Peking] Man, and if so, these hominids are undoubtedly close relatives to the fire and stone tool-making "hairy people" of Australia.

Homo erectus had discovered fire-making by 1.6 million years ago in Africa, as revealed by recent archaeological finds at Kenya's famous hominid site of Koobi Fora on Lake Turkana. Perhaps older Homo erectus fire-making sites will yet turn up elsewhere in Asia, or perhaps in Australia. I believe this is inevitable.

Between the towns of Medog and Beibeng is an expanse of thick forest. On September 24th 1980, two 15 and 16 year old girls came up against a tall female Chi-Chi- with hair all over her body. One girl dashed away but the other was too frightened to move.

The "Wild Woman" however, did not harm her and moved off into the forest. The women of this region live in fear of being carried off by a "Wild Man", as this has been known to have happened in the past in many other remote parts of China where the "Wild People" are known to roam.


Tennant Creek 1981

Huge footprints Found

It was from Alice Springs Aborigine, Jack Adams that I learnt the following information in 1991: "The Panklanka People relish the taste of aboriginal flesh, and will kill any aboriginal man, woman or child that happen to cross their path, and they also kill and eat any white people they catch too."

"They carry big wooden clubs with which they kill their victims. If they eat them raw on the spot they will cut them up with big stone knives. These monsters are so big and tall that they are able to tuck the bodies of people they have killed into belts of hair-string around their waist if they want to carry them back to their camps for cooking."

"Before they cook an Aborigine they crush the bones with their big, powerful hands, or pound away at the body with a club. Then they break the back into sections and remove the intestines, and bury the body in an earth trench. A fire is then lit above it just like we cook kangaroos."

"After the body is cooked it is dismembered; first by breaking the spine, and then removing the chest and ribs with a big stone knife. Sometimes those big blokes won't eat the head right away. Instead, they stick it in the fork of a tree high up above the ground to eat later."

A retired jackaroo, Christian Edwards, who claims to have found the huge footprints of one of these man-giants near Tennant Creek in 1981, informed me in 1990: "There was a time long ago when the Pankalankas were so numerous that they lived all over the Northern Territory, chasing off Aboriginal people wherever they found us, catching and eating us at every opportunity."

"You could see them walking across the country in large groups and at night they lit their way with big fire sticks." "But eventually our ancestors increased in numbers and were able to stand up to the Pankalankas. Many Pankalankas were killed in fights, so that today they are not so numerous. They still live in the more remote areas, and some folks have seen bands of Pankalanka men, women and children moving across the country at night in the ranges hereabouts, lighting their way with big fire sticks."

Blackwood 1981

Male-female Doolagarl

The Blackwood area, north-west of Melbourne, is another district where the Doolagarl has made itself known on and off over the years. For example, in August 1981 Mrs Delia Richards, her husband and a group of friends were one day visiting a dense bushland area near a rubbish tip, when they heard a loud groaning sound coming from among trees near the tip.

They spotted a hairy, long-armed, ape-like creature with long pendulous breasts moving on two legs among the trees. The group then saw a male-like beast standing nearby and snarling at the humans. The male and female creatures moved away to disappear into the surrounding bushland.

Cabramurra 1981

Yowie footprints embeded in Snow

Mrs H.L. Drew herself found a number of Yowie footprints, embedded in snow at Kings Cross Road near Cabramurra in the winter of 1981.

Big brown bear Encounter

It was also on the 'Ravine' road late one night in the winter of that year, that a father and his 13 year old son were travelling in their car when it broke down. Leaving his son in the vehicle on the roadside, the father went to get assistance. Much later, when he returned with help, he found his son petrified with fear. The boy told his father that "a big brown bear"had walked near the car as he sat inside.

Bomballa 1981

A large Thing

In 1981 Mr Zack Stuckey was working on a forestry survey team search, the purpose being to construct a new forestry road through the forest covered mountainous country between Bombala and Bega. He was at that time stationed at Bombala. His job was that of a chairman on a survey team.

About 12 noon he and the surveyor, together with another man, were working on the side of a mountain. While the other two went in search of tree markers Zack sat down for a rest. As Zack sat quietly he sighted a "large thing" moving between two large boulders in a gully below him. He decided to climb down to have a closer look at what it was he had caught sight of.

As he got to the point where he had seen the figure, he spotted "a large, brown-haired back" moving into thick bush about 30 m from him. He could hear the creature moving deeper into the bush, breaking foliage as it moved.

The thick scrub prevented him from seeing the legs of the mysterious beast, but it appeared solid in build, with broad hunched shoulders, and was about his height [2 m]. He did not attempt to follow the creature, but instead returned back up the mountainside to rejoin his workmates. However, when he told them what he had just seen they only laughed and accused him of being on drugs.



Kakadu National Park, Arnhem Land 1982

Three metre tall bad smelling creature with white Hair

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.

Kanagra Boyd National Park 1982

Tall-muscular and hairy, walking on two Legs

Beyond the Wild Dog Mountains lie the Jenolan Ranges and, rising behind, high above them, the vast range of the Kanangra Boyd National Park. It is yet another region steeped in ancient Aboriginal folklore as the home of the "great hairy men".

"It was about 2.7 metres tall, muscular and hairy, and walked on two legs into the dense scrub without looking back at us." That was how two bushwalkers described a mystery intruder in their camp at dawn one morning in 1982 near Boyd River Crossing, high up in the rugged, forested gorges and mountains that form the Kanangra Boyd National Park.

The early Aborigines hereabouts were not the only ones who took the yowies seriously: the early white settlers living on the fringes certainly did, judging by the many tales that have come out of the region from the 1800's.

Central Australian Aborigines 1982

Pankalanka

The early Aborigines certainly appear to have had a hard time, what with invading manbeasts from Asia seizing their land and driving them out, killing and eating them at every opportunity! In fact, it would seem that Aborigines were considered a "blue plate special" among the cannibal giants of "dream-time" Australia.

Of all the cannibal giants none were more feared among Central Australian Aborigines than the Pankalanka. Also known to some tribes as the Pungallunga, these huge white-haired men and women were said to live almost entirely upon the flesh of Aboriginal men, women and children.

They are depicted in myths and legends as killing Aborigines, tucking them into their hair-string belts around their waists, and carrying them back to their camp to cook and eat them. Their jaws and teeth were extremely powerful, and before eating the bodies of their victims they would crush the bones completely and eat the whole body.

Their favourite recipe for cooked Aboriginal was to first remove the intestines, then bury the bodies in an earth trench, lighting a fire above it, similar to the way Aborigines cook kangaroos. After cooking, the bodies were dismembered with stone knives. Sometimes the heads of their victims might be placed in the fork of a tree, to be consumed as a snack the next day!

The Pankalanka men and women were terrifying to look upon. They roamed the land in search of Aborigines, and at night groups of them could be seen carrying their firesticks. They would light great bonfires in the desert country, roasting their Aboriginal captives in them.

The Pankalanka made and used both stone and wooden tools which they carried about with them. The men grew at least 2.6m to 3.3m tall and were very powerfully built, while their females were a little smaller in stature. Occasionally the Aborigines would fight back. One old legend relates how tribesmen of the Mulara Spring district banded together and speared all but one of a large group of Pankalanka. He was hunted into Kuniula Cave.

A huge fire was lit at the entrance which burned away all trace of the manbeast.

Noted documentary film maker, Mr Bill Marshall Interview 1982

Video shown to aboriginal children of the patterson Footage

On an Aboriginal settlement in the Alice Springs district in 1982, noted documentary film maker, Mr Bill Marshall, entertained the Aboriginal children one evening with a video copy of the American documentary feature film. "Mysterious Monsters". When the world-famous footage of a 'Bigfoot' [filmed near Bluff Creek in California's Pacific north-west by the late Roger Patterson] came on the screen, the children began shouting "That's Pankalanka, that's Pankalanka"!

Bill Marshall soon learnt that these white-haired people are very fierce, make large stone tools and also fire. I said 'are' because according to the Aranda tribal elders, and [as Bill Marshall learnt] also many Europeans, the Pankalankas are still supposed to survive, consisting of several tribes living in the remote Macdonnell Ranges area.

The region where they are said to live is small hereabouts - about 45 square kilometres - and Mt Viel and Mt Liebig are prominent landmarks, and the area is situated at the tail end of the Macdonnell Range in the Belt Range, some 400 km west of Alice Springs. In an interview with this author some years ago, Bill Marshall said these giants are said to possess a language and that the Aranda Aborigines are able to communicate with them [hopefully when the Panklanka are not hungry!].

Some Europeans who have been able to penetrate the territory of the Pankalankas have claimed to have found some of their giant-size stone tools, and also seen their campfires in the distance at night. Bill Marshall also informed me that he has seen the fires of the Pankalankas but not their stone tools. Bill's wife claims to have seen one of these giants, a 2.6m tall, white-haired monster, while they were visiting the Belt Range area.

Also, a friend of the Marshall's, a Mr Geoffrey Hulcombe, informed them some time ago how he also had an experience with the Pankalanka. He related how, one night in 1982 he camped at a wide billabong situated among large rocks. The next morning he went to wash at the billabong and was shocked to find giant man-like footprints in the mud leading down to the water's edge.

The Pankalanka are still said to wander the plains at night brandishing their fire sticks, their appearance continuing to inspire fear among the Aboriginal population, and any lone Aborigines unfortunate enough to come upon them.

Atherton Tableland 1982

Little hairy red Men

In April 1982 I was informed by an Atherton Tableland stockman that his Aboriginal assistants were in the habit of leaving food on the edge of a fenceline, for the "little hairy red men", who would emerge from nearby forest at night and remove it. The food left for the little natives consisted of vegetables and bread on most occasions.

Tully Letter 1982-Encounter 1937

Five very small Blacks

In January 1982, I received the following letter from Mr Jim West of Grafton NSW: "In 1937 I was on the track just travelling all over the country as were a lot of others during the depression. I was with two other blokes, a chap by the name of Bob Marshall and another bloke named Bluey Fowler.

He was supposed to have been brought up by the blacks up in the Cape York Peninsula area. He could hunt like no man I've ever seen, he knew exactly where to get them. We were up at Tully, collected our rations and were just sitting around the town; the police got onto us and told us to move on. That was common practice in those days, we were doing no wrong. So we went up the river a few miles and made camp.

We had two push bikes between the three of us, we used them to strap our swags on the bikes and push them along. We were at this camp for about five days, every now and again this Bluey fowler used to say we are "being watched, there is someone around. I feel eyes on us", he said.

One morning we were sitting around the camp when, just out of nowhere I looked up and there were five very small blacks about 1 to 1.6 metres in height, and they had spears in their hands. Three of them came within 4-5 metres of where we were sitting, the other two stood about 3-4 metres behind them looking very hard at us and the bikes seemed to fascinate them.

Bob Marshall used to do a bit of engraving with needles. He used to engrave anyone's name on a tobacco tin, he used to charge 1/- or 2/- for his work, whatever he could get. The three of us had one of them. After the natives had been standing there for two or three minutes Bluey Fowler held his tobacco tin out towards them making an offer for them to take a smoke, but they made no move, so after a while he tossed the tin over to where they were standing.

They stood for a few seconds, then one of them picked the tin up, looked hard at it, then placed it under his arm pit.

While all this was going on Bob Marshall slipped the old rifle we had out from beneath the bunk we made up. He handed it to me as I was supposed to have been the best shot with the rifle out of the three of us.

I just laid it across my legs, while sitting down. I cocked it and was just waiting for something to happen. The next instant they were gone, just scampered back into the bush. After they were gone we made a joke of Bluey losing his tin of tobacco. He told us that the black who had picked it up would keep it until he died. I asked how he came by that information. He said:"When the black placed the tin of tobacco under his arm pit, it meant he liked it very much and it was 'his' for good".

The round Capstan tin was engraved with the name 'Bluey;' on the bottom of the tin with a scrawl under the name and a small heart on top of the name, and probably the date".

Tully 1982

Three small naked black Natives

In January 1982 one startled farmer saw what he described as "three small naked black natives", 1-1.3 m in height, with crinkly hair, carrying spears, moving through a mountainside rainforest near his Tully farm.

Barrington Tops 1982 Interview-Encounter 1977

Musty Smell

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".

Colo River

Small chert tools found near child-sized Footprints

In January 1982 a group of men were exploring up the Colo River from Kurrajong, carrying canoes to ride back on. During their trek they came upon a spot where small bare feet marks lay about the ground, as if a large group of children had picnicked. However, there were no signs of normal children, such as any scraps or other rubbish. Instead, the men found small chert tools scattered about the ground.

Cabramurra

Hairy ape-like beast 3.3m in Height

On the road to Cabramurra is a road sign pointing to "The Ravine". This has been a persistent location for Yowie sightings for a great many years. It was here one night in the winter of 1982 that a Mr H Drew saw a huge creature while driving on the road at 11pm.

The creature was standing in the middle of the road when it was suddenly illuminated by the car headlights. Mr Drew noted that the huge hairy ape-like beast was about 3.3 m in height, but before he could observe much else the huge hairy beast strode off the road into the darkness.

Yowie footprints in Snow

Mrs H.L. Drew herself found a number of Yowie footprints, embedded in snow at Kings Cross Road near Cabramurra in the winter of 1981.

Ophir

Dark humanoid Shape

North of Bathurst lies the old gold mining town of Ophir, scene of countless 'hairy man' encounters by settlers since the 19th century.

Here, one September night in 1982, at 11pm Mrs Pauline Yeates was driving her car along the Summer Hill Road. At the third crossing near Summer Hill Creek School, she sighted ahead of her, a dark humanoid shape fully 8ft [2.4m] tall, moving across the road, illuminated by the glare of the car headlight. The creature vanished into thick roadside scrub.

Pauline also 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.

Crowdy 1940's-Reported 1982

Creature in Swamp

Mrs Irene Daniel informed me in 1982 that, when she was a young girl in the early 1940's, she lived with her family at Crowdy, situated 50 miles south of Port Macquarie.

"I used to walk in to the school with other children of a morning along a bush track. Sandy hills lay on one side, on a freshwater lagoon which lay between the ocean and swamps and bushland." "On one occasion the children found big footprints in the sand leading down toward the lagoon.""I also recall about this time, three men were out shooting one day when they spotted a creature in the swamp thereabouts.

The creature was of great height, about 12 ft [3.6 m]. The men at first thought it was a man walking in the swamp, but once they realised it was no normal human they ran off in fear of their lives".

Marlborough 1982

Hairy man-Like Creature

During our October/November 2000 south coastal-southern Alps field investigation Heather and I happened to stop for lunch at a picnic ground outside Tumbarumba, on our way to Mt Kosciusko. Here we met up with a 38 year old bushman Neil Hoskins [see Chapter Ten], who related the following personal experience.

"During 1982 I was up in north Qld, on a train travelling at 25 mph through scrubland heading for Marlborough [north of Rockhampton]. Coming round a loop an English tourist, looking out the window, spotted a 2 metre tall, hairy man-like creature standing near the railway line."

"At this point I saw 'him' also." "It was definitely not some bloke dressed in a monkey suit. 'He' was beside a tree with his right arm slung over a branch." "I observed a face not unlike that of a human and this was about 30cm tall by at least 12cm in width. He had big eyes. This was all I could observe in a hurry as the train sped past and I lost sight of him."

Arnhem Land 1982

Devil-Devil

i received another from Mr Jerry Kennedy, himself a fifth generation descendant of the Troolwoolway Tasmanian Aboriginal people and a former Arnhem Land school teacher. His letter follows: "I was teaching at a small government school on the pastoral property "Mountain Valley', situated on the southern border of Arnhem Land, about 500 Kilometres south-east of Darwin in 1982.

One Monday morning I told the kids that we would finish our work at lunchtime and go swimming at the local creek, Flying Fox Creek in the afternoon." "The children, all Aboriginal kids, went down to their camp for morning tea, and after recess young Joshua Moore brought his father, Dinny, along to see me.

Dinny asked me not to take the children swimming to Flying Fox Creek because that weekend they had both [ie Dinny and his son Joshua] seen the 'Devil-Devil', and were very frightened of encountering it again." "They described this 'Devil-Devil' as an extremely large hairy creature with "hair on the palms of his hands" [ a fact that young Joshua found particularly strange].

It was a creature well known to them in the folklore and legend to that part of the Northern Territory, and Dinny said the creatures live between north-east of the Northern Territory and across into the far north west of Qld in the Gulf country, apart from their presence further south into the 'red centre'." "I suppose I should have gone down to Flying Fox Creek myself that afternoon to look for tracks, but perhaps I got just a little bit worried myself!"

Macdonnell Ranges 1982

Enormous man-like Footprints

The nearby Macdonnell Ranges has long been the scene of Pankalanka activity. In 1982 there was one incident where a camping party awoke one morning near a waterhole, to find enormous man-like footprints embedded in the mud, left there during the night.

Later that day one of the group, Miss Judy Clark, was terrified at the sight of a 3m tall, bad-smelling male creature with long whitish hair, carrying a large jagged stone knife, who stood watching her from nearby bushes. She later related her experience to a Tennant Creek Aboriginal elder, who introduced her to a young Aboriginal man, Brian Gumballa.

Brian was a few years before in 1986, camped one night on the creek, when a man-sized 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 bush, 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. "Anyone who goes out in the hills at night must beware. The Pankalanka people roam about in groups with their firesticks. If they catch you they cut you up with their big stone knives and roast your flesh over their campfires before eating you," Elders continue to warn tribespeople and Europeans alike all over the 'Red Centre'.



Northwest Nelson State Forest 1983

One hour old 40cm long man-like Footprints

The traditions of the Moehau 'monsters' are just as deeply rooted in the Maori psyche today as they were centuries ago.

The creatures are very real to them - and also many Europeans who have seen them - and there are still many places that Maoris will not enter for fear of these relict hominid survivors from the dawn of Man.

The wild country of the Heaphy River, which forms part of the Northwest Nelson State Forest Park inland from Golden Bay, is a region of many eerie happenings involving the Moehau.

At one Heaphy River location, during January 1983, a deer hunter found a trail of one hour old 40cm long, man-like footprints in the mud and sand of the river bank, which he was able to follow for about 3km before they disappeared into rocks.



Mt irvine 1984

Three small black Natives

In August 1984 Mr Norman Pine and Miss Jacquelin Woodward were hiking in the Mt Irvine region west of Kurrajong Heights. Finding the tracks of a dingo they decided to try and follow them. It was while they were standing upon a rock overlooking scrub that they saw, moving through trees below them, three small black natives, the tallest of which was no more than about 1.3 m. As the little figures moved on they decided not to attempt to follow them.

Curtis Island June 1984

Large fossil man-like Footprint

Evidence of the existence in Tasmania of another people in ice-age times recently came to light in the Franklin river rock shelters. Primitive stone tools of Java type appearance were found by archaeologists together with remains of cooked meals dating no later than 14,000 and 20,000 years BP.

Furthermore, on lonely Curtis Island, once part of the Bass Strait land-bridge, this author, in the course of an expedition there in June 1984, found a large fossil man-like footprint. These finds make it quite clear that the Tasmanian Aborigines were not alone.

Other men, or near-men shared the island long after its separation from the Victorian mainland. Among these were obviously a race of primitive creatures, known by various names but all describing beings of often large muscular build. Something out of the ordinary, a "great hairy man".

Cooma 1984

Upright walking two legged Creature

Mr Norm Rayner of Cooma was working as a roof tiler with another man on a farming property one day in 1984. With them were four children. As they sat down to lunch their attention was drawn to the commotion being caused by a flock of sheep and a few horses in a paddock near the farm house.

To Quote Mr Rayner:

"There were dogs on the property and they were barking like crazy.""The sheep and horses all seemed to run to one corner of the property. They were in a real panic." "Then we saw what had scared them. Across the same paddock about 300-400 metres away from us was an upright walking, two-legged creature and much bigger than a man, about 2.3 to 2.6 m in height and brown in colour."

"The creature was moving in a fast loping gait, like an ape but upright. It definitely was not a man. It moved across the paddock to the base of a hill, which it climbed, to disappear over the summit. The whole incident was over in about 10 minutes." Needless to say, the group was rather shaken by this experience. An interesting aspect of this story is that it took place on an extensive tract of cleared land.

Hairy ape-like Beast

Also according to Norman Rayner, in 1984 a 12 year old boy, Kevin Martin, was out walking in bushland on his father's farming property 3 km from Cooma, when, barely a few metres ahead of him, he came face-to-face, with a hairy, ape-like beast, very big and tall. The creature, which towered over the boy, turned around and immediately moved off quickly in the other direction.

At the same time a terrified Kevin "took off"home as fast as his legs could carry him. When he arrived back at his house he looked 'as white as a ghost' to his parents as he blurted out his terrifying experience to them. As a result of his meeting with the monster, Kevin these days never ever ventures out alone into the Cooma bushland. The creatures described by Norman Rayner appear more Gigantopithecine than man-like.



Gilbert River 1985

Hairy ape-like Female

One day in 1985 a cattleman, rounding up a mob of cattle on the Gilbert River, near Strathmore inland from the Gulf of Carpenteria disturbed a 2m tall, hairy ape-like female creature with nubile breasts as she hid behind bushes. After that, he had trouble getting his Aboriginal workmen to enter the area.

Hereabouts traditions of the Turramulli giants of Queensland's far north merge with stories of the dreaded Pankalanka creatures from across the border in the Northern Territory, of which more will be said anon.


Katoomba 1985-86

The next two Stories were related to Greg Foster

Loud grunting bellowing Noise

Two friends walking at the track beside the "Three Sister's" at Katoomba, N.S.W in 1985 or '86 were walking down the Sydney side of the "three sister's" when a thick fog rolled in. As they stood there not being able to see more than a feet feet in front of them, and thinking that someone at any minute could just grab them through the fog, they decided to for some reason to throw rocks over the side of the fence.

After throwing smaller pebbles, then larger rocks, one of them picked up an enormous rock and hurled it over the edge, as the fog was so thick it was soon lost in the night. They estimated it travelled approx 200-300 feet down the mountain before they heard a very loud grunting bellowing noise that went *barrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooo* with a grunting sound to it. (Possibly an un-fortunate Koala).

He told me this story yesterday 6/11/2002 at his home. He also told me that the hairs on the back of both their necks stood on end and they both had a shivering type of feeling. My friend said the sound it made he can remember it like yesterday, I am trying to obtain a sound file of him making the noise of the creature they heard that night.

He also told me that it could not have been anyone camping as that side of the "Three Sister's" is a sheer drop to the ground hundreds of feet below. I asked "what if it hit an animal and that was the scream they heard"? He replied. "No this was like nothing he had ever heard and it sounded like a large creature was making the noise, and he frequents the bush all the time." And besides this was a sheer cliff face, no animal could even have be there, that he knows of.

Colo River (He wasn't too sure of the year)

Brownish clump of Hair

Again the above two friends were at Colo, in a remote part of it, when they stumbled across tuffs of hair sticking in tree bark and on a fence, my friend stated that at the time he said "Watch out for bears" and they laughed it off. He told me yesterday it was a considerable clump of hair and that it was brownish in colour and was as thick as a hors'e tail.

I asked the obvious, "was the hair from a horse", and he replied. "I doubt that , as this was in such a steep mountainous part of Colo and thick in trees that a horse wouldn't be able to navigate the area at all. Also my freind is almost 6 feet tall, and he said he found the hair fairly high in the bark of the tree. We are going to go there soon to see if he can pin point the exact area of this find.

Wallaga Lake 1986

Ugly-gorilla-like black haired-male Creature

Far south coastal NSW Aboriginal people are often too tight lipped to speak of the many mysterious and sometimes terrifying encounters that their people have had with Doolagahls, but here is one account that involved a young Aboriginal mother, "Julie", in the Wallaga Lake area in 1986.

Her story goes that one day she left her four-year old boy playing on a creek-bank facing the backyard of the family property while she hung out washing on the clothes hoist. The property is flanked on two sides by thick scrub, with scrub covering the opposite bank of the creek. As she was surrounded by sheets on the hoist, her view of the boy was momentarily blocked.

It was at this moment that she heard the little boy speaking to a "man". When she pushed aside the sheets she was horrified. Standing looking down at the little boy from a mere six feet {two metres} away, was an ugly, gorilla-like, black-haired male creature a good 2.3 metres in height, with long arms and big hands dangling at its sides.

The woman later described the hominid as standing in a stooped position and having an ape-like head with the by-now-familiar thick eyebrow ridges, receding forehead and pointed skull-dome. "When I first saw the man-beast I knew right away it was a Doolagahl. We have been taught from childhood about these monsters that live up in the mountains. I feared the Doolagahl was about to snatch up my little boy and run off with him," she told a neighbour later.

However, quickly regaining her presence of mind, she picked up a shovel laying nearby and charged screaming at the creature, snatching up her child and running for the house, dropping the shovel in the process. As she reached the back door she looked back to see the hairy monster running up and over the opposite bank and into thick scrub. Several Aboriginal men and the woman's husband later searched the area, but apart from the indistinct squashed footprints embedded in the creek mud they found no other trace of the hairy monster.



DNA Research Findings 1987

Homo erectus in Australia

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.

DNA Research Findings 1987

2.1 metre tall hairyman-like Monster

Stories of the still-wild Negrito people of Queensland's far north aside, of all the mysteries of this vast, inaccessible region, none is more mysterious to the inhabitants than those of the 'hairy man', or Imjim, and the even more gigantic Turramulli.

"Don't travel on the road at night, or you might meet up with the 'hairy man'," local cattlemen and others tell visitors to Cooktown!

Old Aboriginal traditions tell of 'Turrmullies' inhabiting the Black Mountains and roaming the vast tracts of scrubland of the Cooktown hinterland. Their often huge footprints have been claimed found on the banks of the Annan River west of the town.

By day locals move about these areas and on remote cattle stations - often with firearms for protection - and by night they prefer the safety of their homes.

Many Cooktown and Mt Molloy locals maintain that groups of Imjim still inhabit the Lookout Range west of the town, from whence they emerge to roam the forests on the outskirts of Cooktown.

"They also move about in the Battle Camp Range. I've heard of sightings from old-timers long ago around Lakeland [on the western side of the range]. There have also been some young blokes out camping on Butchers Hill a few years back, who were frightened out of their socks at the sight of a 7ft [2.1m] tall hairy man-like monster. They said he emerged from bushes near their camp at sundown, stood and looked at them, then casually walked away into the surrounding scrub," said one old timer, Jimmy Archer, in a letter to me in 1987.

Allan Robinson Interview 1987

Jim Jim-the little hairy People

Side by side with the giants there also dwelt the 'little hairy people'. Known in many parts of the Gulf country across into Arnhem Land and the Kimberley as the 'Jim Jim', the "little hairy people" are often confused with the Mimi, the fairy fold or stick people that live in caverns, and who emerge at night to drag unwary Aborigines down into their underground world to devour them!

The "little hairy people" gave their name to Jim Jim Falls where, I was informed by noted explorer Allan Robinson in 1987, the pygmy folk are believed to inhabit the territory above the falls, situated on the South Alligator River 180 miles south-east of Darwin, in Kakadoo National Park.



Wentworth Falls 1988

Fossil human Foot

One day in July 1988, Mr Jean Paul Buvet, then of Wentworth Falls, in the Blue Mountains east of Katoomba, stumbled upon a remarkable fossil while walking along a bush track near his home. A strangely shaped lump of red ironstone, he soon realised it to be an almost perfectly formed human foot, the size of a six year old child. Anthropologist Mr Jim Specht of the Australian Museum Sydney, later identified it as an endocast that had taken at least 200,000 years to form.

However, Professor of Prehistory, Richard Wright, of Sydney University was more sceptical. He was unable to bring himself to accept it as a human foot, on the grounds that, being an ironstone specimen it would have to be "millions of years old". "Therefore I think it most unlikely that it is a human foot", he told a reporter from the Blue Mountains Echo newspaper.

[Note: ironstone endocasting takes a least twice as long as limestone, which also suggests the Katoomba ironstone cranium may be far older than the age suggested by Dr Harold Webber].

Local Aborigines had another explanation for the endocast. It belonged, they believed, to the 'Gubri Man', or perhaps his wife, the 'Hoori Woman', who inhabited a large rock shelter at Frog Hollow, Katoomba. The creatures, they claimed, roamed the Blue Mountains in the long-ago 'dream-time'. They were cannibalistic, feeding upon any Aborigines unfortunate enough to be caught by them.

They were very hairy, brutish looking people, who lived upon roots and berries, but also hunted animals. They could often be seen at their Frog Hollow shelter, cutting up their prey with crude, jagged stones, uttering strange grunts to one another, and would emit loud howling sounds at any Aborigines seen spying on them. Their description certainly fits the image of Homo erectus.

Bombala District 1988

Tall hairy ape-like, man-like Creature

Even in recent times there have been reports of Yowie activity in the Bombala district. During July 1988 a farmer sighted a tall hairy ape-like, man-like creature late one afternoon near his property on the Bombala River, and in August 1988 large footprints were found on the river bank.

Bombala District 1988

Monkey-like Man

In April, 1988, an outing of the Haverkamp family of Brisbane was disrupted one afternoon, when the children playing in bushes below the western slope of the lookout were terrified when they came face-to-face with a "monkey-like man, all covered with hair", who had been standing watching them amid a tangle of vines and foliage.

When they ran screaming up the slope to their parents, the strange creature quickly vanished into the jungle. It is an eerie place, this "Best of all Lookout". Visitors have spoken afterwards of having heard strange sounds and had the feeling of being watched, and on west misty days, the encroaching forest and tangling vines that drape along the track, can create an all too 'spooky' feeling for anyone to remain there very long.

Having walked this track myself and experienced strange sounds, and that unsettling feeling of being watched by 'something' from the forest depths, I have to agree.

Mt Woodroffe 1988

Freshly made small Footprints

Last century western Victoria Aborigines believed that a crinkly black-haired, 3-4m [.9m to about 1.2m] tall pygmy race, the Net-Net, the "small hairy ones", inhabited the mountain ranges across a wide area, stretching far into South Australia.

These obvious survivors of the old Tasmanian race were or are still, claimed to inhabit the desert fringes and remote ranges, where they live a secretive existence. Renewed speculation on the mystery was revived in 1988, when freshly made small footprints were found by cattlemen at a waterhole near Mt Woodroffe, in the Musgrave Ranges.

Aboriginal stockmen present at the time left the scene and refused to return. "The Net-Net bring bad luck if you see them,' they claimed. The Net-Net apparently once spread across the continent in ice-age times when the interior was far more habitable than now; with vast waterways, forests and pasturelands, where now only desert prevails. They spread into Western Australia, where we shall next meet the "small hairy ones".



Barcoo Creek, Etadunna 1989

Tall hairy man Giant

In 1989, a four-metre-tall hairy man 'giant' welding a huge lump of wood for a club was claimed seen on the lower Barcoo Creek near Etadunna, east of Lake Eyre. Two carloads of four-wheel-drive enthusiasts were travelling about 100 metres apart on the road between Maree and Birdsville. At a point where the road crosses over a creek, the vehicles disturbed the monster as it stood on the creek-bank close to the roadside.

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.

Kanagra Creek 1989

Horrifying screams and Howls

For example, about January 1989, two young women and their male companions were camped near Kanangra Creek. While searching the valley floor below the Walls, they came upon a number of larger-than-man-sized footprints in sand. Laughing the tracks off as the work of some joker, they later returned to their camp to find it ransacked, and the same large tracks visible in surrounding soil. With night coming on they remained at thee site, still thinking the tracks and the vandalised camp to have been the work of a joker.

However, they were all soon made to feel uneasy. Something seemed to be moving about in the dense scrub close to their camp. Then the unseen intruder began emitting a series of horrifying screams and howls. The terrified group stayed up all night, large tree branches at the ready to protect themselves.

Numinbah Valley 1989

Several large Footprints

Early in 1990 Heather and I searched an area in the Numinbah Valley below Binna Burra where, during November 1989, three campers-Terry and Max Feitz and Barry Bossley-found several large footprints, measuring 45 cm long by 18 cm wide, embedded 2 cm deep in mud on a creek bank. I receive many phone calls from people all over Australia who have something to report, and at all hours.

Beechmont 1989

Squatting hairy man-Beast

Similarly, at Beechmont, two other campers, Ken White and Jerry Moore, claim they saw a two-and-a-half-metre tall, hairy man-beast squatting to drink at a creek-edge in dense scrub.

Atherton Tableland 1969-1989

Three strange hominid Creatures

The Atherton Tableland, rising high above Cairns, is the scene of frequent 'hairy man' reports. During December 1969, several timber-cutters claimed they saw a two-metre-tall, hairy male "man ape" watching them among trees as they worked near the town of Atherton.

Earlier that same year, another logging group operating in the Kuranda district reported seeing three strange hominid creatures-an apparent male and female each of two metre's in height, and a juvenile of about 1.3 metres-foraging in a gully below them.

Family Group

December 1989:Twenty years later, in April 1989, another family group of these hairy 'manimals shocked a group of loggers by wandering from out of the forest and onto the edge of their camp in broad daylight. Terrified, the men grabbed for wooden stakes and, shouting at the creatures, managed to drive them back into the jungle. The loggers described the humanoid creatures as a 2.3-metre tall male, a 1.3-m juvenile male, and a 2 metre-tall female.

And so the stories of Australia's Bigfoot creatures continue to show not the slightest indication of ever diminishing. And, I believe, these mysterious, seemingly fearsome yet totally fascinating hairy primates will continue to survive, hidden in the remote and still largely inaccessable recesses of our vast mountain ranges.

It never ceases to amaze me just how much interest my lifelong research has created. Perhaps the main reason why millions of people worldwide find the yowie/yeti/bigfoot mystery so fascinating is that in modern times it is one of the last great unsolved mysteries-in the tradition of the Loch Ness Monster, the giant monitor lizards of Australia and the 'neodinosaurs' of the Congo.

Back Of Newnes January 1989

Whitish man-like Form

During January 1989, Len Mawson and Don Mulak of Sydney NSW were on a camping trip in the Wollongambie Wilderness searching for Gallan Canyon in the back of Newnes, when they decided to camp for the night at Bungleboori Reserve, situated next to a pine forest.

They set up their sleeping bags in their 'Combi Van' and soon had a roaring campfire going, and cooked their tea. It was about 9pm. After tea they sat talking for about an hour. About 10pm, in the light of a quarter moon, Len happened to notice, about 200 m away, standing in the middle of the reserve, the definite silhouette of a whitish man-like form over 2 m in height, the head giving the appearance of being pushed into the shoulders, with legs apart and arms out from the body.

By this time Don had retired to the van. Len tried to attract his attention to the mystery figure, but he refused to get out and look. As Len moved to the van, the 'visitor' turned and walked away behind a nearby concrete water tank, where Len lost sight of it. From here he believes it must have walked straight into the adjoining pine forest. The next morning Len and his mate made a search of the area, but could find no trace of the mystery creature's presence the night before, so continued on their way.

Newnes September 1989

Yowie Footprints

In September 1989, further freshly made Yowie footprints were found in the wilderness near Newnes, measuring twice the size of any normal foot.

Tall man-ape type Creature

That same month, also in the Newnes area, near a pine forest, a group of campers were preparing a fire, ready to cook the evening meal, when they sighted a 2.6m, tall 'man-ape' type creature observing them from a nearby stand of timber. The party had members take turns keeping watch all night in case the strange beast should return. This same location, unbeknownst to them had had several other visitations by these elusive hominids, stretching back at least six years.

Kitchener 1989

3m Tall Male Tjangara

Noted explorer, the late Michael Terry, told me once that the Western Australian blacks always differentiated between the Jimbra and Tjangara. "Aren't they both the same creature?" I asked one old Elder while over there in the 1930's. "No, no came the emphatic reply.

"Jimbra more like an animal, doesn't make fire, eats roots and berries. Also eats animals and people raw. Tjangara giant people, make tools and fire but keep clear of them too, because they eat plenty black fellas long time ago!"

Tjangara is well known throughout the length and breadth of the Nullarbor region deep into Western Australia. As recent as 1989 a 3m tall male was claimed seen carrying a big stone knife out from Kitchener on the Nullarbor fringe, by a mineral surveyor.