Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Wadbilliga National Park 1979

Three hairy Shapes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamieson Valley Runied Castle June 1979

The strange Beast

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

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

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