Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Bega District 1912

7ft dark haired-upright walking ape-like Beast

During October, 1912 a Melbourne surveyor, Mr. Phillip Mills and two geologists were camped on a mountainside in the Bega district. One night, as the men sat around their campfire having their evening meal, Mr. Mills spotted a dark tall shape, illuminated by the glow of the campfire moving among trees. To the horror of all, the mystery visitor emerged into full view, a mere several feet from them; a 7 ft (2.1 m) dark haired, upright walking, ape-like beast.

He appeared very muscular, with big, powerful arms and legs, big feet and large hands. His genitals appeared about normal man-sized and he looked at the men with a face somewhere between ape and human in appearance. One man grabbed for a nearby revolver, but as he did so, the man-monster turned and walked away, as if quite unconcerned. The man-ape seemed to be inquisitive and made no attempt to harm us, and I motioned to my companion not to shoot", said Mr. Mills to a journalist many years later.....

The Saddle 1912

Three stories of a Thing

Several kilometres south-west of Carey's Peak, the second highest point in the Barrington Tops Range in a northerly direction from Mt Royal, a great razorbacked spur branches off from the Range, running southwards for about 13 km distant, where a huge dome-shaped peak rises well over 1000 m above sea-level, between the Allyn and Paterson valleys.

Beyond the Knob, or Mt Allyn, [its correct name], the range continues as the watershed of the two valleys. Between the Knob and the peak nearest it on the northern side, is a long deep depression called 'The Saddle'. It was here that the following three stories took place about 1912, as related by two old Cedar getters to Mr. E L. Bates during the 1930's.

The first story took place one night when they and a mate were camped in a large bark hut erected on top of the saddle ridge.

"We all turned in early that night after a long hard days work amongst the timber and up to that time had never seen or heard anything unusual, and were hoping for a good night's sleep; but about 9pm we were awakened by our three dogs barking and growling in an unusually savage way, quite unlike their average manner of greeting anything or anybody who might venture near the camp."

"A few moments later we became aware of a tremendous growling, snarling noise far louder than the dogs, far too loud for a dingo, and totally unlike any animal, or other kind of noise we'd ever heard in the bush up to that time; in fact it reminded us of the circus lions we'd heard on many occasions. The night was very dark, we had no firearms, so called out "Who's there?"

"The answer was a terrific roar that fairly shook the ground and sent the dogs scurrying inside the hut [the door was open up to then].In they came helter-skelter straight underneath our bunks. A few moments later something struck the back of the hut a tremendous blow. Meanwhile, I had shut the door whilst my mates secured the two wooden windows, at the same time yelling out to enquire who it might be and what the hell he meant kicking up that bloody row that time of night."

"The answer was an even more savage attack on the walls of our luckily well put together dwelling, accompanied by growls that made our hair fairly stand on end. We stacked the table and a couple of bunks against the door, it being about the weakest part of our defences, then stood back, armed with mattock handles, the best available weapons we had, ready to offer battle to the Unknown which continued to try to batter its way inside."

"Once during a long attack on the rear wall we shifted the barricades away from the door and tried desperately to 'sool' our dogs out to the attack, but although they would like most Australian Cattle Dogs tackle anything, this time they utterly refused and took shelter underneath the other bunk, eyes glaring, every bristle they owned standing on end, and shivering with fright; which showed plainly that this creature was something they knew no more about than we did, which helped convince us our very unwelcome visitor was no human being."

"Several hours passed during which most of the time, the 'Thing' walked round and round our hut, the heavy 'pad, pad, pad' of its feet revealing it to be of very considerable weight; only stopping for short intervals, even then keeping up a low slobbering sound that was horrible to hear, then at it again.

More that once we fully expected to see the walls and roof of our bark hut come crashing down under the rain of blows from some heavy weapon the creature was using; more than once did we bless our foresight in using fairly heavy hardwood timber for the framework."

"About two o'clock 'it' finally gave up and went off still growling, but we understandably enough did not venture out until after sunrise. Only then did we learn something of the actual size of our bad-tempered caller. A few yards away was the weapon 'it' had been using - the trunk of a young and solid Corkwood tree. It was a good fourteen feet [4.6 m] long when measured and eight inches [20.5 cm] across the butt end, and had been SNAPPED off at both ends, and looked as if it had been battered for hours with a hammer.

[Note: Australian Corkwood is renowned for its toughness and tensile strength]

Enormous man-like footprints

"Also, around the hut we found numbers of enormous man-like footprints embedded in the soil." "We stayed home that day to repair our sorely tried dwelling as well as keep a sharp lookout for the enemy, but strange to say, although we continued to camp there for several months, 'it' never again interfered with the hut."

"However, only twice did we ever have any real experience of its presence thereabouts, although several times we found bullock yokes and other gear scattered about, and one evening about a fortnight after the night attack, one of my mates hung some chains across a certain track after unyoking his team, in order to stop them from straying away. A short while after tea [about dusk], he thought he heard them trying to break through so went up to bring them down and turn them away in another direction. About a hundred yards [100 m] from the chain barricade he heard sounds like that Bloody animal."

"Sneaking forward cautiously, to a spot nearby from where he would be able to see the barricade area outlined against the sky, he saw not cattle, but an enormous creature 'like those Bloody big Chimps we saw that time at Sydney Zoo, only bigger'."

"It was pulling the chains apart and hurling them around to the accompaniment of savage snarling and growling that caused the watcher to return at his best downhill speed. Next morning we all went up with our rifles, just in case, but there was no sign of 'it', but what a mess the working gear was in. Some of the iron neck bows had been pulled out almost straight, others twisted almost right around in a circle, yet another warning of what a rough customer it would be to try and capture it alive and unhurt if one so wished, which we certainly didn't."

[Note: the men were using what are known in other countries as Ox Teams to draw the Cedar timber away on large, iron clad slides. Also, in Australia Ox Teams have always been referred to as Bullock Teams.] One afternoon about three months after the hut and other incident, one of the men was pulling some timber up to the top from a short way down on the Paterson side.

"The other blokes were both away on other work so I'd brought young 'Alf' up for company, he was about seven years old at the time and pretty handy about the camp. "I'd stopped the team to give them a spell when all of a sudden, a tremendous and seemingly human voice began roaring and yelling about a quarter of a mile away down where we had come from only a short while earlier. We could hear it quite clearly, in fact so loud was it that for a few minutes I had a bit of a job to calm the team."

"Unlike animal sounds these seemed to be in the nature of connected and definite language utterances though neither Alf or I were able to recognise any actual words. The team by now having become accustomed to the noise, I cracked my whip and we both yelled as loud as we could between the intervals when the voice stopped for a while. We went a short way down to where we could see without being seen from below. Here we waited quite a while but saw nothing, and after about 30 minutes the Thing not having appeared and been silent for a good while we resumed our journey."

"Whatever it was, animal or sub-human, it had a voice far louder than any bullock driver I've ever heard. In truth, if you've ever heard an angry bull working himself into a fury, by lowering his mouth to the ground and roaring his loudest amongst thick standing timber, you'll have some small idea of what I mean." "I've no doubt it was either the same or a similar creature that attacked the hut and bullock gear," the man said.

Sassafras Mountain 1912

Brown haired man-like Beast

About June in the winter of 1978, Sussex Inlet resident Alf Collier was exploring bushland in the mountains of nearby Morton National Park when he found long strands of hair caught in the branch of a shrub on the side of Wandandian Mountain. The hair seemed unlike any normal human hair.

Nearby Alf found young wattle trees with 8 cm thick trunks broken 1 m above the ground, and which had then been torn down the centre, exposing Witchetty Grub holes, obviously done by someone or something to get at the grubs, presumably for food. Above these trees Alf smelt a powerful stench. He had smelt this stench on two other occasions in the same area earlier during April 1978.

Alf's father-in-law, Mr Norm Allsopp, about 1912 saw a brown-haired, man-like beast in scrub at the foot of Sassafras Mountain 30 km west of Sussex Inlet. With him were two large dogs which cowered and ran off terrified at the sight of the hairy manbeast.