The Yowie Mystery - Living Fossils from the Dreamtime.

Copyright © 2007 by Rex Gilroy
All rights reserved
First Edition

Rex and Heather Gilroy are recognised internationally as Australia’s foremost relict hominid researchers. This book celebrates Rex Gilroy’s 50 years as the ‘father’ of Yowie research. Rex and Heather are also recognised internationally as one of the world’s foremost husband and wife research teams in the field of ‘Unexplained’ mysteries.

These daring and outspoken researchers are no friends of the Australian hard-core, narrow-minded scientific establishment, who would prefer that books of the kind produced by the Gilroys were prevented from publication.

When not carrying out field work, Rex and his wife Heather [a Registered Nurse/Midwife by profession] are at home writing books, surrounded by their huge reference library of books on all manner of scientific subjects. Besides their many and varied researches, Rex and Heather Gilroy are also involved in community service work as members of the Rotary Club of Katoomba.

Dead Horse Gap, near Thredbo. This wild region of the Snowy Mountains has been a “hairy man” locale since the first years of 19th century settlement hereabouts.

During June 1999 a stockman was riding his horse through wild scrub overlooking the road near where this photo was taken, when he spotted a number of “huge man-like footprints” in a mud patch.

Photo copyright © Rex Gilroy 2007

CHAPTER ONE
A SHORT HISTORY OF EARLY “HAIRY MAN” REPORTS

There has over the years been a growing library of books on the subject of overseas ‘relict hominids’ believed to survive in modern times in the remote and little explored corners of the world. The Yeti, or ‘dweller among the rocks’ of Himalayan folklore, and the Sasquatch, or ‘Bigfoot’ of North American Indian tradition are best known.

Less well known are primitive hominid forms believed to inhabit places such as the African Congo, the jungles of South America, Russia, China, India, parts of island south-east Asia, New Guinea, island Melanesia, New Zealand and Australia. Indeed, until I Rex Gilroy, was able to first publicise the ‘hairy man’, in the Australian and then world-wide media, few people even within this country had ever heard the name ‘Yowie’.

Our book “Giants from the Dreamtime – the Yowie in Myth and Reality” [URU Publications 2001] the first book ever written on the mystery, certainly changed that and has become THE text book for sensible field researchers. Now “The Yowie – Living Fossils from the Dreamtime” [URU Publications] goes much further, in a scientific manner as before in language that the lay reader can easily understand [which is how we prepare all our books], to present a startling array of evidence, to reveal the Yowie and its origins. This book is needed, because since the publication of “Giants from the Dreamtime” much new fossil and other evidence has been uncovered, which has added further to our knowledge.

It will leave little doubt that the Yowie is a flesh-and-blood, living ‘relict hominid’, a survivor of Ice-Age times which, in the form of Homo erectus, is our immediate ancestor. ‘He’ is our ‘father’ and as such deserves far better respect than ‘he’ has been given over the years, not only by an ignorant media, but also by those ill-informed and un-trained “Yowie catchers” who treat him as nothing more than a hairy monster! Ancient Aboriginal myth and legend has always described the “hairy people” as flesh and blood hominids, and much the same picture is formed in the relict hominid folklores of the Polynesian and Melanesian people outside Australia, as well as those of south-east and mainland Asia.

The reader who wishes to pursue this aspect further can find “hairy man” tales among the ancient writings of the Sumerians and Chinese, whose ancient mariners had considerable contact with Australia in Bronze-Age times [ie 2000-1400BC] and the name ‘Yowie’ can be found in a number of variations in ancient Chinese literature on the subject of the mysterious animals and people that inhabited the “Great South Land of Chui Hiao [Great Golden Land]”.

This ancient literature is revealed in “Giants from the Dreamtime – The Yowie in Myth and Reality” . For example, ancient Aryan Indian folklore speaks of mysterious “cave men and women” that inhabited the mountains and forests; beings such as the Kim-Purusha or “What Man?” often described as a primitive, almost animal-like being who feeds upon human flesh.

Then there is the Kotavi, aka the Kotari or Kottavi, “A naked woman”, a mystical goddess that inhabited the forest and often described today as a primitive-looking female. There is also the Kuvera, which the Vedas describe as a male forest spirit who hugs the shadows in the darker parts of the forest. He is an evil-looking primitive being who also lives upon human prey. Perhaps the Kuvera and the Kim-Purusha are one-and-the-same beings, the Kotari or Kottavi being the female of the same race.

Ancient Indian mythology also speaks of other cavemen, such as Guhyaka, a race responsible for the protection of the treasure of Kubera, the Giant God of the spirits and guardian of the North. Here in myth is a race-memory of Stone-Age people and giants. Another such cave-dweller was Hidimba, an asura or demon cannibal who lived in the forest where ‘he’ lured people into his bone cave to eat them.A similar Stone-Age demon was Jambha, meaning ‘jaws’. He was killed by Vishna. Indians also believe in the Kala-Mukha or “black-face”. These are a race of wilderness-dwellers who resemble humans.

Rex Gilroy
Australian Yowie Research Centre,
Katoomba, NSW
Monday 25th June 2007