Yowie

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For other uses, see Yowie (disambiguation).
Yowie
Yowie-statue-Kilcoy-Queensland.JPG

Statue of a Yowie in Kilcoy, Queensland,
Australia
Creature
Grouping Cryptid
Sub grouping Hominid
Data
First reported Mid to late 19th Century
Country  Australia
Region Great Dividing Range,
Northern Territory,
Australian Capital Territory,
South Australia,
West Australia,
New South Wales,
Queensland
Habitat Forests, mountains

Yowie is one of several names given to a mythical hominid, reputed to live in the Australian wilderness. The creature has its roots in Aboriginal mythology. In parts of Queensland, they are known as quinkin (or as a type of quinkin), and as joogabinna,[1] in parts of New South Wales they are called jurrawarra, myngawin, puttikan, gubba, doolaga, gulaga and thoolagal.[1] Other names include yahoo, yaroma, noocoonah, wawee, pangkarlangu, jimbra and tjangara.[1][2][3]

As is the case with the North American Sasquatch, many people discount the existence of the yowie considering it more likely to be a combination of misidentification, folklore and hoax. Yowie-type creatures are common in Aboriginal Australian legends, particularly in the eastern Australian states.[1]:p.6 The yowie's characteristics and legend are sometimes interchangeable with those of the bunyip.[4]:p.69

Contents

Description [edit]

The yowie was described as a cryptid similar to the Himalayan Yeti and the North American Sasquatch. The yowie is usually said to be a hairy and ape-like creature standing upright at between 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) and 3.6 m (12 ft).[5][6][7][8] The yowie's feet are said to be much larger than a human's[7] and it's nose is said to be wide and flat.[9][10]

Behaviourally, some report the yowie can seem timid or shy.[7] Others suspect that the yowie is sometimes violent or aggressive.[11]

Origins of the term [edit]

The origin of the name "yowie" to describe unidentified Australian hominids is unclear. Some nineteenth century writers suggested that it arose through Aboriginal legends. Robert Holden recounts several stories that support this from the nineteenth century, including this European account from 1842:

“ The natives of Australia ... believe in ... [the] Yahoo ... This being they describe as resembling a man ... of nearly the same height, ... with long white hair hanging down from the head over the features ... the arms as extraordinarily long, furnished at the extremities with great talons, and the feet turned backwards, so that, on flying from man, the imprint of the foot appears as if the being had travelled in the opposite direction. Altogether, they describe it as a hideous monster of an unearthy character and ape-like appearance.[12] ”

Another story about the name, collected from an Aboriginal source, suggests that the creature as a part of the Dreamtime.

“ Old Bungaree a Gunedah aboriginal ... said at one time there were tribes of them [yahoos] and they were the original inhabitants of the country - he said they were the old race of blacks ... [The yahoos] and the blacks used to fight and the blacks always beat them but the yahoo always made away ... being ... faster runners.[13] ”

On the other hand, Jonathan Swift's yahoos from Gulliver's Travels, and European traditions of hairy wild men, are also cited as a possible source.[4] :pp.39-49

History of sightings [edit]

Nineteenth Century eyewitness accounts [edit]

In the 1870s, accounts of ‘Indigenous Apes’ appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal. The earliest account in November 1876 asked readers; “Who has not heard, from the earliest settlement of the colony, the blacks speaking of some unearthly animal or inhuman creature ... namely the Yahoo-Devil Devil, or hairy man of the wood ...”[14]

In an article entitled “Australian Apes” appearing six years later, a Mr. H. J. McCooey, claimed to have seen an "indigenous ape" on the south coast of New South Wales;

“

“A few days ago I saw one of these strange creatures ... on the coast between Bateman’s Bay and Ulladulla ... I should think that if it were standing perfectly upright it would be nearly 5 feet high. It was tailless and covered with very long black hair, which was of a dirty red or snuff-colour about the throat and breast. Its eyes, which were small and restless, were partly hidden by matted hair that covered its head ... I threw a stone at the animal, whereupon it immediately rushed off ...”[15]

 ”

McCooey offered to capture an ape for the Australian Museum for £40. According to Robert Holden, a second outbreak of reported ape sightings appeared in 1912.[4]:p.76 The yowie appeared in Donald Friend's Hillendiana,[16] a collection of writing about the goldfields near Hill End in New South Wales. Friend refers to the yowie as a species of bunyip. Robert Holden also cites the appearance of the yowie in a number of Australian tall stories in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.[4]:pp.77-79

Contemporary accounts of yowie sightings [edit]

Yowie reports have continued to the present day with the trail of evidence following the pattern familiar to most unidentified hominids around the world – i.e., eyewitness accounts, mysterious footprints of hotly disputed origin, and a lack of conclusive proof. Some recently reported yowie incidents claim that the death and mutilation of household pets, such as dogs, are the result of yowie attacks. Other people claim that the animals' deaths can be attributed to attacks by wild animals such as dingoes.[17]

Australian Capital Territory [edit]

In 2010, a Canberra man spotted a creature that may have been a yowie in his garage. The man reported the creature as being covered in hair, juvenile with long arms. He said it was definitely trying to communicate with him.[18]

New South Wales [edit]

There have been hundreds of accounts of yowie-sightings in New South Wales, including:

  • In 1994 Tim the Yowie Man claimed to have seen a yowie in the Brindabella Ranges.[10][19]
  • In 1996, while on a driving holiday, a couple from Newcastle claim to have seen a yowie between Braidwood and the coast. They said it was a shaggy creature, walking upright, standing at a height of at least 2.1 metres tall, with disproportionally long arms and no neck.[20]
  • In August 2000 a Canberra bushwalker described seeing an unknown bipedal beast in the Brindabella Mountains. The bushwalker, Steve Piper, caught the incident on videotape. That film is known as the 'Piper Film'.[10]
  • In March 2011 a witness reported to NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service seeing a yowie in the Blue Mountains at Springwood, west of Sydney. The witness had filmed the creature, and taken photographs of its footprints.[19][21]
  • In May 2012 a United States television crew claimed it had recorded audio of a yowie in a remote region on the NSW-Queensland border.[19][22]

Northern Territory [edit]

In the late 1990s there were several reports of yowie sightings in the area around Acacia Hills.[11] One such sighting was by mango farmer Katrina Tucker who reported in 1997 being just metres away from a hairy humanoid creature on her property.[11] Photographs of the footprint were collected at the time.[11]

Queensland [edit]

The Springbrook region in south-east Queensland has had more yowie reports than anywhere else in Australia.[10] In 1977, former Queensland Senator Bill O'Chee reported to the Gold Coast Bulletin he had seen a yowie while on a school trip in Springbrook.[9][10]

Prominent yowie hunters [edit]

  • Rex Gilroy. Since the mid-1970s, paranormal enthusiast Rex Gilroy, a self-employed cryptozoologist, has attempted to popularize the Yowie.[1]:p.13 Mr Gilroy claims to have collected over 3000 reports of them and proposed that they comprise a relict population of extinct ape or Homo species.[23][24] Rex Gilroy believes that the yowie is related to the North American Bigfoot.[25]
  • Tim Bull (also known as Tim the Yowie Man). A published author who claims to have seen a yowie in the Brindabella Ranges in 1994.[19] Since then, Tim the Yowie Man has investigated yowie sightings and other paranormal phenomena.[26] He also writes a regular column in Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald. In 2004, Tim the Yowie Man won a legal case against Cadbury, a popular British confectionary company. Cadbury had claimed that his moniker was too similar to their range of Yowie confectionary.[27]

See also [edit]

  • Bunyip, a creature that has its origins in Australian Aboriginal mythology
  • Yowie (chocolate), a line of toys based on the Yowie
  • Yara-ma-yha-who, a creature from Australian Aboriginal mythology

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Tony Healy and Paul Cropper (2006). The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot. Anomalist Books. ISBN 1933665165. 
  2. ^ Graham. C Joyner (1977). The Hairy Man of South Eastern Australia. ISBN 0908127006. 
  3. ^ "Layers of significance – Reconciliation Place and the Acton Peninsula, Canberra". National Museum of Australia. 28 August 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2013. 
  4. ^ a b c d Robert Holden (2001). Bunyips: Australia's Folklore of Fear. Canberra: National Library of Australia. ISBN 0-642-10732-7. 
  5. ^ "Yowie sighting near Mount George". Manning River Times. Before It's News. 7 August 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2013. 
  6. ^ Paul Willis (13 June 2002). "Yowie". Catalyst. ABC Television. Retrieved 18 March 2013. 
  7. ^ a b c Rex Gilroy (7 August 1980). "Why Yowies are Fair Dinkum". Australasian Post. Retrieved 18 March 2013. 
  8. ^ "Sydney Morning Herald article, 1912". Dean Harrison's Australian Yowie Research. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2013. 
  9. ^ a b Samantha Healy (2 May 2010). "New film needs beast of a man to be the next yowie". The Sunday mail (Qld). Retrieved 18 March 2013. 
  10. ^ a b c d e The adventures of Tim the Yowie Man, cryptonaturalist. Sydney: Random House Australia. 2001. pp. 41–48. ISBN 174051078X. 
  11. ^ a b c d Matt Cunningham (21 April 2009). "'Dog killed by Yowie'". NT News. Retrieved 17 March 2013. 
  12. ^ Anon.(1842)"Superstitions of the Australian Aborigines:The Yahoo" in Australian and New Zealand Monthly Magazine, Vol 1, No 2, February 1842. Cited in Robert Holden (2001) p.47
  13. ^ William Telfer in R.Mills (ed)(1980) The Walladabah Manuscripts:Recollections of the early days, p.55, cited in Robert Holden (2001) p.76-7
  14. ^ Australian Town and Country Journal, 18 November 1876, p.811, cited in Robert Holden (2001) p. 70
  15. ^ Australian Town and Country Journal, 9 December 1882, p.747, cited in Robert Holden (2001) p. 75
  16. ^ Friend, Donald (1915-1989) (1956). A collection of Hillendiana: comprising vast numbers of facts and a considerable amount of fiction concerning the goldfield of Hillend and environs. Sydney: Ure Smith. 
  17. ^ "Yowie may have killed puppy", "ninemsn", 2009-04-21. Retrieved on 2009-04-21.
  18. ^ Ritchie Crick (26 September 2010). "The truth is out there". Sunday Herald Sun. Retrieved 17 March 2013. 
  19. ^ a b c d Patrick Lion (4 June 2012). "Panthers, yowie men and a headless roo, the real X-files of New South Wales". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 March 2013. 
  20. ^ Jeff Corbett (30 November 2010). "In search of yowies". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 17 March 2013. 
  21. ^ News.com (9 August 2000). "Yowie Sighted & Filmed Near Canberra, Australia". Reproduction of a new.com article. Rense.com. Retrieved 18 March 2013. 
  22. ^ Geoff Shearer (26 May 2012). "Animal Planet TV crew capture audio they believe proves existence of yowies". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 17 March 2013. 
  23. ^ Shuker, Karl P. N. (1995). "The Alien Zoo". In search of prehistoric animals; Do giant extinct creatures still exist? (1 ed.). Blanchford. p. 189. ISBN 0-7137-2469-2. "Rex Gilroy... collected over 3,000 sightings of a giant hairy creature sighted across the continent." 
  24. ^ Andrew potts (27 November 2012). "Yowie seeker, 68, has something to prove". GoldCoast.com.au. Retrieved 18 March 2013. 
  25. ^ "The Search For Bigfoot: Is Bigfoot Real?". The Huffington Post. 12 April 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2013. 
  26. ^ "I was rugby-tackled by a Yowie, man claims". The Australian. 26 May 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2013. 
  27. ^ "Tim the Yowie Man licks chocolate giant in court.". The Canberra Times. 15 December 2004. 

External links [edit]
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