Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Cast of a supposed YOWIE track made near Springbrook,
Queensland, by Andre Clayden in mid-1998. (Tony
Healy/Fortean Picture Library)
On August 7, 1970, Rex Gilroy was eating
lunch in a clearing near the Ruined Castle rock
formation in the Blue Mountains, New South
Wales, when a man-sized, apelike creature with
orange hair ran across the open ground and gave
out a scream.
Alwyn Richards and his sister saw a 9-foot
Yowie staring at them near Killawarra, New
South Wales, in 1974. It stepped over a 4-foot
fence without breaking stride.
On August 10, 1977, in Woodenbong,
Queensland, a woman was awakened by hearing
her dog yelping and a high-pitched screaming
outside. Only about 5 feet away from her back
door, she saw a bad-smelling, apelike creature
covered with brownish hair holding her dog
tightly to its chest. When it saw her, it dropped
the dog and backed away, watching her intently.
It made some deep grunts and then ran out into
the street, its arms hanging loose. The witness
said it was 6 feet tall, with a small head, broad
chest, narrow hips, and strong legs. Its hair was
close-cropped except on its arms and shoulders.
She had to wash her dog with antiseptic to get
the smell out. Her husband heard the grunts,
and neighbors heard the barking. One footprint,
8.5 inches long and slightly over 4 inches
wide at the toes, remained, along with three
strands of long, reddish hair on a fencepost.
Twenty students (one of whom later became
a senator) at Koonjewarre Campgrounds near
Springbrook, Queensland, saw a 9-foot Yowie
approach their cabin several times on October
22–23, 1977. It ripped 3-foot-tall shrubs out of
the dry ground with ease. One time, they
watched it through binoculars, and on another
occasion, it came within 30 feet of their sleeping
quarters. Trapezoidal footprints were found,
longer than 13 inches, very narrow at the heel,
and more than 7 inches wide at the toes. Other
incidents were reported in the same area for the
next five months.
Warren Christensen and Tony Solano ran
into a 9-foot Yowie while hunting pigs at Sandy
Creek near Kilcoy, Queensland, on December
28, 1979. After shooting at it, they found threetoed
tracks that were 19 inches long and 6
inches wide.
At 2 A.M. on January 2, 1987, Stella Donahue
and Bill Johnstone woke up at their campsite to
see an 8-foot ape standing waist-deep in the
water at Lake Dulverton, Tasmania.
On January 22, 1995, two boys saw an 8–9foot
Yowie walking along a road bordering the
Ballengarra State Forest southwest of Kempsey,
New South Wales. It was massive and looked
“in between a human and a gorilla.” Sixteen
footprints 11.8 inches long and 7 inches wide
were found at the spot two weeks later.
Possible explanations:
(1) Surviving Homo erectus. No indisputably
erectus fossils have been found in Australia,
though some finds in Java are now dated to
only 40,000 years ago. H. erectus used tools
and fire, neither of which Yowies seem
familiar with. The tallest fossils are less than
6 feet, leaving them on the short end of the
Yowie scale.
(2) Surviving Kow Swamp people, an early
population of Homo sapiens known from
YOWIE 617