Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology

Yowie

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.

As is the case with the North American Bigfoot, 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.

The yowie was described as a cryptid similar to the Himalayan Yeti and the North American Bigfoot. The yowie is usually said to be a hairy and ape-like creature standing upright at between 6 ft 11 in and 12 ft. The yowie's feet are said to be much larger than a human's, but alleged yowie tracks are inconsistent in shape and toe number, and the descriptions of yowie foot and footprints provided by yowie witnesses are even more varied than those of Bigfoot. The yowie's nose is said to be wide and flat.

Behaviorally, some report the yowie can seem timid or shy. Others suspect that the yowie is sometimes violent or aggressive.

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 ..."

In an article entitled "Australian Apes" appearing six years later, 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 ..."

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. The yowie appeared in Donald Friend's Hillendiana, a collection of writing about the goldfields near Hill End in New South Wales. Friend refers to the yowie as a species of bunyip. Holden also cites the appearance of the yowie in a number of Australian tall stories in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Yowie reports have continued to the present day with the trail of evidence following the pattern familiar to most unidentified hominids around the world: eyewitness accounts; mysterious footprints of hotly disputed origin; and no 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.

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.

There have been hundreds of accounts of yowie-sightings in New South Wales, including: In 1977, residents on Oxley Island near Taree became convinced that blood curdling screams heard at night were connected to a local sighting of a huge black furry creature.

In 1994, Tim the Yowie Man claimed to have seen a yowie in the Brindabella Ranges.

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.

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'.

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.

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.

In June 2013, a Lismore resident and music videographer claimed to have seen a yowie just north of Bexhill.

In the mid-1970s, the Queanbeyan Festival Board offered and 2CA together offered a AUD200,000 reward to anyone who could capture and present a yowie: the reward is yet to be claimed.

In the late 1990s, there were several reports of yowie sightings in the area around Acacia Hills. 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. Photographs of the footprint were collected at the time.

The Springbrook region in south-east Queensland has had more yowie reports than anywhere else in Australia. 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. O'Chee compared the creature he saw to the character Chewbacca from Star Wars, telling reporters that the creature he saw had been over 10 ft tall.

A persisting story is that of the Mulgowie Yowie, last reported to be seen in 2001.

In March 2014, two yowie searchers claimed to have filmed the yowie in South Queensland using an infrared tree camera.