Nexus - 0205 - New Times Magazine-pages

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MAN - APES OF AUSTRALIA as sacred creatures from the ‘dream-time'. guide, he says: In fact, aboriginal folklore is full of traditions of giant man-like "If you change a gorilla to a vertical posture like a human, and beings, creatures sometimes over 3m in height. While some were — make the neck come straight down, one thing you have to do is giant humans who made large stone tools, and sometimes fire, oth- spread the back of its lower jaw to make room for the neck". And ers were more ape-like. From Western Australia and the Northern _as can be shown, the lower jaw of Gigantopithecus spreads much Territory I have obtained traditions of a gigantic gorilla-like mon- more widely than the jaw of a gorilla. ster that once terrorised aboriginal tribes of the interior. "Gigantopithecus was so much like the Sasquatch that I would (Australia's giant stone-age races will. be covered by me in a _ assume Gigantopithecus " future issue of NEXUS). From the vast amount of evidence I have During the last great ice-age, sea levels were much lower than gathered, it is obvious to me that the Yowie/Doolagahl, like their —_ they are today, and land-bridges joined Australia and the Americas Central Australian gorilla monster relatives were no mere aborigi- to the Asian mainland. It was over these "bridges" that the ances- nal "bunyip" but a flesh and blood creature. tors of the Yowie/Bigfoot would have migrated. What then is the Yowie? Our early European settlers took the A hypothetical reconstruction of a (— possible Yowie/Yeti/Bigfoot skull, based upon the descriptions of the head is revealing. The pointed sagi- tal crest is a primate, rather than modern human feature, while the receding forehead and thick, pro- truding eyebrow ridges is a feature of primitive "ape-man" skulls of Java Man and Australopithecus, who inhabited Asia half a million years to two million years ago, during the last ice-age. In both China and Java since the 1930s, anthropologists have exca- vated massive fossil jaws and teeth, of an giant upright-walking, man- like ape called Gigantopithecus (South China Giant), believed to have stood at least 4m in height. Also, giant-size fossil footprints found in Asia are thought by some to be the possible tracks of Gigantopithecus. Similar giant fossil tracks have been found in Australia. These closely resemble the freshly made tracks of Yowie/Yeti/Bigfoot existence of the Yowie/Doolagahl for granted, regarding them as some secretive race that inhabited the still largely unexplored eastern moun- tain ranges. In fact, sightings of "Hairy Men" by Europeans date ack to the first years of settlement. I find these ‘historic’ Yowie reports fascinating, for they lend the mys- tery some degree of credibility. It is a belief in this credibility that has encouraged me, for over the past 34 years, to undertake countless field expeditions, often into some of the most inhospitable mountain country in search of evidence of these crea- tures’ existence. It is now 20 years since I estab- lished the "Australian Unknown Animals Research Centre" (PO Box 473, Kootingal. NSW. 2352. Ph: (067) 787 201) for the purpose of gathering all manner of evidence on relict hominids, and a variety of other ‘unknown' land and _sea- dwelling creatures of the Australian/Pacific region. Here Height comparison between the giant man-like ape, \. Gigantiopithecus, and the smaller Yowie/Yeti/Bigfoot. creatures in modern times. sightings, reports, footprint plaster Gigantopithecus is at present regarded by many ‘relict hominid’ casts, any photographic material and other evidence is scientifical- researchers, such as myself, as the ancestor of the later, ‘smaller’ ly assessed, and shared with other researchers in Australia and Yowie/Yeti/Bigfoot etc. overseas. While most 'respectable’ scientists dismiss the surviving ‘relict As an open-minded field naturalist and __ historical hominids' theory out-of-hand, there are a number of others world- researcher/archaelogist, I have always been fascinated by the wide who think otherwise. Of these, eminent American anthropol- ‘known’ as well as the 'unknown' in nature. I realise that lack of ogist, Dr Grover Krantz, of Washington State University, is best evidence does not nec ily imply ‘lack of existence’ for any known. rarely seen or ‘unknown’ animal species. From exhaustive studies and comparisons of what he considers lam often asked, why do I persist in my search, year after year to be authentic 'Bigfoot' footprint plaster casts, Krantz concluded without finding any actual physical proof? For me the answer is that the creatures may indeed be living representatives of threefold: Firstly, I seek to vindicate ancient aboriginal traditions Gigantopithecus. of the Yowie; secondly, to obtain the necessary physical evidence, Despite widespread scientific opinion that Gigantopithecus such as skeletal remains, to put before scientists to have them would have walked on its knuckles, like a gorilla, rather than on its accorded the same protective legislation given to any other rare feet, Dr Krantz makes a convincing argument, based on the spread _ native fauna; and thirdly, even if my searches fail to find this evi- of its lower jaw, that Gigantopithe-cus was actually an erect biped. dence, at least I am privileged to see magnificent wilderness areas Using the massive fossil jaws of these monster man-apes as a _ largely unknown to most city-bound Australians! NEXUS - 24 YEAR BOOK + OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1991