Nexus - 0206 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Further north, in the vast Kanangra-Boyd National Park, in March 1978, two young women and their male companions were camped near Kanangra Creek. While searching the valley floor below Kanangra Walls, they discovered a number of larger-than- man-sized footprints in sand, which they laughed off as someone's joke. But later returning to their camp, they found it ransacked, and the same large tracks visible in surrounding soil. That night at the camp, still believing the tracks and vandalism the work of a joker, they were startled by "something" moving in nearby bush. The unseen intruder emitted a series of loud, terrifying screams en dead with a broken neck, its head almost torn off - and the dog crushed against a tree where it had been thrown. In the distance they could hear something crashing through the bush up the moun- tainside. A search next day failed to explain what had killed the animals. However, neighbouring farmers believed it was the work of the "Monster Men of the Lamington Plateau". Aborigines refuse to enter the valleys hereabouts, for fear of the horrible creatures they believe still lurk there, and which would kill and eat anyone who crossed their path. Over the years people have disappeared without a trace in these wilds. Eerie cries are often heard at night, terrifying campers. It was in February 1988, that two campers, John Chambers and Russell Bradden surprised a 2m tall female creature, grubbing for roots on the floor of a Numinbah Valley rainforest. As she arose and escaped into the jungle, the men observed her receding fore- head, long arms and long pendulous breasts. Back in 1965 in the same area, a group of mountain climbers were moving through rainforest at the base of a Lamington cliff face, when they spotted a 3m tall, hairy ape-like creature clamber- ing over boulders, leaving behind an overpowering, rotting, animal like stench. and howls. The terrified group remained awake all night, large branches at the ready for protection, and leaving in haste at first light. The following month another group of several Sydney boys and girls, led by Mr Ted Graham, were camped below the "Walls". Walking along a track about 4pm they spotted 130m ahead of them, a long-armed, man-like creature 3m in height. "It seemed to walk in a stooped manner. It stopped and looked towards us, then moved ‘d away into the scrub", Ted told me later. mo The group spent an uneasy night at their campfire, returning cautiously the next morning to the spot where they had seen the mystery 'manimal'. Here they found footprints on the track and in nearby forest soil measuring 50cm in length by 20 cm in width, displaying an opposable big toe. During February 1990 my wife Heather and I carried out an extensive field investigation of the Lamington National Park area. We interviewed a Numinbah Valley farmer who had experi- enced eerie happenings. Giant footprints have been found on his property, and weird cries heard at night. In 1969 he was working in a field one morning, when he saw, some distance away, a 3m tall, hairy "man-beast" walking across the field carrying a dead calf. The often powerful smell of these creatures is a world-wide fea- ture of these "relict hominid" reports, and is not fully understood. Hominologists don't know everything about these creatures yet, but with every passing year, the evidence for their existence mounts. It is now 34 years since, as a Liverpool Boys High School (Sydney) student, I first read of the "Hairy Man" in an aboriginal legend book in the school library, and became immediately fasci- nated with the creatures, recognising similarities between these dae Nat 1On and the Yeti/Sasquatch. Since then, it has never ceased to amaze me just how much interest my research has caused. Perhaps the main reason why mil- lions of people world-wide find the Yowie/Yeti/Bigfoot mystery so fascinating, is that in modern times, it is one of the last great unsolved mysteries; in the tradition of the Loch Ness Monster, the giant monitor lizards of New Guinea, and the 'neodinosaurs' of the Congo. People are naturally excited about these, and any other unex- plained mysteries, and want to read all the available literature about them. But there can be nothing more exciting than actually participating in the search for such creatures. I feel privileged to be the founder of Yowie research in Australia, and to have encouraged others to follow my example. The search for surviving "relict hominids" in remote, hidden regions of the world has been called the "last great search", and it is a fascinating search. Grabbing his .303 rifle he fired at the creature, as it effortlessly cleared a wooden paling fence in a single stride, escaping into rainforest. In another incident a few years earlier, in the Tweed Valley, a stockman, Richard Adams, was mustering a mob of cattle on horseback when the cattle and his horse suddenly took fright. It was at this moment that, barely 16m ahead of him, an enor- mous putrid-smelling, muscular hairy man-like creature appeared menacingly brandishing a large tree limb. The creature, whose face Richard later described as being some- where between human and ape, stood its ground snarling, as the terrified stockman turned his mount to gallop off down the slope. It was in the Tweed Valley that, one night in 1935, residents of an isolated farm were startled by the frantic bellowing of their house cow. Their cattle dog tore off into the darkness, barking ferociously. The dog attacked something, but suddenly let out an agonising yelp, then all was quiet. The farmer and one of his farmhands went out armed with Rex Gilroy can be contacted at the: AUSTRALIAN UNKNOWN ANIMALS RESEARCH CENTRE, PO Box 473, NEXUS - 33 MAN - APES OF AUSTRALIA lanterns and guns. They found the corner fences down, the cow Kootingal, NSW. 2351. Phone: (067) 787 201 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1992 - YEAR BOOK