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& REVIEWS Yowie) throughout the entire region. Edmond Halley (of comet fame) who came B oO oO K S The book is packed with b&w photos, eye- up with an Earth model encompassing con- 7 witness accounts and stories of Rex and centric spheres—perhaps the forerunner of Reviewed by Ruth Parnell Heather's expeditions. Occasionally Rex the modern model with crust, mantle and OUT OF THE DREAMTIME: lashes out at academic scientists who ignore core. The idea was useful as a scientific the- The Search for Australasia's Unknown the evidence or don't even bother to look for __ ory in the late 17th century, but it has mor- Animals it. In the opening chapter, he recounts in phed to suit the spirit of the times or reflect by Rex & Heather Gil gripping detail how he got lost in winter its hopes, fears and values ever since. In the ¥ Hex & Meatner “illroy 1999 in the Kanangra Boyd wilderness out late 19th century, for instance, it was a vehi- Uru Publications, Australia, 2006 past the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, cle for religious utopianism, and in the ISBN 0-9578716-5-1 (602pp If tpb) and still managed to discover megalithic 1950s for Cold War paranoia. Available: Uru Publications, PO Box 202, stone circles. He was lucky to get out alive! While Standish gives no credence to the Katoomba, NSW 2780, Australia, tel +61 A hands-on fieldworker's approach to hollow Earth notion, he gives intriguing (0)2 4782 3441 achieving progress in science! insights into the mindsets that produced sci- ex Gilroy can truthfully call himself the ence fiction hollow Earth epics, went on lec- Rta: of Australian Cryptozoology HOLLOW EARTH ture tours to drum up support for a polar and Yowie Research" for his pioneering by David Standish hole expedition (as Symmes first attempted fieldwork and research that began more than Da Capo/Perseus Books, London, 2006 in 1818) or, like Ray Palmer, published "amazing stories" from the 1940s about flying saucers hidden beneath the Earth's surface, relics of an advanced alien civilisa- tion. The text is both instructive and enter- taining, interspersed with some marvellous 50 years ago. He established The Australian — |gpnj 9-306-81373-4 (304pp he) Unknown Animals Investigation Centre in Available: visit www.dacapopress.com ior? and ms written a number of books ; A“ a teenager, David Standish read some including Mysterious Australia and Giants of the classic novels based around the from the Dreamtime (NEXUS 3/01, 8/05). i i : ing, 1 c . Rex's latest book, Out of the Dreamtime, Vert yous might Comerayi es th archival iMustations. there's an extensive co-written with his wife and fellow field and Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar 1 lowe the i, le WE th a ieet A rh researcher Heather, is a weighty, large- series, for example. As a grad student, he explore the hollow Earth subject further. format volume that summarises the duo's came across an Edgar Allan Poe short story findings about the mysterious hominids and that drew on 19th-century John Cleve animals that arguably still populate the more — Symmes's belief in a polar opening leading remote regions of Australia, New Zealand, into the Earth's hollow interior. He filed all Papua Guinea and Pacific islands such as the this away in his mind until a few years ago Solomons. It's a veritable feast of "monsters — when he came across the Hollow Earth in our own backyard": creatures of Insider website, which showed him that the Aboriginal folklore such as various forms of hollow Earth theory is still alive and well. Bunyip, the Burrunjor (a giant, bipedal, So, Standish was inspired to research the flesh-eating reptile) and the Moolyewonk (a _ history of the idea, which is recorded in "Nessie"-type plesiosaur), the supposedly most ancient cultures worldwide. The extinct marsupial lion and mainland Sumerians, Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, Tasmanian tiger, a reportedly 5.5-metre-tall, Incas and Mayans, for example, all believed emu-like flightless bird in New Guinea, and in an underworld. He takes up the story an assortment of man-beasts (including the with English astronomer and mathematician Yowie) throughout the entire region. The book is packed with b&w photos, eye- witness accounts and stories of Rex and Heather's expeditions. Occasionally Rex lashes out at academic scientists who ignore the evidence or don't even bother to look for it. In the opening chapter, he recounts in gripping detail how he got lost in winter 1999 in the Kanangra Boyd wildemess out past the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, and still managed to discover megalithic stone circles. He was lucky to get out alive! A hands-on fieldworker's approach to achieving progress in science! NEXUS = 67 DECEMBER 2006 — JANUARY 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com