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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH “LITTLEFOOT", THE JUNJUDEE CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH “LITTLEFOOT", JUNJUDEE THE Many Australian Aboriginal clans have long believed in the existence of small hairy hominids, and since the colonial era many non- indigenous people have also reported them as far north as Cape York, as far south as Gippsland in Victoria and in remote outback regions. lor a couple of weeks in early 1979, the citizens of Charters Towers were in an uproar over reports of "little hairy ape-men" supposedly attacking teenagers on a hill overlooking the old north Queensland mining town. The encounters had apparently been occurring since about August or September 1978, but it wasn't until six months later that the story hit the headlines in the local and national news.' It had all the makings of a good schlock-horror film. One night in late February, the sedate routine at Charters Towers Police Station was shattered when a breathless young man burst though the door to report that one of his mates had gone missing in strange circumstances on Towers Hill, a popular lovers' rendezvous on the outskirts of town. According to police, 19-year-old apprentice baker Michael Mangan was ashen-faced as he poured out the story. Earlier that night, as on other occasions, he had persuaded a group of friends to join him in searching the rugged hillside for mysterious "little hairy men", but somehow one of the boys had become lost. They could clearly hear his terrified screams but, try as they might, could not locate him in the inky darkness. As the whole area was riddled with dangerous old mine shafts, the police responded immediately and within minutes were at the base of the hill. No sooner had they begun the ascent, however, than they met the missing youth running frantically down the road in the opposite direction. Safely back at the station, the badly shaken lad told of being attacked by one of the hairy little men. He said he had fought it off with a rock. During the interview, the officer in charge, Sergeant Gill Engler, noticed blood on the uninjured boy's leg and it was evidently not his own. When the gob-smacked coppers quizzed Michael Mangan again, he supported his mate's story, saying the incident was the culmination of many sightings and searches for the little ape-men. It had all started one night about six months earlier, when he was parked on the hill with his girlfriend: "I looked across to the passenger side and saw a black, hairy face at the window. It was awful. The face was small and drawn back like that of an ape. We both screamed because we got such a shock. I started the car to get out of the place and this thing raised his hand and smashed the passenger side window." The creature was about one metre tall and covered in black hair. When the Charters Towers story first came our way, we didn't quite know what to make of it. By the late 1970s we had collected quite a few other reports of hairy ape-men in Australia, but those creatures commonly known as yowies were apparently rather Sasquatch-like and had an average height, based upon eyewitness estimates, of well over seven feet. If the three-foot-tall Towers Hill creatures were yowies, they must surely have been extremely young ones—mere ankle-biters. If that was the case, how was it that throughout their months of searching, during which they'd seen several little ones, Michael and his friends had never encountered a mama or papa yowie? by Tony Healy and Paul Cropper © 2007 "Littlefoot" in Aboriginal lore The "Littlefoot" story seemed to be a one-off, and initially we filed it in the "too hard" basket. It wasn't long before we had to retrieve it, however, because soon afterwards we began to hear bits and pieces of Aboriginal lore that seemed to refer to a widespread belief in the existence of similar little hairy men in other parts of Australia. The little creatures were known by many names, including dinderi, kuritjah, magulid, net-net, nimminge, nimbunj, njmbin, waaki, wadagadarn, waligada, waladhegahra, winambuu and several variations on the word junjudee. Website: http://www. yowiefile.com APRIL — MAY 2007 NEXUS +57 Terrified teens tell of "little hairy men" www.nexusmagazine.com