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small man called junjurrie who was seen here as recently as eight years ago. He was about a metre tall and used to play with the children in the old hospital. Several adults claimed to have seen him when they heard the children laughing at night." years ago. He was about a metre tall and used to play with the While at present there may be up to two dozen fairly active children in the old hospital. Several adults claimed to have seen yowie investigators in Australia, we know of only one person, him when they heard the children laughing at night." Grahame Walsh, who has concentrated exclusively on the mystery of the tiny junjudee for any length of time. Dr Walsh, a former Guardians and spiritual secrets National Parks and Wildlife officer, a writer and a photographer, is In February 2000, after small, furry, bipedal animals were seen one of Australia's greatest authorities on Aboriginal rock art. beside the Burnett River at Gayndah, 120 kilometres west of Camarvon National Park, where he conducted most of his Hervey Bay, Queensland, a local Aboriginal man, Sam Hill, told investigations, is situated about 350 kilometres northwest of journalists that the creatures were not feral bears, as assumed by Gayndah. It is famous not only for its rugged beauty, but also for non-Aboriginal witnesses, but the jongari.'” The little creatures, he its abundance of ancient Aboriginal rock art—the kind of art that said, had lived beside his people, the Waka Waka, from as far back Dr Walsh has presented so magnificently in his various books. as anyone could remember. In recent times, however, most of During his years at Carnarvon, Walsh heard many references to them had moved away because of drastic changes to their | junjudees and at least saw apparent junjudee tracks, similar to environment brought about by European settlement: "...when they those of a five-year-old child. He interviewed several blew up the mountain near here to build the eyewitnesses, all of whom described the railway...a lot of them ran out of the hills". creatures as being hair-covered, ape-like and The normally inoffensive little creatures could about one metre tall. Most also mentioned the react violently to destruction of the natural creatures’ terrible smell. There were seasoned environment. Sam said his grandfather had bushmen, he said, who would not camp in been attacked by one while ringbarking trees. The normally certain areas for fear of the little creatures. When we met Sam's father Rodney Hill a inoffensive little "There were a lot of reports [up to about the few weeks later, he made it clear that he mid-1970s], but people don't get out on their disapproved of his son talking to the media." creatures could react properties [on horseback] the way they used to. His people, he explained, normally never iol | Nowadays people go in a vehicle." mention the little hairy men to outsiders; their vio ent y to One witness, timber man Graham Griggs, was secret lore was one of the few things the Waka destruction of the kept awake by junjudees that leapt around on Waka had left. However, when he realised we . the edge of his campsite and repeatedly jumped were genuinely interested in the phenomenon natural environment. between his tent and the fire, leaving many and had travelled far to learn about it, he Sam said his tracks and scaring him so much that he did share a few details, while emphasising abandoned the site altogether. Another that a great deal more must always remain grandfather had timber-getter, Leo Denton of Injune, found secret. been attacked by one tiny tracks and heard cries "like chooks while ringbarking The word jongari is not quite correct, he cackling". His wife Joy also saw fresh trees. said. His people's term for the little people tracks "like a kid's bare feet" in remote would be more correctly rendered as bush locations. jungurri, although junjudee is an Interestingly enough, another local acceptable variation. The jungurri had person compared junjudee vocalisations to always been guardians of his people and those of birds. Retired timber man Paddy kept a particularly close protective eye on O'Connor told journalist John Pinkney that sick children. If, however, they are he once encountered two of the little ridiculed or even talked about too loosely, creatures while camped in the vicinity of they are liable to punish the talkative Carnarvon Gorge. They gave off an person or family members with illness. Then, only traditional absolutely nauseating odour and were, he said, "pointing at my rites—not Western medicine—can cure the afflicted. But now, he billycan. [They] seemed to be exchanging comments about it. I lamented, all the Waka Waka "clever men" had gone: the last of wasn't in much doubt they were using some type of language. It them had passed away with his father's generation. That was partly was a kind of chirping, but seemed to have a shape to it." Although why the situation at Gayndah—with stories about the little people it was just on dawn, and there wasn't enough light for him to being bandied about, sometimes jocularly, in the media—worrie discern the colour of their fur, Mr O'Connor noticed that the him so much. If, as a result, sickness was visited on his people, creatures’ eyes, like those of yowies, seemed to shine: "their there was no one left to cure them. The whole episode saddene reddish eyes were very visible".'? him. Whatever junjudees may be, they are certainly widely Researchers who believe the little creatures are flesh-and-bloo distributed. Les Holland, of Tully in tropical far north Queensland, animals explain away the supernatural aspects of Aboriginal has collected some interesting eyewitness reports." Nathan junjudee lore. They point out that Aborigines don't ascribe such Moilan, whose parents are Aboriginal and Indian, told Mr Holland qualities only to the junjudee but see supernatural or spiritual that his father, a timber worker, often spoke of seeing little hairy qualities in every other animal in Australia—and in all the plants, men in the Kirrama Range behind Tully. The sightings supposedly streams, landforms and other aspects of creation. Furthermore, it occurred between 1990 and 1991, just before rainforest logging is only natural that tribal people would attribute some magical was halted in the area. Nathan's father said that one night, when he powers to an animal as damnably elusive as the junjudee. and his uncle were sharing a three-room hut in the mountains, a Although we, too, would like to see it proved that the creatures are _ little hairy man attacked his uncle as he lay on his bed. Hearing real, we think it foolish and disrespectful to ignore Aboriginal lore desperate cries for help, Nathan's father rushed in and together he that is apparently centuries if not millennia old. and his uncle wrestled with the very powerful little creature. Just The normally inoffensive little violently to destruction of the sam said his trees. 60 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2007 Tracks and attacks grandfather had www.nexusmagazine.com