Searching for the Yowie, the Down Under Bigfoot
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[ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell, PhD, is a skeptical cryptozoologist and author of numerous investigative books, including Tracking the Man-Beasts. Searching for the Yowie, the Down Under Bigfoot ike the fabled Yeti or Abominable himself once reported an encounter Snowman of the Himalaya (1976, 10). We next drove to Jeno- LMountains, and the Sasquatch/ lan Caves—which Gilroy (1995, 219) Bigfoot of North America, Australia’s claims the Aborigines believed to be Yowie (or Yahoo, among many other Yowie lairs—and bushwalked (hiked) names) is a supposed hairy man-beast through the surrounding mountainous that leaves strange tracks and wonder- terrain in a vain search for the elusive ment wherever it ambles. Equated with creature (Nickell 2001, 16–17). an entity from Aboriginal mythol- In 2015, before and after the annual ogy, also called Dulagarl (or Doolagahl, Australian Skeptics National Conven- “great hairy man”), it was regarded tion in Brisbane (of which I was hon- as a magical being from the time ored to be a headliner) held October of creation—what Aborigines call the 16–18, I was able to resume my quest Dreamtime. Interestingly, however, for the Yowie (and began several other “[M]any early Europeans claimed to investigations). I am indebted to Ross have seen the Yowie, many years before Balch for his tireless help in Brisbane they came to learn about it from the and rural Queensland to the north, and aborigines” (Gilroy 1976, 9). It remains, to Kevin Davies and Nick Ware for according to cryptozoologist Loren their dedicated assistance in Canberra Coleman (2006), “one of the world’s and the New South Wales countryside. greatest zoological or anthropological I photographed a Yowie with a rather mysteries.” wooden personality, did research at an I first went in search of the creature Aboriginal institute, and kept an eye in 2000 guided by skeptic Peter Rodg- out for any exotic creature in the wild. ers. We ventured into the Blue Moun- Here is some of what I found. tains west of Sydney, which—accord- ing to Yowie popularizer Rex Gilroy Will the Real Yowie . (1995, 212)—“continues to be a hot- bed of Yowie man-beast activities—a My study began when Ross Balch vast region of hundreds of square miles drove Myles Power and me through containing inaccessible forest regions scattered Yowie territory to Yowie seldom if ever visited by Europeans.” Park at Kilcoy. There, with parrots We drove into the Katoomba township flitting about, we took photographs bushland and took the world’s steep- of the cracked wooden sculpture of est incline railway (originally built as a the fabled man-beast (Figure 1). As I coal-mine transport in 1878) down into Figure 1. Yowie statue in Yowie Park at Kilcoy, Queensland, did so I quipped, “It doesn’t get more Jamison Valley rainforest where Gilroy Australia (Author’s photo). real than this!” I meant that, of course, 16 Volume 40 Issue 2 | Skeptical Inquirer to apply to skeptics’ sightings: Yowies long fingernails, and being about the a coat of hair . what the people here seem not to appear to skeptics—even height of her grandfather. He seemed call a Yahoo or some such name.” Still those looking for them, although it to wish to avoid the girl (“A Catalogue” another case of that period involved an is obligatory for those who report 2006, 207). encounter with a “hideous yahoo” near encounters to insist they were previ- The term Yowie appears to have an abandoned village (“A Catalogue” ously skeptical. been used little if at all during this pe- 2006, 204–206). But what about the Aboriginal elder riod, but the appellation “yourie” or Graham Joyner (1994) conducted who insisted, regarding the Dulagarl, “yowrie” appears by perhaps the 1920s, an in-depth study of the issue, which “He only appears to Aboriginal people” maybe after the Yowrie River or the he reported in Canberra Historical Jour- (Mumbulla 1997)? Do the numerous nearby crossroads community of Yow- nal. He found that Aborigines probably non-Aboriginal sightings contradict rie, named by 1885. There was a Yowie adopted the term Yahoo from settlers, him? Or is it possible he is talking Bay, but it was originally named Ewey rather than the other way around. about a quite different being—not the Bay after the offspring of ewes called Yowie/Yahoo who today apes (so to “eweys” (Healy and Cropper 2006, 13– ‘Littlefoot’ speak) Bigfoot, but rather his people’s 143, 25), so the term Yowie may not be In addition to the “hairy giant” tra- supernatural entity who could induce aboriginal at all (“A Catalogue” 2006, dition, another type of Yowie is rep- sleep and fly through the air to kidnap 217; Healy and Cropper 2006, 14, 25). resented by the Aborigines’ Junjudees lone women from the bush, yet who— (among other terms). These are small, according to some tribal/regional tra- hairy, magical creatures comparable ditions—contrastingly carried clubs, to European fairies, elves, and lepre- used fire, and ate men. Other creatures chauns. Still, they seem as real as any of Aboriginal lore included the Quink- if we believe the stories of teenagers ins who, variously shaped, were gen- who encountered them in 1978–1979 erally quite small; however, the giant Yowie’s image may on Towers Hill, near Charters Towers, Quinkin, Turramulli, towered over tall Queensland. One teen was attacked trees, had three taloned fingers on each well up from the but claimed to have fought off the hand, and as many clawed toes on each subconscious and be three-foot-tall creature with a rock foot (Healy and Cropper 1994, 116, (Healy and Cropper 2006, 120–121). 118; 2006, 6–12). None of these enti- superimposed on Among many other reports were mul- ties sounds like a Bigfoot type. the visual scene. tiple sightings of similar creatures in Indeed, just as Bigfoot was originally 1994 in the vicinity of Carnarvon a “wild man of the woods” adapted Gorge in Queensland (Pinkney 2003, from European tales and retrofitted 31–32). onto Native American supernatural be- Some Aborigines emphasize the ings synthesized for the purpose (Nic- Junjudees’ supernatural powers, tell- kell 2011; Loxton and Prothero 2013, ing colorful tales about their exploits. 30–36), the Yowie/Yahoo is similarly Yahoos For instance, they are guardian beings derivative. Australian examples (from of certain places, are mischievous, and “A Catalogue of Cases” 2006) show Moreover, if we consider the earlier, are attracted to honey. They are also a that the earliest reports—the first in parallel term “Yahoo,” we must at sort of bogeyman, used to keep children 1789 being acknowledged as “obviously once recall that it was used—indeed 1 from wandering off, according to Aus- a hoax,” and continuing well after the invented —by English satirist Jonathan tralian Folklore (Ryan 2002, 137–138). beginning of the twentieth century— Swift in his Gulliver’s Travels (1726, Yowie hunters, somewhat embar- were sightings of a “WILD MAN or 343–351). It describes his race of hairy, rassed by the little hairy folk, rational- monstrous GIANT,” a “Hairy Man,” goat-bearded, manlike animals. Swift’s ize that they may be very young Yow- “in appearance half man, half baboon,” Yahoos are brutes but, satirically, have ies—no matter what Aborigines say “wild man of the bush,” “like a black- human depravities. about their “indigenous fairies” (as one fellow [Aborigine] only considerably By 1856 comes a report of a man- researcher calls them [Povah 2006]). larger,” “hairy men,” “an old man . beast described alternately as a “wild covered with a thick coat of hair,” “the man of the woods” or a “yahoo.” A case hairy man of the wood,” and so on. of uncertain date in the 1860s involved What Manner of Beast? As an example, in 1871 a “little girl” a twelve-foot-tall Yahoo that had Yowies are described in a widely diverse reported an encounter that was part of webbed feet and belched fire. In the manner—beginning with height, which, a “wild man” tradition in the area. She same decade a Miss Derrincourt en- based on 263 cases (“A Catalogue” described an old man having a bent countered “something in the shape of 2006), ranges from about two to thirteen back, a covering of hair, tremendously a very tall man, seemingly covered with feet. The earliest-known record of an Skeptical Inquirer | March/April 2016 17 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Acknowledgments Aboriginal sighting came in July 1871 and Cropper 2006, 105, 170–171, 223). when a “gorilla”-like creature was encoun- Again, like sightings of ghosts—typi- In addition to those mentioned in the text, I am grateful to the staff at AIATSIS tered, but we must keep in mind that due cally seen when the percipient is tired, (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and to their long isolation on the Australian performing routine work, daydreaming, Torres Straight Islander Studies), Canberra, island–continent, the Aborigines had no or the like—a Yowie’s image may well and CFI Libraries Director Tim Binga. I knowledge of primates other than man. up from the subconscious and be super- again want to thank John and Mary Frantz It was the early settlers and journalists imposed on the visual scene (Nickell for their generous financial assistance, who began to describe man-beasts with 2012, 345). which makes many of my investigations possible. terms such as “huge monkey or baboon,” “upright gorilla,” and so on—from 1849 ‘Bigfoot’ Note to the present. The American Sasquatch—after 1958 1. The invention of the word is credited to In the early 1870s, in New South usually called Bigfoot (Nickell 2011, Swift in Gulliver’s Travels, 1726, by the authori- Wales, prospectors saw what they tative Oxford English Dictionary (1971).