Yowie sighted at Bexhill 2013

CALL it what you will: A Yeren, a Yeti or a Yowie, but the fact remains that people the world over keep seeing these big hairy buggers lurking in the night.
     The latest sighting took place recently just north of Bexhill when a Lismore resident and music videographer spied the classic creature crossing a moonlit Bangalow Road.
     The witness, who has asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said he was driving back home from a night of filming at Eltham and had just turned onto the Bangalow Road heading for Lismore when he spied a creature jumping a barbed wire paddock fence before briefly pausing at the edge of the road.
     Suddenly the beast moved across the two lanes of bitumen, raising his arm to apparently shield its eyes from the bright high beam glare of the approaching car.

     "I would have seen it for between 20 and 30 seconds," the witness recalled.
     "It was really moving at the time. It leapt the fence no problem.
     "All I can remember was seeing this large black object with a solid build, lanky legs and long lanky arms.
     "It wasn't clothed ... it wasn't wearing clothes like a human."
     The witness said the creature ran with a fast, stooped pace. It had high shoulders and almost no neck and a small head.
      "It was like its head was shrunken into its shoulders," he said.
      Sydney-based yowie researcher, Paul Cropper, said the recent sighting revealed some "classic" elements which provided a common thread linking many experiences by many people over many decades.
      "The fact that this thing was heavy set, with long arms and a small head ... these are classic traits," Mr Cropper said.
      The area where the yowie was seen has a long history of similar sightings. There have been stories about them in The Northern Star since the 1800s.
      In fact Mr Cropper emailed us a clipping from our own paper dated May 17, 1878 in which three descriptions of yowies were published - all of them seen in the west of NSW.

      "There is the valid question of why no one has run a yowie down with a four wheel drive," noted Mr Cropper. "But the fact remains that for well over 100 years, from early settlement to modern times, people have claimed to have seen the same thing."
      The amateur cryptozoologist said he was fascinated by what could be called the UFOs of the animal world.
      "It's a puzzle and I am trying to put the pieces together," he said.
      "I have spoken to over 100 people who have seen a yowie and I feel they have had genuine experiences."

"It's a puzzle and I am trying to put the pieces together," he said. "I have spoken to over 100 people who have seen a yowie and I feel they have had genuine experiences."

Cropper’s interest and position on the Yowie seems very similar to that ofYowieocalypse—the Yowie is subjectively “experienced” rather than objectively “encountered”. Where we differ, however, seems to be in how we define “genuine experiences”.

For example, in his 2006 publication The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot Cropper and his co-author include the accounts some dubious researchers among the "genuine experiences". Brett Green (seeGympie Pyramid and Yowie Tales) is erroneously described as being a "historian" and there is no mention of any of his previous well-documented hoaxes [Are they not relevant?] whilst the majority of case studies are credited to another dubious source.

Did people like Green successfully fool Cropper and his co-author or did they just turn a blind eye to the obvious for the sake of a good story? Is it possible to fake it AND have a genuine Yowie experience? These issues will be explored later...

The witness claims he saw it for 20-30 seconds and described it as having “high shoulders and almost no neck and a small head”.

Yowie sightings have been reported in the past in this area of New South Wales. The concept of a wild man on the island continent of Australia is extremely unlikely and there is currently no agreed upon explanation for these sightings. The evidence consists predominantly of stories of eyewitnesses that cannot be confirmed. In this case, it is questionable if the witness saw the creature for as long as described, it was night time, the creature was dark. Such observations, especially when the person is tired or surprised by the event results in less than accurate descriptions. Therefore, this sighting gets chalked up to “unexplained” because we just have nothing more to go on.

      The area where the yowie was seen has a long history of similar sightings. There have been stories about them in The Northern Star since the 1800s.
       In fact Mr Cropper emailed us a clipping from our own paper dated May 17, 1878 in which three descriptions of yowies were published - all of them seen in the west of NSW.
      "There is the valid question of why no one has run a yowie down with a four wheel drive," noted Mr Cropper. "But the fact remains that for well over 100 years, from early settlement to modern times, people have claimed to have seen the same thing."

A CORRESPONDENT in a western district sends the following strange story to the 'Freeman's Journal :'—About thirty years ago a shepherd in W. Sutton's employ averred, that he had seen a hairy man in a scrub north of Cunningham's Creek, but the story was treated as childish. However, he persisted till the day he died that it walked upright and was covered with air, and the dogs that hunted everything else ran back from this frightened with their tails between their legs. A few years ago young Tim Wring, a shepherd, in Mr. Price's employ, while his pot was boiling for dinner, saw something unusual walking through the scrub about two miles from where the first shepherd reported, but Tim could give no description, as he ran home for his life to be laughed at as a dreamer. Later still, in the last mentioned locality, Pat Wring, a younger brother, heard his kangaroo dogs bark from 10 a.m., to 4 p.m., down the inaccessible cliffs. He intended to go and help to kill what he supposed to be an old man wallaroo, as the dogs could kill any other kind of marsupial. Pat's surprise may easily be imagined when his eyes looked down on a hairy monster standing upright, a body apparently as round as a horse, arms as round as a man's thigh, three claws on each foot. It stood, to the best of his belief, about 4 feet high. The head resembled a pig's, but turned upwards, and he threw into the air the only dog that ventured within its reach. Pat could not see the milk-white hair under his armpits. When Pat was tired of looking on, and fearing the dog would be killed, as it fell on the rock about sixty yards away each time it was thrown up, he threw about 14 lbs. weight of a stone, which struck the mark without doing any damage. The animal was at the foot of the rocks on which Pat stood, and in two springs or strides it sprang or strode in an upright position and then commenced to climb monkey-fashion. Pat saw no more, as he thought it was time to run for his life ; he never looked back. His heart beat so audibly that he fancied it was the quick stamping of the strange thing behind him. The dog died shortly after, but not a hair of the strange creature could be found, though the dog's hair and blood was plentiful on the rocks. We now hear that some splitters on the flat lands north of Cherry Tree Hill have become terrified by hearing unearthly screams or sounds at night. There are thee caves in the vicinity of the above ; into one of these the dogs never follow the rock wallaby.

Are people really "seeing the same thing"?

The first account described a "hairy man" that "walked upright and was covered with [h]air". In Reports of the Wild/Hairy Man, such a description is seemingly applied in a wide variety of situations—anything from monkeys and apes to bearded men and bush hermits to anyone considered uncivilised.

The second account offers no description other than "something unusual walking through the scrub" while the third account offers a bizarre description: "a hairy monster standing upright, a body apparently as round as a horse, arms as round as a man's thigh, three claws on each foot. It stood, to the best of his belief, about 4 feet high. The head resembled a pig's, but turned upwards".

“It wasn’t clothed … it wasn’t wearing clothes like a human.”

Witnesses say the creature runs with a fast, stooped pace. It has high shoulders and almost no neck and a small head.

“It’s like its head was shrunken into its shoulders,” he said.

The Yowie hasn’t been seen in London in over five decades. The last time Londoners saw the Yowie, the Beatles were just becoming famous.

Many in England are speculating as to why the Yowie has returned to London. Sources in the government say that it probably has something to do with Climate Change.

“I believe that the Yowie is being driven out of the forests by Climate Change. This is another reason why we must tackle this issue now,” said Prince Charles.