Nearly Killed by a Yowie

YOWIE researcher Dean Harrison insists he has nearly been killed twice by the mysterious hairy creature.

So when the QT continued our hunt for evidence of the elusive beast in the Ipswich area it was worth having a chat to the man who has had numerous yowie encounters, and interviewed the witness to the sighting of the Mulgowie Yowie back on August 15, 2001.

Harrison, who runs the Australian Yowie Research website, has been searching for yowies for over 20 years.

He has provided a recorded interview with a certain Steve Doyle, who on September 22, 2013 was driving with his wife on the Laidley-Rosewood Rd at dusk when he got one hell of a fright.

"I glanced to the side of the road and it was my height...five foot four. It just looked like a person standing on the side of the road," Doyle revealed.

"It would have been about 15m away from us at that stage…and as I looked across it was running back into the scrub on all fours (after it was) standing up.

"My wife said 'that was a bear...that was hairy' and I said 'that is just plain weird'.

"At first I thought it was a person in the shadows but then it dropped on all fours and went back out into the paddock."

Doyle is a hunter and said "it was nothing like I'd seen before".

"It was black with long hair. It would have been around 80 or 90 kilos…with a normal sized head in comparison to us. It didn't take off at any great speed. It just loped off."

Doyle said he was later stunned to learn of a sighting in the region 12 years earlier.

The QT reported on the sighting by a Mrs Crouten near Mulgowie in 2001. Harrison went out on location to interview Mrs Crouten at the time, who was working as a cook for a local doctor and was driving home at night.

Mrs Crouten saw the creature just outside of Mulgowie in her headlights as it was walking on all fours. She was reported as saying that it was covered in hair and "looked like a large version of an Orang-utan".

She was famously quoted as saying that "it had a distinctive monkey's bottom".

Shaken, she called the police and was regarded by the senior constable who spoke to her as a credible witness.

"That was a life changing experience for her and she was pretty shaken up about it," Harrison said.

"Then the police got involved, it all hit the media and she laid low.

"It is a relatively small community and once word got around about the Mulgowie Yowie it was pretty much common knowledge.

"With the added reports over the years it has added to the hype."

MORE ON THIS STORY: Mulgowie Yowie file reopened

Harrison said the yowie could be a homo erectus, thought to be an extinct species of hominid. Others suggest it may be some form of prehistoric ape.

"They are said to be extinct but there are so many sightings, almost daily, that can't be ignored," he said.

"It has been happening ever since white settlers arrived here. We are told by the Aboriginal people about the hairy man in the bush and we thought it was a ploy to scare us away.

"But as we were building roads and towns in virgin forests we were seeing them all around the country at the same time.

"They were reporting back to London that we had our own indigenous primate.

"I think their genes are very strong and that they might have a life expectancy pretty close to ours. Maybe not as long as ours, because if something goes severely wrong they can't go to the doctor."

Harrison had a terrifying encounter with a yowie at Kilkivan, near Gympie, an incident that saw him bruised from head to toe.

He shared images of his injuries with friends which have since gone viral on the internet.

"That was a game changer. I can't go back into the bush by myself. I just got hit with a big dose of reality," he said.

"I nearly got taken down by one at Ormeau in 1997 and that was really scary.

"It was only by the grace of God that I survived.

"I made a phone call at 11pm in a clearing before going into the bush and if I hadn't I wouldn't be here today.

"This thing really meant business. But the cruncher was in 2009 at Kilkivan and if a few guys weren't there to rescue me I wouldn't be here.

MORE ON THIS STORY: Legend of elusive yowie living on in Mulgowie

"That took a good eight months to get over.

"The scary thing is that yowies have a massive advantage over us because of their eyesight in the dark.

"The thing that knocked me over ran down a hill in pitch darkness past obstacles, tree, and logs. The angles were so steep but it sprinted down.

"It didn't miss a beat.The one that chased me at Ormeau was the same."

Australian Skeptics executive officer Tim Mendham said the case for the existence of yowies "comes down to the evidence and the quality of the evidence".

"At the Australian Skeptics we run the gamut of saying 'that is feasible' to 'that is highly unlikely'," he said.

"There would be few things that we would say are absolute, one hundred per cent rubbish.

"But the yowie would be towards the 'improbable' end, because of the lack of real evidence.

"People will say that they have got footprints or photos that are not particularly good and are open to other interpretations.

"You reach the stage where there are possibility and probability issues.

"To me on both those scales it is unlikely…just because of what we know at the moment."

Harrison said getting a photo of a yowie was easier said than done.

"We have some sketchy photos but nothing fantastic," he said.

"Things are going to change in the future because people have dash cameras now and cameras on their phones.

"When you are out in the bush and have an encounter and your mind is trying to register what this thing is, it has taken off.

"You don't have time to get your camera out."

MORE ON THIS STORY: Yowie not to blame for stock losses

Mendham and the Australian Skeptics are after more evidence before their skepticism about the yowie decreases.

"This is something that is unusual and you would need a certain size population of these creatures to sustain their existence," he said.

"You can't just have a one-off, unless they live forever.

"So you do need a population and there has to be more than two. You need a large family or tribe.

"Once you have that number of individuals you would expect to have a lot more contact - whether it be photographic evidence, which can be faked, or droppings.

"You'd maybe need some sort of evidence of what they eat.

"Looking at some of the evidence on Harrison's site there are footprints which look decidedly unreal. You'd think with that number of individuals there would be better evidence by now.

"The fact that we have increasing human habitation in these areas and an increasing number of people going through these areas…including bushwalkers…the suggestion that there is no better evidence than there might have been 20, 30 or 40 years ago indicates it might be something else."

Mendham is not a stick in the mud, and does have a wry view of the yowie.

"At the Australian Skeptics we deal with a lot of fun things like UFOs and we also deal with deadly serious things, like quack cures.

"To me things like the yowies are fun, unless you are a homeless person being eaten by one.

"These creatures, if they exist, don't seem to do a lot of harm. They are shy and run away. Not that I am saying that they exist."

Harrison would disagree about yowies being harmless but he does agree there is an enduring attraction to the creatures.

"Everyone loves a story about the yowie. Everyone loves a mystery don't they," he grinned.

MORE ON THIS STORY: Yowies: 'they're out there I've spoken with them'

INTELLIGENCE agents are tracking a yowie through the bush in the Gold Coast hinterland according to one of Australia's leading researchers into the mysterious creatures.
     Dean Harrison, who runs the Australian Yowie Research website and claims to have nearly been killed twice by yowies, made the stunning admission to the QT.
     He also said many missing people in the bush are likely to have been abducted by yowies and reported how one giant yowie had been shot in the leg, but escaped.
     Harrison's revelations about a yowie with a transmitter embedded between its shoulder blades is a bombshell.
     "I was in contact with some people at the army base at Canungra in 1998," Harrison recalled.
     "Security was doing the checks at the barracks and they went to the mess hall where the door was unlocked and open.
     "They heard some clanking around of pots and pans, and they opened the door and went in the kitchen and there was a yowie inside going through stuff.
     "They closed the door, locked it and called in the spooks. After that they put a tracking device the size of a 50 cent piece between the yowie's shoulder blades at the back.
     "They let it out into the forest and have been tracking it ever since. This comes from officials."
     Australia's national security service poured cold water on Harrison's claims.
     A spokesperson from ASIO told the QT that "ASIO is not currently monitoring any yowies."
     Harrison had other startling revelations about yowies, including one that suffered a war wound.
     "I know people from Taree who have shot at yowies," he said.
     "They walked in an abandoned train tunnel and down the end they saw what they thought was a bat hanging from the roof, because its eyes were glowing.
     "As they got closer to the dead end of this tunnel they realised 'holy heck. That is no bat'.
     "It was a yowie standing there and it was so tall its head was up near the roof.
     "It had no way out so it just ran straight for them and as it passed this guy had a 22 and shot it in the leg.
     "As it was running away it slapped its leg like it had been stung."

     Harrison also recounted a tale of how the body of a yowie was confiscated by unknown federal officers from a creek near Evans Head.
     "A young Aboriginal lad found it in 2000.
     "I have spoken to the witnesses and they said that some unknown federal group came up from Sydney and transferred the body.
     "Not a word was said since. They phoned the police station and asked what happened and they said they knew nothing."
     Harrison said Aboriginals had stories about being abducted by yowies.
     "I have absolutely no doubt yowies are responsible for many missing people in the bush," he said.
     "That is based on my own experience and I guess common sense as well. Twice I have nearly been dead and only by luck I have got out of it."
     The QT asked Police Media whether any yowies had been investigated for abducting humans.
     "No," was the answer provided by a spokesman, while having a good chuckle at the same time.

     Bob Bruce of the Queensland Skeptics said researchers were yet to provide evidence that yowies exist and said Harrison's claims were far from conclusive.
     "The bottom line is that we have got to see the evidence," he said.
     "It is all very nice to assert things like that, but it doesn't help unless there is some factual evidence that would lead you to a conclusion.
     "There is always a test of common sense and rationality and when you are talking about yowies there would have to be a breeding colony of these people and plenty of evidence that they do exist."
     Bruce said yowies were "mostly in public imagination and mythology".
     "It is just like the Indian rope trick.
     "Everybody claims that it exists but nobody has seen it.
     "It is a story that has perpetuated itself over the ages…but it needs evidence to support it.
     "Just because something is in the popular culture doesn't mean it is true.
     "All we need is some pictures or some real life examples of yowies."