Wowie Zowie 1999

Thanks to a buffer of doubt, a murky no man's land between them, they were able to continue, as a reflex almost, putting favors each other's way, as one might put out a saucer of milk for a prowling yowie, that wild creature never yet seen by white man but known for its periodic forays into tearing the heads off bulls, gratified enough to see the saucer licked clean next morning without feeling the least desire to hide with spotlights ready and a museum curator's acquisitive eye for what may be observed emerging from the night, unsuspecting but cautious all the same, docile enough to make straight for the milk but savage when cornered, and against whom no net in the world could be guaranteed secure...

Kisses of the Enemy (1987) by Rodney Hall

THE FEARFUL image of the shaggy man-like creature seems to be one that lurks in the human imagination, wherever that imagination might reside.
So we have the "abominable snowman", the "alma", the "big-foot", the "sasquatch" and the "yeti". To that list the Aborigines have added the "douligah" and the "yowie". In the mysterious way in which language works, the "yowie" has become something of a success - not quite as popular as the "bunyip", the mysterious creature that lurks in the waterhole, but still reasonably well known. There are 11 instances of the "yowie" on an Australian newspaper index as opposed to 163 "bunyips". But there are no "douligahs".
The "yowie" has been borrowed from the Yulwaalaraay language spoken by the Aborigines near Lightning Ridge in outback New South Wales. The "douligah" is from speakers of the Dhurga and Dharawal languages living around Jervis Bay, New South Wales. Who can say why the "yowie" prospered, even being elevated to fame appearing as a chocolate, while the "douligah" still lurks in the linguistic shadows.

Susan Butler is the publisher of the Macquarie Dictionary.

WOWIE Zowie! We got ourselves a Yowie! Well, maybe. Have a squiz to the right and you'll see a bloke called Rex Gilroy. Rex is a 'cryptozoologist' (yes, that's a job, there was one on the X-Files this week). Anyhoo, Rex is holding four plaster casts of footprints taken from Mount Royal Range (near Singleton) early May. Rex thinks they might have been left by the fabled `Yowie' which is apparently Aboriginal for `hairy man'. The two-day-old footprints were found stamped in dried mud by campers and Rex, often called `Yowie Man' (which I guess translates to `Hairy Man Man') believes they compare favourably with those found in Queensland's Numinbah Valley in 1990. And, in fact, Yowie reports have been coming from the Mount Royal Range since the 1830s. So, I guess if you're headed there soon, remember the cardinal rule when it comes to Yowies: `Yowies are cute, perhaps a little hirsute. But if one asks you to dance, pull up your pants and run, run, RUN!