Location: Blackheath (Shipley Plateau), New South Wales
Event: Audible with Possible Yowie Sighting
Date: Feb 12, 2006
Witness: Michael
Hi Dean, thought you might be interested in what happened yesterday:
I hiked from Blackheath train station, across shipley plateau to Hargraves Lookout (0).
I looked around and took some photos before sitting down to rest on the eastern side of the upper lookout, looking down into the Megalong Valley.
I sat for about 15 minutes before I heard a very weird noise ("one"). It was about 3:45pm. It was coming from the valley, to the east of the lookout (1). It was definitely an animal, very large and very loud. Sorry for making the comparison but think of the bleating noise a wookie (from Star Wars) makes. The noise was like that but louder, deeper, and more of a strangled growl. It sounded like it was in distress. It called twice. There were cows spread out in a back paddock of a farm (5). Ever cow bolted to the far end of the paddock, away from the noise.
Then there was a second source ("two"), same noise but louder, deeper and longer. It was further up the valley in the denser forest (2). "One" and "two" called back and forth for 15 minutes, moving closer as they did. A third source ("three"), much closer (3), let out an awful yowl. It scared the hell out of me.
"One" and "two" met up and went quiet for 5 minutes or so. Then one of them called again, shorter and lower pitch, and it was repeated by "three", who by this time had moved slightly eastward. Then it went quiet again.
I scanned the forest but couldn't see anything. Bad day to forget my binoculars. 5 minutes later there was a very loud snap and crunch. A tree branch was broken, and from the sound, it would have been at least as thick as my wrist. The breaking branches continued over the next 35 minutes, punctuated with frequent yowling.
"Third" was moving slowly south and "one/two" were moving south-west then south, very fast. When they met up there were a few short grunts and yowls, directly east of me (4), then quiet. I thought I saw a large dark shape move out from behind a tree (4), but without my binoculars I couldn't be sure what it was.
I've lived on a farm and have been hiking for more than a decade. I know bird and animal sounds but those noises where not from any animal I know of.
Panorama View
http://www.katoomba-nsw.com/Shippan1.html
GoogleEarth coordinates
(0)
33 40' 32.62" S
150 14' 32.65" E
(1)
33 40' 51.45" S
150 15' 19.08" E
(2)
33 40' 30.28" S
150 15' 11.19" E
(3)
33 40' 30" S
150 14' 44.35" E
(4)
33 40' 42.67" S
150 14' 44.22" E
(5)
33 41' 02.29" S
150 15' 25.66" E
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