Henry Lawson, 'The Hairy Man', in Triangles of Life and other stories Melbourne, 1913 pp 210-223.
An extract from the introduction to this story, even below, refers to the Blue Mountains, but the story itself is set in the Mudgee district.]
But the Hairy man was permanent, and his country spread from the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range right out to the ends of the western shores.
He had been heard of the seen and described so often and by so many reliable liars that most people agreed there must be something.
The most popular and enduring theory was that he was a gorilla, or an orang-outang which had escaped from a menagerie long ago. He was also said to be a new kind of kangaroo, or the last of a species of Australian animals which hadn't been discovered yet.
Anyway, in some places, he was regarded as a danger to children coming home from school, as were wild bullocks, snakes and an occasional buchman in the d,t's.
So now and then, when the yarn had a revival, search parties were organised, and went out with guns to find the Hairy Man and to settle him and the question one way or another.
But they never found him.
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