Another impressive old Yowie report appeared in the Lismore Northern Star Magazine on 17 May 1878, entitled 'AN AUSTRALIAN MAN OF THE WOODS'.

 

 

"A correspondent in a western district sends the following strange story to the 'Freeman's Journal' :- About thirty years ago a shepherd in W. Suttons 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 to the day he died that it walked upright and was covered with air [sic], 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 five 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 he 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 see the milk white hair under its 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 14lbs 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 spings 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."

 

Two weeks after the original report was published (on 13 April 1878), the Sydney based 'Freeman's Journal' published another article, by the same writer, that added further details to the original story:

"It is now 18 months about since I first heard of Pat Kings adventure with the hairy man. I thought as little about it as my neighbours, until I got the recital from his own lips. I fancy I am pretty sharp in detecting a falsehood, in a certain link between the voice and the eye, but I could see no reason to doubt the story.

 

Moreover, the character of the whole family is above reproach. I have since seen the young man's sister, who tells me that when her brother Tim ran home and told about the sight he had seen he was as white as a sheet, and gave a better description in a few more particulars than his brother.

She likewise reports another meeting with this strange thing. A settler's daughter having gone for the cow's, an older sister, thinking she was long away, went out to assist her. On turning the comer of a bush fence, about a quarter of a mile from the hut, she suddenly stood face to face with the stranger.

 

No doubt both were frightened, as they stood watching each other, until the sister called out that she had all the cows, when the hairy creature turned about and walked liesurely away. This last adventure, like the three black crows, took all shapes ere it reached our neighborhood two years ago.

 

We always doubted the existence of this strange animal, but after conversing with some of the actors, and hearing the recital from neighbours who live beside them, we see no reason to discredit it any longer."

 

 

 

 

 

 


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