Location: Jackadgery, New South Wales
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: 1978
Terrain: Deep rock gorges, river country huge steep hills of boulders with cracks and vegetation between them there would be many hidden caves in these hills.
Very remote virgin bush only accessible by chopper or canoe.
I grew up on the northern rivers of NSW where many of the local schools have white water kayaking and canoeing as a school sport or P.E. elective. Once a year the school permitted the more experienced of us to go on a week long canoeing expedition with the teachers that where involved in our sport.
I was about 14 at the time on one of these trips.
We drove for 3 hours deep into the roughest terrain this area has to offer to launch into a medium sized river, which travels through deep bush country to a very large estuary to the ocean. We where way up the river 2–3 days paddle from our launch point, we usually stopped there for a rest for a day and a half and did some fishing as it was the best spot on the trip for big fish.
The water was so clean and there were deep gorges separated by shallow rapids, It was very remote and virtually untouched by man as the only way in was by canoe or chopper we had to carry the canoes around waterfalls and big rapids so motor boats are out of the question.
There was about 30 of us and we set up main camp at the mouth of a river junction which was half way down a Gorge where if you fall in you can’t get out as the rock is straight up at the river bank. Late that afternoon a friend and I paddled up stream about a mile to go fishing above a set of shallow rapids we left the canoe at the bottom of them and walked up to a backwash just above the rapids.
We finally got across the top of the rapids and on to some soft ground about 30 –40 feet from the bottom of an almost vertical boulder rock face. The whole area was mountainous hills made up of very step piles of huge boulders with ledges and vegetation between the rocks.
A few feet on to the soft ground we could see a very large foot print it was over a foot long and very wide I put my foot in it a size 7 men at the time and it was almost twice as long and twice the width. We thought someone was playing a trick but no one had been up there only us two. Then I could smell something dead & rotting and noticed some tracks, well-used ones scratched into the rocks.
Then I heard some rustling in the long grass between us, and the rock face. An ape like creature about 5-5 ½ ft with light brown/dusty tan hair all over it stood up and ran very fast to the rocks and straight up them like a monkey it was so fast!
It did seem to drag its arms very low until it hit the rocks then it seemed to move even faster. It stopped about 80 –100 ft above us on a ledge and crouched down and watched as we stood and watched it.
It held a stair for about a minute then ran off in between the rocks, we took off back to the canoe and set a record speed back to camp, we even left some fishing gear there an didn’t go back for it.
On arriving at the camp we told the teachers who had been in this area a few times.
One of them did show some concern and I think one of the aboriginals that was with us said something to them as we circled the tents that night, and lit a big fire I was with the older students, the tough ones and we camped a bit away from the others so we could smoke cigs. But we got no sleep that night and we left earlier than usual the next day.
Phil
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