Location: Mt Kembla, New South Wales
Event: Yowie Encounter
Date: Dec 1986
One morning, while engaged on upgrading the Unanderra to Dumbarton railway at the base of Mt Kembla, plant operator Ron Svechheimers of Singleton, NSW, arrived on site early, parked his car in a small clearing and began to read the paper.
Ron States: “It was just coming up light when I had this feeling, ‘somebody’s behind me’. I’m a big bloke, but it put the wind up me … an eerie feeling.” He got out of the car, took a few steps and found himself only four feet away from “… a dark shadow - and it was big, probably seven feet tall, broad and strong-looking. The head was like ours, but broader and maybe a bit narrower at the top. I weigh 120 kilos. This was double my weight, if not triple.
It might have been a browny colour, scruffy, hairy - I’d say 100 mill [4 inches] long. I froze – I didn’t know what to do – run, scream or what. It took off down the hill – hard, rocky terrain, a lot of thick lantana … trees … underscrub … it went crashing through. Long strides. The arms were down near the knees, [they] were swinging. It wasn’t a person. It left “a real horrible smell … like when your dog goes out and rolls in something. Filthy, dirty, musty. I got back in the car and just shook.
Even now [20 years later, as he recalled the event] I’m shaking … goose pimples. I was bewildered. All day blokes were saying, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ and I’d say, ‘Nothing, nothing’ – I wouldn’t tell anybody.
Then, about two weeks later, about a kilometre up the escarpment, me and another bloke seen it – clear as a bell this time. We were having lunch at 12 o’clock, and my mate … looked up and says, ‘Jesus Christ – what’s that?’ Straight across the train line there’s a bank that rises up – and this thing was standing there, 50 metres away, just inside the tree line, in clear view.
I reckon it was the same one – same size and dimensions. It was like an orang-utan – because it was orangey-coloured hair.” The head hair was thick, “wild and dirty”; on the chest it seemed sparser, but around the lower abdomen it was so thick that it was impossible to say if the creature was male or female.
One hand was on a tree and it was, like, looking at us, saying ‘What are you doing here?’ A face like a monkey … shiny, dark, probably like a gorilla … didn’t have a nose like ours … more broad. His eyes were deep, dark … the contact was there between me and him … an aggressive look that was overpowering and scary. I was shaking like an autumn leaf again – waiting for it to come barrelling down the hill and attack us – that’s the feeling you got - [but] it just turned and walked away up the escarpment … big strides, nobody could step that long … torso bent forward slightly. And you could smell that odour as soon as he moved.
It’s a horrible smell and it stays with you – it’s something you don’t forget.”
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