Location: Korora Basin New South Wales
Event: Yowie friend as a Child
Date: 1980 +
Terrain: Bananna Plantation
I regard Yowie's as more human than animal. I grew up with one from my earliest memory of about 3 or 4. All I can remember is that he was there, communicating with me in my mind. We always played together but his Mum and Dad were always in the background, keeping an eye on us.
This was on my Mothers Banana Plantation, not far from the packing shed in a bush area. The size and the eyes of the Yowie are the thing that stays most in my mind, even to the present time..
I used to wander from the packing shed into the bush area, but I knew the boundaries of the property, and never went past that. I would see my friend daily at times, and sometimes just now and again. I was always in earshot of Mum, but I was in fairly heavy bush land. I think my Mother believed, although my first stories were put down to my "imaginary friend".
There was 71/2 years between my next oldest brother or sister, so I spent a lot of time by myself, while they were all away at school. We have never discussed this, so I don't know if they ever had experiences or not.
My friend, had reddish-brown hair, no longer than 4 inches, fairly thick, especially across the shoulders, it was coarse but smooth. At different times of the year, he had a different smell. In summer, it was a sweet overpowering smell like beehives, and in the winter a more musky/rotten smell. He used to come into the back of our house to the fruit trees and pick and eat the plums.
Occasionally, he would grunt, but not very often, and it was usually to get my attention. We played together a lot, when I was young. We played tag, we climbed trees together, and if I got into trouble, he would always help me out. He would always give me a push up, if I couldn't reach a branch, or lift me down if I got stuck on the way down. The other thing we used to do, was roll over logs and eat the grubs and insects from underneath.
I know it sounds gross now, but at that age I didn't think twice about it. Sometimes, if we couldn't roll the log over by ourselves, his Mum and Dad would come and help us. It was like they were overseeing our learning of how to live off the land. What is right to eat, and what isn't. We were just like 2 children playing together, I had no idea, that I "shouldn't" be doing it, or that it could be dangerous.
I don't know really how we found each other, I could just sense him in my mind, and then I would find him. Sometimes we would play for a few minutes, and other times we would be together for hours. He was agile, but I remember now, that his movements were very deliberate, like he was thinking hard about what he was doing before he did it. He could jump really high, and run fast, I never had a chance of catching him when we were playing tag.
In his adult life, when I came back to the property as an adult, with my own family, he was about 6-7 feet tall. When I was growing up, I just remember he was always taller, but grew like I did. He was always broad across the shoulders, and had large hands and feet. I don't ever remember it smiling, but I felt the emotion of it smiling, it didn't show things physically. The arms were longer than ours, but in proportion, and very muscular and very strong. He had five fingers, they had nails just like ours, and the pads of his fingers were more pronounced. His skin was brown, like a very tanned person, but not black like an aborigine.
There wasn't much hair on the face, but a trace like a moustache and beard. His feet were very large, very wide across the toes and the ball of the foot, they were very flat, and he had a large big toe. There were times when it was aggressive to others, but never to me. When we were in the house, you could hear a hum. Not everyone could hear it, but when I heard it I knew he was happy.
His parents were just bigger versions of him, and were always there watching from a distance. They had palms free of hair, and the backs of the hands and feet had a lot shorter hair. I moved to Brisbane when I was 6 years old. We moved back to the property when I was 10 or 11.
We still had our adventures. But not as regularly.
I moved away from the property again, and had a family of my own. We moved back, my two children and myself in about 1992 He was still there, but I sensed he had a mate, I didn't see her much but she was younger than him and a honey blond colour, a lot smaller than him, and very shy. I don't recall seeing breasts, that were obvious, they possibly, could have been covered by the hair. My encounters with him at this time, started with an inquisitive face peering through the window, which appeared just like a silhouette. Then he started calling out, a sort of humming noise, and when I heard that, I knew he was happy.
We were just sitting there watching television, and I just sensed this feeling, and turned around and there he was looking through the window, he just looked the same but older. I still believed that he was my secret. But I do remember my daughter chatting away, but no-one was there, maybe she was also having the same experiences I had when I was young?
One night my girlfriend came to stay with her two children and her boyfriend. We could both hear the humming noise, but he couldn't, he disbelieved, as he had been a hunter all his life, had not had an encounter, and therefore didn't believe they existed.
That night, my girlfriend and I went out, and left her boyfriend looking after the four children. It was close to bedtime, so he walked down the long hallway towards my bedroom to get the mattress to take back to the lounge for them to sleep on. He got a cold feeling as he walked down the hall, and a huge hand was placed on his chest, lifting him up and throwing him through the wall. He was 6 foot 3 inches, tall, and weighed 17 or 18 stone. He said he felt like a feather in the hands of this creature, which was mad and angry.
In the end, he sent the children to the bedroom to get the mattress. The next day there was bruising on his chest of a hand print. I took him to the bush the next day, and asked if he could see anything, he said no. I told him to look closer, and in the gravelly dirt, he saw prints, nearly twice the size of his feet, running up the hill. From that day on, he was too scared to stay in the house. For some reason, they just didn't like him.
After my mother sold the property, I went back that way for a drive. They are still there somewhere. The strange thing is about three months before I shifted away from there forever, and at the time I didn't even know I was going, I felt like the Yowies' were saying goodbye. At the time I thought they were moving on because the food was running low. Then 3 months later, it was me who was moving to live with my new boyfriend, somehow they knew.
I have discussed my experiences with a few friends, who have related to me some of there encounters as well. One friend, who was walking to the toilet (an outside one) smelt this sweet rotten smell. She thought there was a problem with the septic tank, but then felt a strange feeling. She turned around and there he was, standing down by the fence. She described it as a ghost like silhouette, and she sensed it was asking for help. She was so scared she ran straight back inside the house.
Another guy, who I have known since I was young, had a car with an expensive stereo in it, so it had an alarm. The alarm would go off, and by the time he got out to the car, he could hear a person moving off. Other times, he would find the mirrors turned up or down, and different things like that, but no attempt to get into the car. On one particular night, he was out at his car with a torch, and saw something. There was no reflection back, only a silhouette form.
He came over straight away, and his first question was "How big do the Kangaroo's get here?"
I said 4ft.
Then he asked "Kangaroo's can run don't they?"
Of course I said, no they hop
He went ghostly white, and I tried to explain to him what he had seen, but he wouldn't believe me.
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