Location: Border Ranges, Blue Knob New South Wales
Event: Yowie Sightings
Date: 1987
Time: Daytime
[Male Witness]
Transcript from Recorded Interview: 28/4/24 by Paul Cropper
Paul
Can you give me some background about yourself and what you were doing there in the day? And then, and then could you give me just basically an outline of the experience as you remember it?
Witness N:
Oh, well, in 87, I'd started a trekking company, operating out of Nimbin, to do treks in the Border Ranges, Nightcap and Bundjalung. And prior to that, I'd worked, done some guiding in the Blue Mountains. I'd been a seasonal ranger with Parks and Wildlife in Gibraltar Range, Kosciuszko. And prior to that, I'd worked for years as a stockman in various parts of the country, and had some time in the territory in Cape York.
And yeah, the trekking company, I got permission from Parks and Wildlife to operate in the, on the border fence, and to do four-day walks, ultimately, out towards Mount Lindsay. And, or Glen East Chair, Long Creek Way. And, this is the second or third time I'd been up along the border fence. But on this occasion, I was reconnoitring different talking points along the way, and features, and looking for campsites that, suitable campsites, that would accommodate between four and ten people.
And so on the day, I'd come down into Brindle Creek through the Antarctic Beach Forest, and then crossed over into Grady's Creek, and then up onto the Western Ridge. And as I said, by the time I'd got up there, into the low rainforest, because of the winds and the weather up there, there's like a cloud forest, that's fairly low, near the edge of the escarpment. That looks out towards Mount Warning. Anyway, I'd come down through that, and I'll tell you what, it's so thick in there, that I wouldn't want to run into anything there, that particular place. But I made my way going to the west along the track that was opened there. Some of that rainforest here doesn't actually have the border fence made in there. And I'd come to a tangle of leopard trees that were low to the ground, and I had to take my pack off and squeeze through that. And while I was doing that, as I said, I'd discovered some small tubes of condensed milk, military issue condensed milk and honey and plum jam. And I'd also found, and there, and just as I came over the western side of Brindle Creek, I'd also discovered some cartridge shells. And so I presumed that special forces had been up there doing some sort of exercise.
And yeah, I got onto my feet on the other side of this tangle, and I put my pack back on, and I might have walked, I don't know, 10, 20 meters, and I got hit with this disgusting odor. And it was more rotting meat and excrement, but it sort of had a spice to it. It was strange. And I thought, oh, the military guys haven't buried their rubbish. And it wasn't long, a few seconds after that, that I heard thump, thump, thump, and the scrub ahead of me started to break. And out onto the track came this massive creature. And it took, I suppose, two or three steps to, along the track, and then broke into the bush on the other side. And I just stopped dead in the tracks, and I ended up running up to where it had broken into the scrub, and looked, it was going down a hill, and there were leaves falling, but I couldn't see the actual creature.
Witness Sketch
It had moved so fast. And then it struck me, well, it was so huge that it just immediately frightened me. I didn't have too much doubt what it was, but that was the first time I'd ever actually encountered one for real. And I was immediately in fear. As I said in the report, it occurred to me that it was moving pretty quick through areas, through scrub that was full of lilivine patches, and they're going, for me or anybody else, it'd be pretty slow. You're constantly avoiding them and picking the barbs off your skin. And I was surprised it was moving so fast through scrub like that. Anyway, that basically was the encounter. Do you want me to go on?
Paul
Well, I might just take a moment to just reflect back on the creature as it stepped onto the track. Can you describe it in as much detail as you can remember?
Witness N:
Well, definitely the thing that struck me first were the shoulders. It was really broad, and the head was sunken into the shoulders. It was bent over slightly because it was moving forward. And I think the next thing that occurred to me was the length of the hair.
It was like I thought I could sort of see, as the shoulders moved, I thought I could see its skin on the round of the shoulders, because the hair was a bit shorter there, most certainly than the arms and the back. But it was the shoulders that struck me to begin with, the width of them, because it ended up, as it stepped onto the track, it turned onto the track, so it had its back to me basically, and then took one other step and it was into the undergrowth again.
And the arms, the right arm swung right back and then way forward as it went into the scrub. And it was very, very long. I think it was the hair, the flapping of the hair, the length of the hair, which could have been eight to 12 inches long on the arms. And then it got longer as it went down the back. And the legs, the hair seemed longer on the legs. I remember seeing a flash of white or pink or with grey on the soles of it, as a flash of skin on the sole. And the legs were shorter than its trunk, but very, very hairy.
And I couldn't distinguish any muscles, they just seemed like tree trunks. And I think, as I said, no ankle was distinguishable. The other thing was the colour of it. I've since read reports of them in the region being orange or red coloured. And this was very dark. This was in the light, which was to the west and through the trees, just seemed very black to me. When I think back, I couldn't see any other colour. And the thing that struck me particularly was, in the back of my mind when I was thinking of it later, was yes, I definitely saw a sagital crest from the silhouette.
So I was under no doubt as to what I was seeing. It was definitely things that had been reported previously. And yeah, the main thing that struck me though was the power and size of the beast and how quickly it moved and disappeared in the forest.
Paul
How tall would you estimate this thing was?
Witness N:
Oh, it was definitely between seven and eight feet tall. I'm five and eleven and a half. And this thing was definitely seven to eight feet tall.
Paul
And how wide at the shoulders would you think?
Witness N:
It would have been at least three feet across.
Paul
When you're looking at the shape of this thing from the back, was it like a V-shape or was it a just up and down trunk kind of thing? What did it remind you? I mean, what were you thinking of when you're looking at this thing?
Witness N:
I think it was definitely thinner than the shoulders. There was a V-shape to it. But as I said, the legs, the butt and the legs were very, very thick indeed and very much covered in hair. Like I said, I couldn't see any muscle definition in the legs. It just seemed like trunks. But it was a while ago. It could be just how I see it in my mind now in those three seconds. But that's how it appeared to me.
Paul
Could it have been a person in a suit?
Witness N:
No, no way. No, that far out in that area, not a possibility at all.
Paul
Now, from your description, it seems like you're a very experienced person out in the bush and with connection to National Parks. After you had this experience, did you speak to anybody about it or did you keep it to yourself?
Witness N:
No, I kept it to myself. Oh, well, to the guy, within a week, I was back there with the guy who's working as our company botanist. And we saw nothing. I even looked for tracks or I saw some broken branches. I saw where it had gone through, but we saw and heard nothing in the time that we were there. And then later on, when we did a couple of tracks through there, we saw nothing either. And I looked pretty hard. I've done a lot of tracking, so I've got an idea of what I'm looking for.
And, yeah, I didn't see anything that was obvious aside from where it had gone through previously when I saw it. And I didn't speak to anyone until... Later, I did some work for the Regional Land Council as a heritage officer, briefly. And so I got the opportunity to speak to local elders, many of those who are gone now, and who are familiar with the area. And I got quite a lot of information off them. But as I said in the report, the majority of them were more interested in talking about the little ones. But they were familiar with that area being and going out towards North to Lost World and the Coogle as being a well-known site for families of them. You must have been busting to talk about it, though, I would imagine. Or not.
I think I was interested in speaking to them about it, but I didn't mention it to too many other people aside from the botanist and my wife. And the thing is that I've had other encounters as well over time. Prior to that, I mean, on our property here, I'd seen signs put up on the ridgeline, on this side of Barral, there are plateaus there that are very remote, and I'd found small footprints next to springs, things like that. And then over the years, I've spent some time in Canada as well, and the northern United States, and amongst the Native American community, and First Nations people in B.C. And I had an encounter with a Bigfoot, with a native friend of mine, on Vancouver Island.
Paul
Did you observe it or you just heard it?
Witness N:
No, we saw it. Yeah, we saw it. It was on the other side of the creek from us, in Monarch, a giant forest of Douglas firs. And it followed us on the other side of the creek for a short period. And we just sort of took that as that's what happens in B.C. on Vancouver Island when you're in Douglas fir forest. But amongst the native community, that's neither here nor there. I've got friends in B.C. whose medicine is Sasquatch, and who, the neighbouring tribes, their language is associated with Sasquatch language. But my experience here then, that was my first ever experience with a Yowie, and my last, aside from the smaller one that I've had an encounter with. And I found both of those exceedingly frightening.
Paul
Would you like to talk about the small creature experience?
Witness N:
Well, that was the most frightening of all. And I was thinking to myself last night, actually, how sort of reticent I am in a way to talk about that, because I had nightmares about it for months. And my hypothesis about it is a bit strange. It might not be me coming from Nimbin, but the impression I got was that this creature I had full facial contact with. And it wasn't so much horrifying and shocking as seeing the creature itself and making eye contact as much as the insanity that it projected. And it was smiling at me.
Paul
Where was this?
Witness N:
This was actually on Crofton Road, about eight kilometres north of Nimbin, where the creek meets the road opposite the Nimbin Retreat Motel.
Paul
And was this recent?
Witness N:
This was between the two floats. This would be about January of 2018.
Paul
Well, take me through what happened in that experience. It sounds very interesting.
Witness N:
After I came back from Arnhem Land in about 2015, I started doing portraits and becoming a portrait artist. I set up a studio in Lismore, and I was commuting backward and forward to our property, which abuts the Nightcap Range. I live on 370 acres, bordering the Nightcap National Park, Stringstroke and Bluenob. It's predominantly rainforest. From the tar is 11 creek crossings, four kilometres. Anyway, I was driving back. It would have probably been between six and seven at night. It was still light because it was the middle of summer.
We had the 2017 flood. And my thoughts were that because of the flood, then this little being had come down out of the hills and was hanging around the roadways. Where I saw it was less than a few hundred yards away from a block house and the nearest residence. But at the time, there weren't any people in that house. It's where the creek meets the road.
Now I'm coming down the road from Nimbin and this thing stood up from behind, from the creek edge and right near the road. I saw it from the head down to the waist. I immediately slowed down because I couldn't figure out what it was. I got closer, I got to within, I suppose, 20 metres of it and sort of pulled up, ahis thing was just staring straight at me and it had a huge grin on its face. The thing was that my hypothesis was that this thing was on mushrooms or something. Or it was just naturally the insanity, the unhuman insanity of it. It was like it was trying to communicate that to me or communicate. And yeah, I wasn't having any part of it.
Paul
What did that creature look like? You've kind of mentioned the smile, but what physically did it look like?
Witness N:
Well, it had, in terms of its anatomy, it would have stood about between three and four foot tall. There was no fur around the face or there was fur behind the ears, hair behind the ears, above the forehead. It had a greyish skin, huge eyes, big eyes. The lights on my vehicle, this was the thing that struck me at first, was the lights on my vehicle hit the face and I got a flash of green off the eyes. The eyes were huge and then it looked like the pupils were orange and it had hair around its chin. And the nostrils were quite flared and open and broad. It had a large forehead overshadowing its eyes. You know, as I suggest with Homo erectus and...
Paul
Yeah, like a big brow ridge.
Witness N:
Big brow ridge.
But the mouth was very, very wide. I didn't see any teeth. It was just this huge grin that went from one side of the face to the other with large lips.
Paul
Well, that would be distinctly unsettling to see.
Witness N:
It had virtually no chin as well. And the rest of its body, it had one arm up that was like grabbing a branch. Which arm would it be? It would be the right arm? No, the left arm. And the other one was down to the waist.
It was totally covered in hair around the shoulders and the arms. But it was grey and lighter around the chest. And yeah, it was quite unsettling. And I couldn't... I was excited, but at the same time, I couldn't get the image out of my head. That night or... When I got home to the wife, I said, "You're not going to believe that this has just happened to me. I've seen this and I'm really quite shaken." And I know this is... I'd seen a nyimbuin or a wyan, as the local aboriginals call them. And I've heard... I spoke to a friend who's a local elder. And he was saying, "Well, yeah, they can be quite friendly, but they're also very mischievous and sometimes dangerous." But yeah, he wasn't surprised. But he said, "His experience is that they tend to arrest you at night and throw rocks on your roof."
Things like that.
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