Location: Molendinar, Queensland
Event: Odd Report - Audible
Date: 1996
Witness: Mrs Jess R
Description Of The Terrain: I'm recalling what I experienced 12 years ago. This happened before the bush area that our unit backed on to was developed for housing and industry. At the time the terrain was coastal bushland which was flanked by housing and the Smith St motorway. It was heavily wooded and not an area that would be easily explored due to its denseness.
Weather Conditions At The Time Of Your Sighting: it was a very cool yet clear night. I remember it was very very quiet except for what I heard!
What Did The Creature Look Like: Sorry I didn't actually see anything mainly because I became so startled by what I heard - whatever was making the horrible grunting/screeching noise seemed to suddenly come bolting towards where I was sitting in the backyard. To explain - I was outside having a cigarette (EEK I smoked back then!), and as mentioned the complex of townhouses I lived in backed on to a thick patch of bushland with a buffer zone (I think it was some sort of storm water area) of approx 40m between our back fence and the bush area.
I remember this so clearly because it was the most disturbing evening I've ever experienced. While outside I could vaguely make out the shape of a couple of the taller trees on the edge of the bushy area swaying kind of erratically - this caught my attention because it was a very still night and it seemed highly unusual that just a couple of trees would be moving so violently without the presence of strong wind. I was also aware of a kind of a faint 'yelping' which I thought may have been a dog.
I think my first thoughts was that some kids and their pet were mucking around in the bush - highly unlikely considering it was a school night and quite late at night. In those days there wasn't much street lighting in this area, so I must admit it was very difficult to see anything clearly yet I definitely could see the trees swaying about. I lost interest in the swaying trees as I was feeling a little uneasy because my boyfriend was away and I really felt like I was being watched (at the time I was more concerned that the guy next door on our left knew I was alone and that he may have been out in his backyard watching me). However my attention was quickly diverted back to the area where I had seen the trees swaying because now I could hear loud thumping sounds as if someone was walking then running quickly through the bush towards our backyard, I remember hesitating to gauge whether there was someone running towards me and thats when I really noticed the awful animal sound - it sounded like a cross between a yelping, grunting and growling and definitely prompted an immediate feeling of fear.
I did not stick around, I ran inside locked the sliding door, closed the vertical blinds, and ran upstairs to my bedroom and lay down on the carpet in the dark listening to what I think was someone walking/crawling around outside on the ground floor roof of the townhouse. I remember feeling absolutely terrified, it seemed whoever (or whatever) it was moving deliberately quietly and would pause now and again as if listening out for me. I lay there for about 30 minutes until I thought I hadn't hear anymore movement and rang my boyfriend who was in NZ and babbled incoherently about something chasing me and stomping around our roof. He tried to calm me down by telling me I was just tired from work.
I've never told anyone else about what I heard, but the next day I asked the lady who lived in the townhouse on my right whether she'd heard anything the night before and she said she'd gone to bed early and slept really well. I used the excuse that I'd heard kids outside late at night and just wanted to see if she'd heard them too. Regardless I never went into the backyard after dark and even during the day I felt uneasy being out there. I also stopped walking along a track that passed by this bush area.
Something interesting happened about a year later, when friends were visiting. As I said I have never told anyone else other than my boyfriend (now my husband) what I heard that night but one of our visiting friends was outside for a very long time while we were watching a movie. I noticed he was staring intently into the bush - I was particularly sensitive to what he was doing considering what I had heard the year before but was too embarrassed to bring it up because my partner had already dismissed it as 'hysteria'. When our friend finally came indoors all he said was 'something is out watching from the bush' and then went to bed!
I wish I'd not been so paranoid about making a fool of myself and asked him what he meant - the others just laughed him off as playing the joker but I was very freaked out by it all! That bush area has been completely replaced with housing and industry (the Ashmore Bunnings Centre is on part of the land) and I've often wondered what it was I heard or possibly imagined! I used to think that maybe it was something supernatural like a ghost but that was before I saw a documentary on Discovery about the Yowie - before seeing this some 10 years later I'd never heard of the Yowie and now I wonder whether that’s what I heard that night?
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