Location: Witheren, Queensland.
Event: Sighting
Year: 2022
Male Witness - AYR Team Member Shannon Guthrie
Last Wednesday like every other morning I get up, have my coffee, have my routine. That week I was starting early, it was the end of financial year. I set off from Binna Burra, that’s where I live at the moment, so I was riding down through Binna Burra. That morning, what really interested me was, all the planets were aligned with the moon, so at that hour and that time you could see them so I was quite fascinated. I’m coming up to the top of Beechmont and its all flattened. So I’m slowing down and looking at these planets all aligned, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, all that. And it was beautiful, I had my mind on that at the time.
I’m continuing along the top of Beechmont, and this is where I come to a section called Farm Grove where it drops down…so it’s the end of Beechmont up the top and it’s the start of Witheren. So, as I’m dropping down, there’s a slightly banked right hander and then there’s this left, tight hand, blind corner. I got my mind on the planets, the stars and I was having fun. I was in a good mood, there was a good vibe that morning.
So I’m coming down, right hand, probably doing about 70 kph, just having fun on the bike as you do. I know the road well, I’ve done that many laps, its second nature. So I come up to a left-hand corner…with motor bikes when you take a corner you go from the outside in. So I’ve lined up the left-hand corner, it’s a tight one so I’ve gone wide. And just as I’ve come around the middle where it starts to tighten up and then you see the straight, so coming around the blind so I’m starting to see the straight…in the middle of the road… (laughs) this is hard…
What I can best describe, was like a 5-year-old child who’s hit the gym one too many times. And from what I saw, covered in hair from head to toe in a black fur, black fuzz. That’s exactly what it was. I say covered in hair because it was, but I think it had slight patches like on its arm. I wouldn’t say bald spots, just a little bit patchy. It could have been a dark brown but at the time I saw black and I’m sticking with black. I would say an estimate, maybe two and a half to three inches long. Not scruffy, not messy, just pretty well groomed and in good shape. He was loved, he wasn’t malnourished, he wasn’t fat, he wasn’t scruffy, he was well looked after. So Mum or Dad’s looking after him definitely. I say ‘he’ because it looked like a little boy. Like when I say little boy…the size, I got a male vibe off him. It was possibly about three or four seconds of seeing this little, big being. Like he was little, but he was big, stocky.
So, I’m coming around doing 70 kilometres an hour, it’s a tight left. He’s there squatted real low in the middle of the road. His hind legs, they were spread apart, bent, bum up in the air. I wouldn’t say high, just really low set. It’s like that other case we had like the spider pose but not as stretched out. Legs were kind of muscly, I only seen probably from the bum to the knee, then down from that it was in the dark, it wasn’t lit up. I never seen his feet. The arms weren’t fully stretched. Picture a squatted push up, in a sense, like that.
It was just looking on the ground with its head down. Why its head was down I don’t know, I’ve discussed with Dean and Gary and other members of the (AYR) team possible reasons why he would have had its head down. I can’t explain it. Just picture a kid about to cop a hiding from mum. I saw the top of his head, but I never saw his face. The head…I’m not going to go with the conical shape, maybe because of its youth. But it was definitely a bigger head to a human, or a 5-year-old boy. It was more rounded, but at the top, it was a slight ridgey bit on his top. It happened so fast, I compiled as much information as I could, but it was definitely like what you hear, head and shoulders. Unbelievable. The head was maybe just a tiny bit bigger than a basketball. For its size, I say small… it was… but it was big at the same time. Small for what they are or what it is, but large if we’re talking human terms.
He never looked at me once which is a shame. But if I did see it I probably would have been even more terrified. Because at the time I was terrified, I can laugh about it now, and cheer about it, but at the time… it was quite a terrifying experience. I’m just glad it wasn’t Dad or Mum. It still makes me…think in awe of what I’ve seen.
Obviously he’s noticed me at the last minute, and I’ve noticed him at the last minute. I’ve crapped my pants, but he’s in my riding line! So I have to quickly adjust the best I can to avoid him.
When I adjusted my line, he’s adjusted his line, well he stepped back a bit but he’s always keeping his head down. The head moved but it kept down. He’s planted his left hand down on the ground for support, he’s turned his head away. This is when I got to see… there was little to no neck on him. When he turned around, it was like his head was sitting on his shoulders, pretty much.
He kind of went from squatted push up, gone up a bit, pivoted, grounded himself, turned his head fully right back around and gone ‘oh no.’ And this is the kicker what I say to everyone... he reached up, put his right arm up and then palm up, as if to brace himself for impact, and to protect himself.
So, it shows intelligence, I come across a lot of wildlife when I ride. I’ve had bandicoot’s jump out at me, wallabies, even tawny frog mouths. They’ll stay in the middle of the road, and I have to swerve because they don’t move. This thing braced for impact or was getting ready to protect itself from me essentially hitting it. And the arms, it never stood up but even though he was squatted, when he put his arm up, you could see it was longer than a human arm would be.
As I’ve gone past him, because we’ve only had seconds to correct ourselves, when he put his palm up, it had just brushed my boot and then it nicked the tail end of my bike. When I say brushed I mean just touched. I get the feeling he wasn’t hurt but he would have just been really shocked as to what happened. Both parties, I’m shocked, he’s shocked. Without doubt I felt it, I’m going to be keeping this right boot. After that it was just gas on get out of there. Because like Dean says where there’s one, there’s another one not too far away. So I wasn’t staying around (laughing).
This is also the kicker, and I don’t care what anyone else says…without question its seared in my mind, I can see it. There was 1,2,3,4 fingers, and a thumb. That stood out, I’ll never forget it. Think of a male hand, add maybe add an inch onto each finger, it was just that little bit bigger than a fully grown man’s hand.
People ask ‘Was it a marsupial?’ No!... I got a good look at his hand too because the bike light shone on its hand. The skin colour…a lot darker than ours. I wouldn’t say like a gorilla where its solid black, just darker, that’s what I could see at the time. The palm had no hair but it had patchy pink pigmentations all over its hands. Like someone just been working their whole life, like callouses. It had that same leathery look, like well worked hands like it’s been grabbing trees, sliding. And this is a little one, a juvenile! No thank you I don’t want to see the parents. …(sign)… it just still blows me away.
I’m at the top of Witheren, so end of Beechmont at the top, the start of Witheren, pretty much. Glen’s encounter (AYR witness report # 129) is down the bottom, it’s a corner before Shark Park. Like opposite ends of the spectrum. He got it down the bottom, I got the top, he got big, I got little. Where I had my sighting, on the left I think that might be private property but on the right is Canungra Military land.
I do know now, if there’s one of these guys out walking around there’s always another and knowing that he was small, what was in the bush on the left or the right to me? I have no idea and I’m still riding these roads early in the mornings. So, the next morning after, going down there coming up to that corner, the adrenalin’s pumping, and you’re like, ‘Is it going to happen again?’ (panicking). But now, coming down that hill, I’m very, very aware, very on guard. And at that time, there was no one else on the road at this time, I can’t stress that enough there was not another soul on this road. No-one’s awake at that hour, I’m up at ‘stupid’ o’clock. So, the whole way down from my home at Binna Burra to when I got to the bottom of Witheren coming onto Beaudesert Nerang Road there wasn’t a single person coming up or down, it was just me.
Coming down the back side of the mountain in Witheren, there’s a lot of very tall trees overhanging on top of the road on each side. It’s very dark, there’s no streetlights at all there. This is country road, it’s pitch black, absolutely dark. I’ve got a little light bar on the front of my bike, it’s very bright. But the way I’ve positioned it… it’s not pointing straight. If I point it straight it’s going to be in the rear vision mirror of other people, so it’s tilted down a little bit.
From what we know and what we’ve heard, their eyesight’s pretty sensitive, and they can see very well. So, something artificial and that bright and white could possibly be blinding for them. That’s another reason why he may not have looked up at me. The light bar on my bike is really bright. I’m sure not going to get down at eye level and look at it because I won’t be able to see.
I don’t know how this being messed up…my bike is so loud, it’s a Honda CVR 600, with exhaust so its loud. You can hear this bike coming for quite some time. This is also why I assume it’s a juvenile mistake. It would have heard me coming…the lights. This is what me and Dean have discussed, maybe he’s come down and landed, or misjudged or mistimed. Wrong place wrong time for him, right place right time for me.
Coming down my left, it’s a high steep sort of ridge, and then my right coming down, it’s bush and then it goes down low. I’m going to say he’s probably come from the high side; because he was in my riding line and his head was facing towards me, he was squatted facing me.
Whether he’s stumbled off, landed and gone ‘oh crap, oh no, oh no’, and then I’m going ‘oh no, oh no’. Some reports will say it presented itself, I don’t have the vibe that this little guy presented himself, I really feel like this was a mistake.
It was probably shielding himself, unless he’s playing a sick game of chicken. There’s a lot of what-ifs here. He could have been playing me for all I know, he could have been trying to run me off the road. I don’t know. It could have been a mistake, being little, being juvenile maybe he’s been clumsy and fallen down the high side and landed and (panicked). Don’t know. But what I’ve said is best as I can describe what happened. It’s a morning I’ll never forget and running into one of these is way better than a triple shot of coffee I can tell you that much.
I went out last weekend with the AYR team, the whole time it was in the back of my mind. This is something I think about every day now, I know it’s only been literally just over a week now, but I think about it all the time. We do our thing, we walk around with the thermals, we were kind of split up that night. Everyone was kind of separated, so I did find I was by myself at times. And you’re scanning around with the thermal cameras doing what we do, and then you go ‘oh hang on…remember last week you ran into a Yowie?... Oh… I’m by myself!’ (laughing).
At the time when I was in that situation, I didn’t have a torch, all I had was the thermal camera. Gary and Buck were down the bottom, so I had to sit there alone in the dark…and wait for them. Going out and doing this with the amazing team, I remember the first over-nighter was the legendary Springbrook thermal images being captured.
I came from Lismore, there’s a lot of Indigenous people down there, the Bundjalung tribe. That was in our teaching in high school, so I always had a strong belief of the Yowie. Being friends with Gary prior to AYR, and then eventually got in the (AYR) circle. Gary’s on the same wavelength as me, ET’s, Yowies, paranormal, absolutely love it, we just clicked.
I got the invite for the over-nighter, got the honour of meeting Dean. It was just on dusk, we were setting up base camp, and it was just a show from then on. I think it was eleven o’clockish, when Buck came on the radio saying he got something. Then the rest of the night just hearing these beings walking around it’s crazy. I fall asleep a lot, I was out, but I think Dean was awake the whole night. That night was just a rush, it was so addicting. It's like being hit by lightning twice, I’m very lucky.
Since seeing this being, my ideas and perception of Yowies has absolutely become stronger, it’s like adding another layer of solid concrete as to these beings exist. And they do exist, I’ve seen it, and no-one can change my mind. You’ll have people who’ll say nope you’re crazy well guess what?... you’re crazy because you’re minds shut and you’re not open to it, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. These beings exist whether you like it or not, there’s no doubt, no question. There’s no argument, these being are out there, take it or leave it. But I know what I saw, it’s just more concrete. I thought the thermals were as good as I personally was going to get, but to actually lay eyes on these beings, Yowie, they exist, you can’t tell me otherwise. They’re out there and you’ve just got to be careful when you go out there or just in the dark because they’re real…100%.
I wasn’t expecting this, I wasn’t thinking Yowie, I just wasn’t expecting this at all. I was extremely caught off guard, its always when you’re not looking for them, they will find you. Maybe it happened to me that day because I was vibrating at a higher level, because I was. I was in a good mood, and I personally believe with positive intent, good things happen. The same with doing CE5, E.T connection. Like me and Gary together we’re like two big spotlights and we’re shining up in the sky and we’ll get flash bulbs here and there, everywhere, we see stuff. And we put out good positive intent to the bush, to the land, the Yowies, the animals, to everything everywhere. And I think vibrating at that level and putting that vibe out there, maybe it’s law of attraction, that’s what I believe. And what we’ve done with positive intent and vibrating as high as we can amazing things like this happen. It was the same on Springbrook night, good vibes, and look what happened…well done Buck!
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