Location: Stanthorpe, Queensland
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: 1985
Time: Daytime - Afternoon
[Male Witness]
Transcript from Recorded Interview: 13/08/2024 by Paul Cropper
Paul:
Can I ask how old you are?
Witness D:
I'm 55 now.
Paul:
And what area of Australia do you live in?
Witness D:
I used to live in Stanthorpe, South East Queensland.
Paul:
And that was where your experience happened?
Witness D:
Yes. Me and my mates used to go down to this reserve sort of thing, a creek, and we were hunting rabbits. I was walking along and there's a big rock, a shrubby tree, and then I see this hairy creature-thing crouching down on his knees, kind of squatting. I thought, well, that's strange. And my mate seen him and we turned around and it was gone. And the thing is every time I used to go back there, I still see that, that yowie, or whatever was sitting there, you know. It's imprinted in (my) mind.
Paul:
What year was this?
Witness D:
This would have been 1985 or 86.
Paul:
What time of the year was it?
Witness D:
It had to be summer.
Paul:
During the day?
Witness D:
Late afternoon. You know, about an hour or so before dark.
Paul:
How far away was this thing from you?
Witness D:
I reckon it would have been a good 25, 30 metres.
Paul:
Was it open country?
Witness D:
Cleared country, but it had regrowth on it. Just sort of open with the odd tree, heaps of regrowth and some rocks, you know, boulders.
Paul:
So you were walking with a mate, is that correct?
Witness D:
Yeah.
Paul:
And you look up and this thing is...
Witness D:
No, well, you know, he's crouching down, you know, with his bum between his legs. The height of it would have been probably five feet, you know, looking from the ground, you know. And it was hairy, it was black, it was black and hairy. And I just thought, my God, you know.
Paul:
So this thing was five foot, even though it was crouching down.
Witness D:
Yeah.
Paul:
That's a big thing!
Witness D:
Well, I'd say, about four or five foot. But it was big anyway, you know.
Paul:
When you're looking at it, could you see its face?
Witness D:
No.
Paul:
And why was that, do you think?
Witness D:
It was crouching down to the ground, like looking down towards the ground.
Witness Sketch
Paul:
Ok.
Witness D:
All this sort of happened within, you know, 30 or so seconds. And next we looked back around and it was gone. It wasn't there, you know.
Paul:
You mentioned it was a black colour, the hair was black.
Witness D:
Yeah, black, a dark brown or black.
Paul:
Was it short hair or was it longish hair?
Witness D:
Well, from 30 metres away, it looked hairy, you know.
Paul:
Was the hair kind of wild or smooth and straight?
Witness D:
It was wild. It was sort of sticking out straight, you know. I can remember that. It just looked like a very hairy thing there.
Paul:
Could it have been a person in a suit?
Witness D:
No, I don't think so. I don't know. It was there one minute and the next second it was gone. If someone was in a suit, you'd see it, you know, like you'd eventually come across it.
Paul:
When you say it disappeared, were you still walking and could it have taken off but you're not seeing it?
Witness D:
Well, that's true. Like it could have taken off and we'd (have been) walking along and I said, ‘did you see that?’ And he said, yeah. Then we turned back and it was gone.
Paul:
So where exactly was your sighting in relation to Stanthorpe again?
Witness D:
Just out of Stanthorpe. Next to the cemetery, there's like a school reserve and it backs up into the mountains as well.
Paul:
It was there that you saw this thing?
Witness D:
Yeah.
Paul:
And when you're looking at it, did you get a sense that it was well built or was it solid or was it lean?
Witness D:
It was solid. It'd be two men wide or one and a half men wide. It was it was big and it just looked massive.
Paul:
Did you get a sense you're looking at a person or an animal or something else?
Witness D:
An animal, you know. Like I thought, well, what the hell is that? And it wasn't a cow, wasn't a kangaroo. It just was hairy and it was crouched down.
Paul:
About how long did you look at it before you looked away, do you think?
Witness D:
About 30 or so seconds.
Paul:
That's a long view. When you were looking at it during that time, was it moving at all?
Witness D:
No, it was stationary. It was crouched down - like sitting there like you're doing a poop in the bush. But it was hairy. To this day, I can still remember the rock in the shrub where it was.
Paul:
Did you ever talk to anybody else about your experience?
Witness D:
Yeah, I told my family that and my mates but 90 percent of them didn't believe us.
Paul:
And does your mate still talk about it?
Witness D:
No, he won't talk about it, he said he reckons he didn't see it, but he was the first one as he sort of took off, we started to move on quicker, you know, he was the first one to take off a bit quicker.
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