Location: Christmas Hills Reserve, Tasmania (Near Elizabeth Town)
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: 7th July, 2024
Time: 8.45am
[Male Witness]
Recorded by Paul Cropper
Paul:
All right that's terrific…can you just talk me through, because this only happened yesterday.
Warren:
It's Christmas Hills Reserve which is in Elizabeth Town, North Tasmania near Deloraine. Quite a big reserve. I went up there to get some firewood in the morning because it's been so cold. I saw like what looks like a big logging trail and I'm sick of the logging down here and I thought I bet they're doing it up the top there somewhere, so I drove up. A long way in actually. I came to this big clearing and yeah they are logging. I just felt pretty bad and I thought I'm gonna turn around and head back now.
I turned the car around, went around the corner came to this straight stretch. Next minute, this thing comes blowing out the left side of the forest across the logging track into the right side of the forest. It was four to five feet tall, black hair, running on its hind legs but like a chimpanzee, where the hands or the arms help it balance. I know we don't have chimpanzees in Australia but it looked like one.
Just side on, it did not look at me, it just kept looking where it was running. It was probably 40 to 50 meters away. I slowed the car right down and then I was like quite shocked but what was that and then I just slowly drove on. I didn't even look in the forest where it was..
Paul:
Very interesting. Are you a local up there Warren?
Warren:
Yeah we've been here since 2021. I've never really ventured into the forest… we get a bit of a strange activity. We're on two and a half acres near backing on Ashgrove Dairy Farm and we get strange things happening here.
Paul:
What sort of strange things, Warren?
Warren:
Well, my wife went out to the laundry one night and had a big rock flying up and hit the wall of the house. I heard it and rushed out and it was a rock, a sizable rock on the ground. We've gone for a bit of a holiday one night in the forest on the other side of Deloraine and we heard tree-knocking all night. But this this thing the other day, Paul, I saw it point-blank.
Paul:
So what sort of vehicle were you in?
Warren:
Oh just a little Honda Jazz. I noticed driving through the logging tracks there's sort of saplings and all that. Some are being bent over and snapped.
Paul:
So what time of the day was this, Warren?
Warren:
It was 8.45 in the morning.
Paul:
It was about 50 metres ahead of you?
Warren:
40 to 50.
Paul:
And you mentioned the fact that it was four to five foot tall.
Warren:
Yeah.
Paul:
Was it a solid thing, or was it like...
Warren:
Yeah solid. I first initially thought was that like a big boar, but the way it ran it was like on hind legs and you know a chimpanzee uses its arms to help it.
Paul:
When I get a mental picture of a chimp running, its hands are up in the air beyond its head. Was that how it ran?
Warren:
No, these hands were like balancing or aiding it in some point. They were not as big as the back legs. The back legs were much bigger, more solid.
Paul:
You got the sense that there was definitely arms and legs?
Warren:
Yeah definitely. I initially thought is that a small yowie or is it a junji (junjudee)?
Paul:
So you mentioned its arms. Were its arms by its side?
Warren:
It was brushing the ground with them.
Paul:
It was sort of touching the ground with them as it was running?
Warren:
Yeah, that's it, but the hind legs were the motor.
Paul:
How long do you have it in view as it crossed the track. Not long I'd imagine?
Warren:
It was legging it. I joked to myself, oh my god, that thing's legging it!
Paul:
Was it sort of more solid than a human being?
Warren:
Yeah, definitely.
Paul:
And you saw hair?
Warren:
It was nothing like a human it was more like an ape.
Paul:
Was the hair long or short on it?
Warren:
A bit longer than a chimp.
Paul:
What colour was the hair?
Warren:
Black, jet black.
Paul:
Yeah and do you get a sense the arms were particularly long or were they short were they sort of same proportion as a human or different?
Warren:
No different it was it was not a human because it was it we don't run like that it's and and we wouldn't be as fast it'd be faster than Usain Bolt.
I was amazed as it was rocky ground - it's a dirt track and it's bush - and the thing moved like it was running on straight bitumen road. Very fast. Very fast and expertly. We couldn't do that. Your feet would get cut to pieces on the rocks on the road. A human couldn't do that at all.
Paul:
Could you get a sense of how much this thing would have weighed?
Warren:
Probably like a small, solid ape.
Paul:
Did you get a good view of its head or facial features?
Warren:
No, it was all like in one. There was no distinct head, like it was one moulded thing.
Paul:
Did you did you talk to anyone about it?
Warren:
Oh yeah I talked to my wife and then I rang my son and spoke to him. He knows there's things out there.
Paul:
How far from your property was this this encounter?
Warren:
Well the forest starts over the road and then it goes on for quite a while. I went down Parkham Road which is a few hundred meters down from us and then I went along there for a fair way and then there's this part you go in where the logging trucks go and I collect firewood. I always feel like I'm being watched.
Paul:
You mentioned you thought it could be kind of dangerous - because of the speed and the size?
Warren:
Well, if it's got sizable teeth or something you know it's quite strong it looks strong and like it'd make a mess. The speed, I mean my god, you'd never outrun it you'd have to go toe-to-toe with it!
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