Location: Lake Dulverton, Tasmania
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date of Encounter: January, 1987
Date of report: 9th of March, 1987
Source: People Magazine
Witness: Bill Johnstone and Stella Donohue
A silver furred monster chased a terrified Melbourne couple from their campsite beside a central Tasmanian Lake.
Lineman Bill Johnstone and his friend, contract cleaner Stella Donohue of Kew, Victoria, told Police they fled in panic when the Gorilla-like beast, more than 21/2 metres tall, rampaged towards them through the reads surrounding Lake Dulverton.
“The creature was shining, brilliantly silver, in the moonlight,” Stella told me. “It was staring straight at us with its eyes glinting. It was like no animal I’ve ever seen. But the weirdest thing happened when Bill shone his torch at it. The beam seemed to bounce back at us, so blindingly we had to turn the torch off.”
The vacationing “friends” nightmare began when their rented Holden blew a tyre near Oatlands in Tasmania’s midlands. “The garage man said he couldn’t fix it till the next morning,” said Stella. “We asked if there was anywhere we could pitch a tent for the night and he suggested the Lake.
I was awakened at about 2am by a screeching noise. I unzipped the tent, stepped outside and saw this terrible creature towering in the water. It had a tiny head, too small for its body. Its fur was shining brilliantly silver in the moonlight and it was staring straight at me. I screamed for Bill and he raced out with the torch.
By this time the thing was racing toward us. Bill grabbed the keys. We raced up to the car and took off. That creature ruined our holiday. We told the Police about our experience, but they said they’ve had no other reports. However a Taxi driver told us two boats had vanished on that lake and the wreckage was never found.”
Files of UFO research societies contain hundreds of descriptions of beast like entities seen where flying saucers have been reported. A large proportion of UFO’s are seen over lakes, dams and oceans.
Further report from “treasure Islander”, dated January 1990. P.27.
Watch out Loch Ness - Lake Dulverton, outside Oatlands, could one day rival the famous Scottish waters as the Monster Mecca of the World!
According to some, there is a lot more to Lake Dulverton than meets the eye. Certain local residents claimed to have seen a monster in the lake, but there has been no photographic evidence to prove such claims. A Victorian Couple, Bill Johnstone and Stella Donohue, visited the quiet little town in January 1987, and camped on the shores of Lake Dulverton.
The Donohue’s later claimed to have been scared out of their wits by what they describe as an animal figure which stood about 2.5 metres tall, and was hairy , resembling a half-man half-ape.
The couple said it was making a strange noise and stood upright in a metre deep section of the lake about 18 metres off shore, directly in front of their tent. Their experience that night was well documented in State newspapers, and then there emerged similar stories from other visitors and locals who had been too embarrassed to mention such sightings. Many locals dismissed the claim by the visitors as a load of hogwash.
If there is a monster in Lake Dulverton, it has been very quiet since that night in question, although there were a few ramblings and quiet rumours floating around the town since September last year.
A couple from Launceston apparently mention to some locals that they had seen a very tall, hairy figure roaming around Lake Dulverton around sunset. Lake Dulverton has been stocked with trout - to the delight of anglers. So, even if you don’t spot a monster, you are very likely to hook a fine fish for dinner.
Oatlands was one of the towns along the Midlands Highway in Tasmania’s central region marked out by Governor Macquarie in June, 1821.
He had passed through the area in 1811 and then named it Macquarie springs. On a later trip he camped on the shore of what is known today as Lake Dulverton.
Macquarie named it the Great Lagoon and later it was renamed Lake Frederick.
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