Location: Dufty’s Beach (Murray River), Victoria
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: Winter, 1987
Time: 1am
[Male Witness]
Dufty’s Beach is on the Victoria side of the Murray River, about 14km north west of Yarrawonga. We used to do a lot of water skiing there. The banks are pure white sand. It’s a wonderful place to get out in the boats or fish.
I had my encounter in the winter of 1987. I had decided to go there by myself one night and arrived at 11pm in my old FJ55 4WD Cruiser. I got to our normal campsite, set up and had a nice big redgum fire going between my car and the river.
About 45 minutes later I started to hear noises up stream to the east about 50 to 100 metres away. I didn’t think much of it at first. I heard some rustling and branches break and thought it may have been some cattle grazing and they were bumping into things.
It got a little more serious when I heard trees being pushed over, and another one and another one, louder and louder. My ears had pricked up by this stage and I thought it may have been more cattle. The fire was big and could be seen for quite some way, so whatever it was, knew I was there.
I turned the music and down and was beginning to get a bit panic stricken at this stage. I stood there with a big yellow handled Stanley screwdriver in my right hand and a hammer in my left. Not sure what I was going to do with them, but I needed something to defend myself with.
It paused every now and then, but would have a burst of running. I had my back to the river and looking towards the bush. It was going from my left to my right. It was making groaning noises like you would if you were undoing a tight lid of a jar and it was pushing redgum trees down. I could see the tops of the trees falling. What was happening didn’t make sense. Then it would have another burst of running. I was young and fit back in those days and I couldn’t run that fast even on a flat road, and this was in the bush.
Then it would stop and grunt and push a tree down, then have another burst of running I had a spotlight on the dash of my car, but I wasn’t game to pick it up and shine into the bush in fear of upsetting it.
I could see it through the bush and it was standing upright. I’d heard of the Yowie before and the truckies talking about them in the Blue Mountains. I wondered if it was one of them, but why would they be out here?
It came through the bush and stood on the track 50 metres away, it was upright and stood there for a good 15 seconds. Then it ran towards the river and when it hit the water, it made a big almighty splash. Then it started swimming towards the other side. I grabbed the spotlight and hit it right in the back of the head. It was doing a dog paddle but wasn’t moving its feet. It was massive. I followed it with the spotlight for about 100 metres to the other side where it crawled up the steep bank and ran off through the bush.
I didn’t sleep outside that night. I slept in the car with the windows up and the doors locked.
It was a lot bigger than me, it would have been a bout 7ft tall. The next morning I walked down to the beach and found half a dozen 18” footprints. It was on two legs and the strides were about 1.5 metres apart at least.
When I saw it on the track, I was standing behind the car. I wouldn’t move and it wouldn’t move. It was like a stand off and it was looking at me. Then I guess it had enough and headed over to the water.
When it was dog paddling, it was mostly under water. The hands would break the surface occasionally, but the head was just gliding along to the other side. I could see it swimming away and across quite easily. The head was tapped, starting narrower at the top and broad at the bottom. It was a dark colour.
I’ve always been reluctant to share that story. All these years later I’ve decided to make contact and share it.
The only other odd thing I’ve seen is a Black Panther down along the Great Ocean Road.
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