Location: Kinglake West and Eden Park, Victoria
Various Victorian locations.
Event: Yowie Sighting and Big Cat Sighting
Date: 1985 & 1988
Time: Daytime
[Male Witness]
Transcript from Recorded Interview: 18/1/2025 by Paul Cropper
Paul:
Give me a bit of background to yourself and where these experiences happened.
Witness S:
Well, I'm 53 years old. My first encounter, I would have been probably eight or nine. And yeah, they continued through. That first one, we were just kids. We were riding out the back of a semi-rural property, right out in the bush. And these trees just started coming down. I want to say trees, I was like, they were saplings.
Maybe as fat as me leg, you know, they weren't massive… they just kept crashing in different directions, mate. I didn't see anything then, but I remember looking at the sheer terror in me mate's eyes. And that's when we all jumped on the push bikes and just rode…
Paul:
Where was that?
Witness S:
It's a little place called Eden Park. That would have been 40 plus years ago. (I’m) 53 years, so I’d say (I was) about eight or nine.
Paul:
Which state is that in?
Witness S:
Victoria, mate. That particular subdivision was subdivided years ago. Very heavily timbered with red stringy bark, etc. So it's quite densely wooded. it's quite thick with bush, mate.
But all I remember is just the look of sheer terror on me mate's eyes. And just the way everybody high-tailed. And the boys didn't speak. They didn't say anything, but they just, they all just went home, I think, after that.
[Next encounter].
Witness S:
Similar area. Well, we're mucking around in the creek at my mum and dad's property. And there's like a small clump of bush down at the bottom of the creek. It's a seasonal creek. There's a big clump of pampas grass, well, down at the corner of it. We had border collie pups with us. I was looking, but I've lost one of the pups. So I've walked down the creek. It's sort of weird because you get that feeling that something's watching you. So, I don't know, this sounds weird.
I just grabbed a rock. I don't know why I grabbed a rock. I walked past this pampas grass. I would have been probably 10, 11, maybe. Similar age to the first incident. I just turned sideways and I could see this -- well, it was a shape. Crouched. Sort of hard to describe the crouch. One knee on the ground, both hands on the ground. Couldn't make out anything except the fact that it was dark. Not overly large, but, I don't know, large enough.
All I remember was throwing this rock and just running like all bejesus, man. I just took off like a scalded cat. Jumped through the fence or dived through the fence, really. Lost me bloody boot on the fence. I don't recall anything running behind me or if I did, but I do know that my mum said, "You came up to the house terribly frightened."
I hated having to go past that part of the creek to catch the school bus to get to school. I used to hate riding the motorbike past that little track. I avoided that like the plague. And even into adulthood, early adulthood, I avoided it like the plague, you know, walking home from a mate's place or whatever. That landscape down there, it's since changed so dramatically.
But that little area there of pampas grass, that would have been, I don't know, to that first experience would have been maybe one to two kilometres away, if you follow the creek line and sort of run up through a couple of road of gullies back into the back of that bush.
Paul:
When you were looking at this thing, did you get the sense of a figure or just a shape?
Witness S:
It was a figure. It was definitely a figure. Look, if you can imagine someone crouched. Not ready to spring or take off like you're going to start a race or anything, but there was definitely one knee down and another leg up and the hands on the ground. Yeah, it was deep in the guts of the pampas grass, man.
And looking at it side on, it would have been maybe - oh, jeez, jeez, you're jogging me memory here… I reckon it would have probably 4 or 5 metres before I've gone, "Whoa," you know, I've screeched! All I remember doing is just throwing this rock blindly and just clearing the creek, jumping through the fence, and like I said, lost my boot. And, yeah, just ran home to mum with one bloody boot on. And, yeah, I've just sort of been fascinated with them ever since, mate.
Paul:
And you had another two encounters after that?
Witness S:
Well, you could call them two. The second one was out in a catchment, a Melbourne Water catchment, which is quite extensive. So my job was to offside the guy on the backhoe, just safety reasons, if you know what I mean. So I said, "What are you doing, Frankie? I'm just going to pull down the road a little bit, mate, I'm going to have a kip.” He goes, "Yeah, yeah, no dramas, mate, we're all right, we're all right."
So I've driven down out of the way of the dust and that sort of shit, found a little clearing. It was a still day. I'm thinking, "Oh, this is grouse, mate. Oh, mate, how good is this? So I put the seat back. I was in a twin-cab Hilux four-wheel drive. I reclined the seat. I'm thinking, "Oh, this is magnificent." I don't know, hey, I won't say I was sleeping on the job, mate, come on. But I reckon I had my eyes shut for maybe five, ten minutes.
And, mate, I'm not kidding you, this ute shook like a motherfucker. Sorry to swear, man, but I'll never forget it. I'm thinking, "You're joking, what the bloody hell was that?" I honestly thought it was a wombat scratching his ass on the bumper bar or some bloody thing. I popped the seat up, straight up, straight up, left out, looked around, could not see a thing, mate. That would have been '07, '06, '07.
Couldn't wait to get back in the car and bloody go… So, yeah, I didn't like the fact that, like, whatever shook that car shook it. It shook. There was no noise, nothing, but just like an extremely firm shake.
Paul:
Deliberate?
Witness S:
Yeah, well, there's no earth tremors out there, mate. But, yeah, tried to explain that to a couple of the boys. "Good on you, mate. Yeah, good on you." I said, "Mate, it's all right, no worries." So, again, I'm part of that ridicule and the nonbelievers… I can't really explain much more about that bar the fact it was just such a brief experience.
The other one was... I can't even, God, couldn't even give you a date on this one either, mate. This would have been maybe five or six years ago. I leave early to get to work because we sort of live in this semi-rural environment. And I could see this shape.
I think I said in that email that I sent you ages ago, I haven't even bothered re-reading it, this thing was not hopping, it wasn't loping, it wasn't a deer, it wasn't a guy up in a bloody deer hunter suit. What do you call those suits?
Paul:
Ghillie suit.
Witness S:
Yeah, ghillie suit. It definitely wasn't it, mate. This thing, mate, I'm not kidding you, it loped. It loped. It was tall. Across the road, I just caught it I just caught it. This is smack on dawn, man. It was slow and steady. It was in no hurry across the road. Do you want a location?
Paul:
Oh, yes, please.
Witness S:
This is King Lake West. It's a pretty challenging country up here. It's pretty thick with scrub. But, mate, to be honest with you, Paul, this thing, I don't know. I don't know. It loped, ambled. Let's say ambled for want of a better term. Couldn't quite make out like a hair length, arm length, but there is no way that was a person, mate. It was bipedal, definitely bipedal. Had no interest in me, no hurry to get out the way. I just picked it up in me lights and with the sunrise behind me. The only thing that made me lose sight of it, a car came over the hill behind me and momentarily distracted me while I looked through me rear-view mirror. By the time I looked back on the road, this thing had already passed into the scrub on the side of the road, mate. Now, I slowed down. I could not see anything, mate.
I still remember ringing my missus. She's like, "What's up? I said, "You're not going to believe it. I just saw a yowie.” And she goes, "What?" I said, "Darl, I'm telling you, I've just seen another yowie.” People call it bullshit. I don't lie, man. I don't lie.
Paul:
You could see hair?
Witness S:
I've got a sense of hair, mate. It wasn't a bloke in a (jacket) or a beanie or something… In the dim light, yeah, it looked shaggy, if you know what I mean. It definitely wasn't a ghillie suit. Ghillie suits are more pronounced. They're a lot bigger, mate. This thing, this thing was tall, broad. And the way (it walked) it was a cross between a walk, a lope and an amble.
Paul:
Have you ever had any other strange experiences?
Witness S:
Yeah, shit yeah. You were into big cats too, aren't you, Paul?
Paul:
You had an encounter with one of them?
Witness S:
The first one would have been near to me mum's place, again, near the Yowie site. That was Eden Park. So you've got these beautiful big French doors that open up onto the paddock, up onto the hill. The old man was cutting some excavations for a house.
Anyway, I'm warming my arse by the fire, just looking out through the French doors. I see this cat on the excavations. I'm thinking, "You're joking. Look at the size of that." I get up close. I'm thinking, "You're joking, mate. That is not a feral." My wife actually witnessed that as well. And, mate, it was just happy as a pig in shit, mate, this thing, just walking across the excavation, not a care in the world, not a care. I opened the door and I whistled. This things turned around and it bolted that hard. I've never seen (anything) move so quick in my life.
Mum goes, "What was it?" I said, "Mate, you're not going to believe it, mate. It was a black cat." She said, "Oh, rubbish. You're seeing things." I said, "No, I'm not." A week later, she rings me in a panic. "I've seen that cat. I've seen that cat." I've gone, "Yeah, righto, Mum. Good on you." She actually rang my brother and sister and said the same thing. They rang me and said, "What are you doing filling Mum's head with ideas, mate?" I said, "Mate, I'm telling you, that's what we saw."
Paul:
Jeez, you've seen a few things in the bush.
Witness S:
Yeah, yeah.
Paul:
Well, it seems like you're a bit of a mystery animal magnet, but I'll turn the tape off now.
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