Location: Blue Mountains, New South Wales

Date: June 1998

The A.Y.R Team visited a very active area of the Blue mountains in NSW. We arrived around lunch time on a rainy day in early winter, On this field trip was Dean, Warren and myself we visited a car park first at the end of a street that backed on to some national parkland which was a fairly thick srub area with an abundence of Bloodwood trees.

As we walked down the path we noticed a few faint footprints from a large animal they were a size 14 approximately in shoe size but wider with 4 toes. As we walked further down the track Dean pointed out the yowie tracks that crossed the walking track we were on, ''they just tear up and down these slopes and trample down all the low bushes into the ground the devistation is like a football team running back and forth here every night''. At this point we started to see tree bites they seemed to be scattered along the edges of the track, we walked another 100 mtrs and took a few photos of tree bites.

We then walked back to the car and seen a council sign that had been repeatedly pulled out of the ground even though it had a huge concrete block on the end Dean said the Yowies rip it out all the time and I believe him no human could pull it out and there was no access for vehicles so it couldn't have been removed with a car either.

We then returned to the car park where we started and we were told that no one goes parking there anymore as there have been to many encounters with the yowie and young couples being frightened.

We moved on over a few valleys to our next active spot.

On arriving we drove half way up a dirt track that ran along a ridge and parked near some power-lines, on the way up the track I noticed the opposite every driveway was a tree bite maybe this is a marker to warn the occupants to stay on their sice of the road who knows?, We got out of the car and it was amazing there were tree bites every where the devistation down the side of the ridge was quite evident and the tracks the yowies take were very obvious. We walked a few tracks to get familar with the area before night fall then I spotted a pile of freshly plucked magpie feathers they were just beside the track and undesturbed the yowie must have sat here and plucked and eaten the magpie (photo)

It was to be an active evening for sure with this amount of fresh tracks around, we photographed a few more bites and headed off. Into town for an early dinner, It was starting to rain so we all went to a local store and picked up a few raincoats, Dean and I sparked up a coversation about what we were here for and one of the shopkeepers said she lives close by the area we were just about to stakeout. She explained that she had lived there for many years and that she has had a few encounters where a large animal had walked up her stairs from her back yard (which backs onto the bush) a few times late at night It was a very ''heavy thing walking up the stairs and sitting on the verandah" she didnt look out as she thought it could have been a kangaroo or a big possum although it did seem to walk and not scamper or hop. We then filled her in on a few details of the yowies it answered a few questions for her and she will have a good look next time and let us know,after all over 40 people have seen the yowie in this street it shouldnt be long before she calls.

We returned to the bush tracks and waited for nightfall.

Tonight we were going to try something different we all went off alone and spead out along the road I was at the intersection of the most fresh yowie track I stood directly behind a large tree right beside the track on the road the yowie was going to be coming up the ridge towards me "we had already known the direction it was coming for and where it was going". The wind was in our favour and it was getting dark, Warren was about 40 mtrs down the road from me behind a tree and Dean was a further 50-60 mtrs down the road where it becomes a track.

About 15 mins after dark I heard the dogs at the bottom of the gully go right off barking hysterically then I heard this heavy stomping come up over the gully and onto the bottom of the ridge, there was a couple of loud cracking sounds as the timbers on the ground were broken underfoot then the noise stopped and I could hear faintly something moving through the bush towards me and then it was totally quiet.

I knew the Yowie was close now I felt like I was being watched, I decided to peer out beside the tree and have a quick look, There it was about 20-30 mtrs down in front of me I blinked my eyes I couldn’t believe my luck It was there alright! I moved out from behind the tree and tried to take a photo. It was huge 7 ft or more and very heavy set indeed, as I moved it was startled and dodged sideways behind a tree but the tree wasn't wide enough so it tried a couple more and then disappeared further across the ridge, I looked down the road and seen Warren getting a bit excited at something I whistled to him and he seemed to ignore me and walk to the edge of the road. He was looking straight down towards the gully the yowie must have passed right in front of him heading to Deans location. He came over to me and told me he had seen it and then went back to his spot.

Then I heard the yowie sneaking through the bush towards me and hid well behind my tree it sounded very close and I could hear the light bush moving just below me I had another look and couldn’t see anything it was getting darker then right in front of me about 30 ft below me the bushes started shaking and the yowie was right there behind them he dodged from side to side as if he was playing football and trying to dodge past me he seemed very flustered as he was being blocked from going where he wanted to, that’s why we spread out across his tracks so we would force him to do something in the 1st place, I ducked back behind my tree to avoid being bowled over if he decided to go for it, he didn’t he turned and ran back down the ridge a bit and then ran across towards Warren and Deans positions. We lost track of him then for a while but he was still there hiding watching.

We all meet together back at the car which was just near Warren. Dean hadn't seen the yowie it didn't go all the way over to his spot yet and was still somewhere down below us we thought then we heard some sounds from the ridge just above us he had made it across our line and was now behind us , we no longer hid in our positions our cover was blown well and truly so we watched and listened from near the car he was very curious and was quite close, I was getting whiffs of a strong horse urine smell he was still there.

We walked quietly down the road hoping he would follow, We could occasionally hear him when we stopped quickly altogether, he was following about 20 mtrs behind and a few mtrs into the thick bush we tried a few tricks to catch him out but he wouldn't play.

I started to rain fairly heavy so we went back to the car for a while, The rain subsided a bit so we sat on the tail gate and talked for a while. Then Warren and Dean heard something just below us down the slope and hit the spotlights there it was running across the slope and ducking in behind some trees, they had just caught a glimpse of it in the light.

It started raining again so we headed for home very happy with what we had experienced and keen to return again the next day.

Phil

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