Thylacine
Northern Territory
Acacia Hills, Northern Territory 1997 (1)
Location: Acacia Hills, Northern Territory (approx. 70km south of Darwin).
Event: Sighting
Time: Mid-August 1997
Witness: Kate Tucker
Other References: Litchfield Times (NT) articles, Who Magazine articles. The taped interview with Kate Jones includes significant extra details.
Audio of the witness also on the AYR Site.
Kate Jones and her husband operate a 20 acre mango farm. They have lived in the Acacia Hills area for around 20 years. Kate was previously unaware of the yowie legend - this fact was quite clear given the questions she asked me during and after the interview. The Jones's property is quite remote - it's around an hour drive to the nearest shop.
For about the past five years, Kate and her husband had heard strange sounds emanating from beyond a mountain ridge around 5-10km. away. The ridge has a large number of caves. On the other side of the ridge is the Adelaide River.
The sounds were only noticeable during the dry season, July - August. The area has abundant wildlife, and she is quite familiar with dingoes and various birds, but this animal was clearly different. Kate described the sound as a high-pitched noise, like a howler-monkey. The sound changed in pitch from low to high. At one time, Kate heard the sound, and an 'answer' from another location. Whenever the sound occurred, her dogs (2 Doberman's and 2 German shepherds) would start to cry. There were other witnesses to the sounds.
Just prior to the sighting, it appeared that something had been upsetting nearby animals. Across the road from their place, a farmer's cows had jumped a fence. Another nearby property, a horse stud, reported that their horses had been spooked.
On the night of the incident, Kate was awoken at 3am (she checked her bedside clock) by the same sound she had heard previously, except the sound was much closer, and whatever was making it seemed distressed. All her dogs were going berserk. Katherine went out onto her verandah, as the really loud sound continued from close to their 'shadehouse'.
Kate took the 4 wheeler bike to locate the source of the sound - at this stage, she still felt that it could have been a farm animal caught in the high tensile fenceline. The shadehouse was located up a slight incline, in an open area. The night was dark, with heavy cloud cover - the previous week had seen nights with a full moon and no cloud cover. As she traveled up the hill, her mind was on what she would do if it was a trapped animal.
The lights then hit the creature, and she thought 'What the...". She swung the bike around, almost coming off in the process. As she swung the bike, Kate was hit with a smell that made her dry retch. As she recovered, she glanced back at the animal, which was then running off beside the fence line. The smell resembled a cave full of bats, or the inside of a chookhouse, or urine. At the closest point, she was around 8 feet from the creature.
The creature never faced Kate, but was right side-on to her. It was around 6.5 to 7 feet tall and covered in dull, dark reddish-brown hair. more brown than red. Its arms were longer than a human. The hair was around 2cm long and appeared matted. The creatures shoulders were sloped, not square like a human. It had no neck. It seemed more animal than human.
As it ran, its arms did not 'pump' as a human's would - it did not bend its elbows. It ran by bending its knees, and was stooped over. The animal also swayed from side-to-side. Kate said it appeared to run in 'slow motion', although it took large strides. She felt the animal was scared.
In the morning , Kate returned to the area and found footprints along the fence line. The prints had 3 big toes, with another 'thumb' located down on the instep. The prints were in an area that was spray irrigated, so Kate covered one of the best prints. A high tensile fence had also been 'crushed' Kate stressed that it was impossible for a man to even move the fence.
Not knowing what to do, she called the NT Museum. Kate was fairly 'cagey' talking to the Museum representative, only asking her to identify an animal's print. Eventually she did tell the full story. The NT Museum did apparently call the Litchfield Times and the Palmerston Police. A local naturalist also visited at the same time.
In the end, the NT Museum staff felt that Kate had been hoaxed - they did not dispute that she had seen something. The NT staff told her that no animal had 4 toes as the prints indicated. Palmerston Police appeared equally nonplussed. The officer who visited returned again with another officer to view the prints and talk to Kate. The officer, who was 6 foot 4" high, could not stretch to duplicate the stride between the prints - he was too short. The police indicated that they would be checking 2 empty farmhouses to try and locate a 'hoaxer'. Kate warned them that locals tended to shoot first and ask questions later!
[The prints certainly looked artificial, but the witness' story was extremely credible. A truly puzzling case.]
© Copyright AYR
Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
www.yowiehunters.com
Acacia Hills, Northern Territory 1997 (2)
Location: Acacia Hills, Northern Territory
Event: Yowie Causing Havoc
Date: July/Aug 1997
Terrain: Farm near heavily wooded rainforest/ Hilly landscape.
The following report is an account of what a lone farmer’s wife was witness to at her property in Acacia Hills. Katrina Tucker, who at the time of the interview was 40 years of age, has lived with her husband in the Territory for about 20 years and for the last 9 of those years have resided at their farm in Acacia. The sighting took place during the wet season of July/ August 1998.
In Katrina’s words this is the lead up to the main event:
I was being woken at roughly 2am, by a noise that sounded like a strange howling animal call. It was coming from the direction of the river, which as the crow flies, is about 5km away.
To get to the river you have to go around a ridge, which makes it much further to travel to. I was interested enough to go out on the veranda and listen more carefully. It was not the call of any dingo, dog, bird or crocodile that I’m used to hearing, but something much different. On hearing the call, you could hear a faint answer from another in the distance. This went on for a good 4 – 5 years, in the dry season only.
I had some friends from Katherine stay over and asked them to keep an ear out for the noise. They also heard it and even suggested that I tape it but, with all the other noise of crickets and frogs in the foreground you wouldn’t be able to get a clear taping of the call, it’s very distant.
There are around 30 families living in the area, and none of the neighbours have heard anything, although most have their air-conditioners and fans running which would make it hard to hear any noises outside.
Two days before my encounter, my guard dogs were going off, barking and carrying on. Something had spooked the neighbour’s horses. They were so scared they had jumped the fence and taken off. They were trying to break into the large shade house that I have at the other end of my block.
The shade house is a structure to house plants and trees, it’s very large, the size of a house. In there I grow fruit trees and vegetables and also keep troughs of water for the birds to drink out of. I jumped on the 4 wheeler and took off to see what these hoses were up to. As soon as I arrived, they bolted.
The next morning I went back to check the damage, they had trampled a few Paw Paws into the ground the other side of the fence, so I decided to go and see the neighbour and told him his horses had got out and he said that something had scared them and he didn’t know what it was and it had never happened before.
Night 2 there were cattle, which belonged to a farmer down the road, that were trying to break in to the property and my dogs were going right off. Something had scared the cattle and they had jumped the fence they were being kept in.
Night 3 I was awoken by the dogs. They were hysterical. They are vicious guard dogs, and they were crying and hiding in their kennels frightened out of their minds, like something was really wrong, and I thought, “What is wrong with these stupid dogs?”. Then I heard the call, the same call as I’d been hearing from the river, but allot louder and closer this time!
It sounded like a distressed animal caught in the K wire fence that runs around our property .I thought that from the night before with the cows trying to break in and presumed it was just that. I took the four wheeler up to the shade house AGAIN, at 3am, and by this time I was getting quite angry as this was the third night in a row I’d had to deal with animals breaking into our property.
When I was coming towards where the screaming was going on, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. For an instant, I thought there was a bear caught in the fence! I came up along the fence line and when the head lights first hit this thing I thought I was looking at a bear.
As I came close upon it, it was making this noise and was bent over and crushing the fence down onto the ground. It wasn’t caught in the fence, but rather screaming and carrying on about something, I don’t know what, and crushing the fence down at the same time.
This thing stood 7ft, with light red/brown shaggy hair and heavily built. It had no neck or shoulders just a slope down from where the neck should be. It’s coat was long and matted looking about the length of your hand.
When I saw this thing I just screamed and sharply turned the 4 wheeler around to go back the way I came, the animal started to move in the other direction, up the hill, and by the time I could turn the bike around I was only 3 metres away from this thing and the smell nearly made me dry reach even though I was screaming.
It smelled like when you walk into a bat cave or battery hen facility, very ammonia like stench. It was moving with large swaying paces, stooped over with knees slightly bent as it ran, much like an orang-utan moves. I was screaming all the way home!!! I finally made it back to the house to find my cowardly dogs, which were off the chain, hiding in their kennels howling and crying.
They are vicious guard dogs that would normally run straight out to tackle something, but chose to stay in the kennels. I was so scared I road the bike right up to the stairs, I ran inside locked the door, shut all the windows, and rang my husband who was away at the time.
He told me that it was probably just someone playing a trick on me and to load the gun and fire a shot off the veranda into the air and it would scare off anyone who was around. I ran into the bedroom, loaded the gun, locked the door and stayed inside! I wasn’t going out there! A sleepless night? Yes indeed.
The next day, I went straight back up there at daylight. I found an absolute mess. It had broken down these big Paw Paw trees and stomped them into the ground. The fence was crushed and there were footprints everywhere around where the animal had gone the night before for about 50 metres.
The prints were sunk into the ground which tells me that it was quite a heavy build, and the movie character I would most relate it to is Chewbacca from Star Wars.
© Copyright AYR
Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
www.yowiehunters.com
Kings Canyon, Northern Territory 2001
Location: Kings Canyon, Northern Territory
Event: Mysterious Vocalisations
Witness: DS
Date: 2001
Hey Dean,
I am writing this email to you to tell of an experience I had back in 2001 out at Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory.
I was working out at a resort as a kitchen hand, and was based there with permanent accommodation. My unit looked out directly towards Carmicheal's Crag.
On a day where my flat mate and I shared a day off together, we decided that an adventurous walk out to the Crag to do some exploring of the region would be a great way to spend the day off. We crossed mulga scrub and madeour way across a claypan that was well and truly dry, where we found small flints and grinding stones.
We left them we found them and continued on. As we got to the edge of the claypan we started to come to the base of the Crag and to the little valley that lay beyond it,which if followed, brought you to a waterfall that when dry can be climbed to get a much better view of the natural amphitheatre that you were standing in.
My flat mate ( who's name is ****** ) and I climbed this dry waterfall, when we could climb no higher we took it upon ourselves to start yelling out a Coo-ee or two as the echo sounded like I was down in the valley yelling back up at myself. It was not long after we had stopped our little song and dance, for the novelty wore off quickly,we sat down to eat our protein bars before heading back when this sound came out of the valley like none I've ever heard before in my life, or since for that matter.
The only way I can describe this sound is like this, it was two sounds at once, an almost grunting you could say but it came across like a deep oomph! oomph! oomph! but accompanying that noise was also a sound like someone was banging one of those large drums that you see in a marching band. I looked at my mate and said, ok smart a,what the hell makes a noise like that, as it truly had me perplexed as I had grown up on Harry Butler in the Wild, Malcolm Douglas, The Bush Tucker Man.
He was about as clueless as I was as to what it was, and in the nine years since that date I have thought the events and wondered whether or not we encountered a yowie that day. Which is why I wrote this email to you to see if maybe you could shed some light on the subject. I know that there were camels in the area at the time but I have heard camel calls from the occasional visit to the Kings Creek Camel Station 150klms away and it sounded nothing like a camel call.
Sincerely yours,
D***** S*****
© Copyright AYR
Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
www.yowiehunters.com
Adelaide River, Northern Territory 1998
Location: Adelaide River, Northern Territory
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date of Sighting: Wednesday the 18th of November, 1998
Date of report: Monday the 23rd of November, 1998
Source: Northern Territory News
Witness: Richard Kingsly
The NT News of 23 November 1998 reported 'Yeti Beast Spotted at Adelaide River':
"A Darwin man has told how he fled in fear of an "ape-like creature" scurrying on two legs near the Adelaide River bridge on the Arnhem Highway. Carpenter Darryl Campbell 32, was driving along the Arnhem Highway on the Adelaide River floodplains at 10pm last Wednesday when he sighted the yeti-like beast in the bush. He and a friend slowed down when their vehicle approached it.
He said "It was like a bloody big gorilla or ape. It was crouched down on the ground and hobbled along holding grass and other junk in its hands”. He said it stood about the height of a man and he pulled his vehicle over as a group of European tourists had also stopped.
He said "They saw it too and stopped to ask what it was. They were shaken up. I turned and drove back towards the animal but got scared and tore off myself". Mr Campbell said the group of tourists reported the sighting to Transport and Works Department traffic controllers at the Adelaide River bridge.
" The Litchfield Times (clip undated, probably late November 1998) reported it as follows:
"A creature reportedly seen at Adelaide River Bridge on Wednesday is similar to one seen at Acacia Hills in August last year.
Darwin man, Darryl Campbell was one of several people who saw the creature near the bridge at 10 pm on Wednesday. Describing the creature as a "bloody big gorilla", Mr Campbell said it "crouched on the ground and hobbled along".
A group of tourists who also saw the creature told traffic controllers from the Transport and Works department at the bridge what they saw. The report is similar to other sightings throughout the rural area spanning a number of years, describing the creature as a yowie.
Berry Springs man, Richard Kinglsey saw a similar creature twice, spanning three years between the Elizabeth River Bridge and the crocodile farm. The Acacia Hills sighting was reported as a large hairy animal which reeked.
A farmer, hearing screeching rode along her fence line, thinking she'd find an animal stuck in her fence, only to see a strange animal running along the road. Footprints were found along the fence line later in the morning but wildlife expert Ian Morris and Museums and Art Galleries taxidermist Jenny Risler could not identify the prints.
A week after the sighting at Acacia Hills, NSW traveller, Douglas Evans wrote a letter to the Centralian Advocate in Alice Springs reporting on a "mysterious creature" he and his wife saw near Alice Springs. Part of his letter read: "We weren't able to see any features or colour but think it was quite dark and may have had short hair or fur."
© Copyright AYR
Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
www.yowiehunters.com
Tanima Desert, Northern Territory 1998
Location: Tanima Desert, Northern Territory
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: Feb. 28 1998
Source: Article by Randall Floyd for 'Living in Australia'
In the spring of 1997, a woman vacationing in Australia's Tanimi Desert was awakened by a ``horrible, animal-like'' noise just outside her hotel window.
When she went out to investigate, she saw a ``giant, hairy creature'' loping across the yard.
``It was the ugliest thing I've ever seen,'' Felicia Morgan told investigators. ``And it smelled worse than any skunk in the world.''
She described the creature as at least seven feet tall, weighing 500 pounds and covered with long, dark hair.
``It looked almost human -- with sad, frightened eyes,'' she said.
When the creature saw her, it crashed through a fence and escaped into the woods. Ms. Morgan, a nurse from Bristol, England, said she will never forget the ``awful sound'' the creature made as it escaped.
``It roared just like a big bear, yet (the sound) was frighteningly similar to that of a little human baby crying,'' she said.
Other sightings were reported in the days that followed. Each incident made national news.
Yowie, as the creature has long been known, is a presence in the folklore of New South Wales and the Gold Coast of Queensland.
According to legend, Australia was once populated by a savage race of ape-men. When the ancestors of the aborigine arrived several thousand years ago, they confronted these creatures and all but exterminated them in battle.
Before the 1970s, most people called the creature "Yahoo,'' possibly in reference to the subhuman creatures mentioned in Jonathan Swift's book, Gulliver's Travels, which was published in 1726.
According to one source, the term is a corruption of the aborigine word "youree,'' which means "hairy man-monster.''
Whatever its origin, the name ``Yowie'' stuck.
The first recorded sighting of a Yowie by a European came in 1881 when an Australian newspaper reported that several witnesses had seen a baboon-like animal that stood taller than a man. In 1894, another individual claimed to have seen a ``wild man or gorilla'' in New South Wales.
Today, hardly a month goes by without at least one Yowie sighting being reported in the press.
In 1971, a Royal Australian Air Force helicopter carrying a crew of surveyors discovered strange footprints atop of a remote mountain in New South Wales. The footprints were described as humanoid in appearance, yet too big for true humans.
Yowie sightings continued throughout the 1970s. In 1976, backpackers in New South Wales reported seeing a five-foot female Yowie whose fur ``stank to high heaven.''
Also in New South Wales, Betty Gee reported seeing a giant creature covered with black fur outside her home in 1977. A few days later her fence was torn down by a mysterious creature that left enormous footprints in the mud.
Randall Floyd is a syndicated writer living in Augusta.
It looked almost human -- with sad, frightened eyes.Felicia Morgan, describing creature she said she saw in Australia
© Copyright AYR
Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
www.yowiehunters.com