My Yowie Encounter - Photographic 'Expedition'

(Warning for dial-up users: This thread is image heavy)

About 7 years ago I had a brush with a creature that is not meant to exist.

The full story of that encounter can be read in the first few paragraphs of my THE YOWIE LIVES ON thread, which is also linked in my signature.

I posted a few weeks back in that thread that I intended to go back (for first time I had been back since it happened) to the place my encounter occurred.

I took that trip today.

I've taken photos along the way, and made a few interesting discoveries. I didn't see my hairy assailant, but I did see possible marks that he still resides in the area.

For the simple reason of wanting to avoid harassment by Yowie 'experts' wanting me to take them to the spot (it happened last time I posted a thread about this), I am leaving the exact location out, but someone desperate enough will find mention of it in my posting history.

It is a strange feeling walking from complete civilization and within 10 minutes being enveloped in a dense, dark bushland that looks as if it has been undisturbed since the beginning of time.

The area has a well worn track that is a shortcut between parts of town, and it is along this track that my encounter occurred. Today I ventured off the track and into denser areas of the park in an attempt to find something tangible.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7119ddb23110.png[/atsimg]
The entrance to the track

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3151c2ee2505.png[/atsimg]
Leaving the track behind

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/45829834e32e.png[/atsimg]
Grasses that go on for huge distances


In the centre of the park, tall grasses spread out for huge distances and it was here I made my first interesting discovery.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a1f249605ea5.png[/atsimg]
Crushed grass

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c53da1d9892b.png[/atsimg]
Crushed grass

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/42c6741cd2d8.png[/atsimg]
Crushed grass


The photos do not illustrate it as well as I would have liked, but what I am trying to show is that there were some fairly well crushed areas of the grass that seemed to be trails of some sort for animals.

Some of the grass was pushed down in huge sections as if something very large had moved through the area.

Deer and kangaroos are known inhabitants of the area, but I doubt their bulk would be able to make some of the impressions I saw.

After nearly an hour and a half of walking, the bush simply got too dense to go further by myself, so I turned back and headed back, but took a different path than on the way in.

This area of the park was more like rainforest, and was on the banks of a small creek that meandered through the park.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c6e6da62df56.png[/atsimg]
Grasslands give way to dense rainforest


Here I found another interesting path through the grass and trees, as if something had rampaged through the area in a hurry.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e72e46039388.png[/atsimg]
Thick track of grass heading into dense scrub that was crushed underfoot by something


Not far from the above track was an interesting tree. It was as if the bark had been ripped or chewed off by something.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/80aa62530c53.png[/atsimg]
Mauled tree


Another 30 minutes or so of uneventful hiking connected me back with the shortcut path and the way back out of the bush.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d98c69e6c687.png[/atsimg]
Never been so happy to see a man-made path

It was a strange feeling going back, especially by myself. I didn't expect to have a run in with any angry creatures this time, as it was in the middle of the day. I did find what (hopefully isn't just my overeager imagination) might be some loose evidence that the creature is still in the area.

I'd love to get hold of some trail cams and put them in some of the spots I came across one day.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Feel free to comment on how I'm probably seeing things that aren't there.



[edit on 30-5-2009 by fooffstarr]

Is this in Victoria? Just a guess. Could I get just a rough idea of where in Oz?

reply to post by shamus78


New South Wales' Mid North Coast.

Not too far from the areas that get the country's highest numbers of sightings, the Blue Mountains and the Kempsey / Taree areas.

I love you foof.
Okay, here goes:

My first thought upon seeing the crushed grass in the first crushed grass picture was "other people have been walking here and created a trail."

My first thought upon seeing the second crushed grass picture was "something large was lying down here."

My first thought upon seeing the third crushed grass picture was "someone wheeled something through here or a machine was used to make a trail"

My thought for the rampaged track was "Either a lot of people had a picnic here, or a number of animals rested here, or something large tussled here."

And my thoughts for the tree picture were first "BEAR!!" followed by "or ELK!!!"

But overall... hm... that's weird. I obviously don't know the area nor know if other people frequently walk through it... that tree picture I think may be explained by the male deer rubbing their antlers on the bark...

I'm curious as to what other people have to say. The crushed grass is strange, though.

Originally posted by ravenshadow13
I love you foof.
Okay, here goes:

My first thought upon seeing the crushed grass in the first crushed grass picture was "other people have been walking here and created a trail."

Possible. Though, I thought I'd clarify the 'people' factor. I can understand signs of humans around the maintained track itself and within a small distance on either side. The spots I ventured to are fairly remote and I really don't know how often people get back there. I saw no evidence that people had been there recently.

My first thought upon seeing the second crushed grass picture was "something large was lying down here."

That is exactly what I thought when I came across it. It was as if something the size of a fridge had lied down on the spot.

My first thought upon seeing the third crushed grass picture was "someone wheeled something through here or a machine was used to make a trail"

I can guarantee that no one got anything with wheels in that far. Unless they air-dropped it. The grass was crushed downwards all in the same direction, so whatever made it moved through at a relatively steady pace.

Possibly human made... though god knows why.

My thought for the rampaged track was "Either a lot of people had a picnic here, or a number of animals rested here, or something large tussled here."

This particular spot was fairly close to the track. About 30 mins walk away. So I guess it is possible people caused it. If you look again, I can describe it a bit better to help make up for the fairly bad photo. The grass was all bent down as if crushed under something heavy, and it went into the bush about 10metres then curved left and kept going until I couldn't see it any further.

It was as if something that was moving at a high speed plowed into the grass and slogged its way through.

And my thoughts for the tree picture were first "BEAR!!" followed by "or ELK!!!"

I can also guarantee that we have no elk or bears here. The only animals to even come close to the size of a bear are the kangaroos, which can get fairly large. The deer in the area are all small and relatively docile.

But overall... hm... that's weird. I obviously don't know the area nor know if other people frequently walk through it... that tree picture I think may be explained by the male deer rubbing their antlers on the bark...

I'm curious as to what other people have to say. The crushed grass is strange, though.

Thanks for taking a look mate. Your input is always greatly appreciated.

I hope to hear from some more people about what they think too.

reply to post by fooffstarr


Hi Foof,
any water near where you encountered the "crushed grass"?
It sounds ike to me you have found a spot where Kangaroos like to relax!
You will know this by the nearby presence of water, and lots of doppings, like spherical 10 cent pieces!

Originally posted by KRISKALI777
reply to post by fooffstarr

 

Hi Foof,
any water near where you encountered the "crushed grass"?
It sounds ike to me you have found a spot where Kangaroos like to relax!
You will know this by the nearby presence of water, and lots of doppings, like spherical 10 cent pieces!

There is a small creek nearby, and by small I mean nearly dried up.

There are 'roos in the area, but the biggest I've seen is about 5ft tall. In my opinion they probably don't have the weight to make these impressions. A group of them could, though. I'll admit that.

Edit to add: I didn't see a single 'roo or deer on my trip yesterday, although I admit I was making a huge amount of noise trying to get through the bush.



[edit on 31-5-2009 by fooffstarr]

Nice thread Foof.

Do you have a higher res shot of the tree?

This reminded me of what I read sometime ago. If it has been posted before, my apologies.

It was an encounter by Bill Oh Chee, former Queensland National Party senator.

BILL O'Chee can remember it like it was yesterday. It was the day the former Queensland National Party senator came face to face with a creature straight out of a nightmare.

A young O'Chee was with a group of 20 fellow TSS students returning from a two-day camp near Springbrook when they saw what they described as a 3m tall hair-covered creature.

To this day, Mr O'Chee is certain what he saw was the mythical yowie.

He told The Gold Coast Bulletin on November 17, 1977 that the animal approached the boys' camp on several occasions, at one stage coming within 10m of their cabins.

"About 20 of us saw it," he said then.

"It was about 3m tall, covered in hair, had a flat face and walked to the side in a crab-like style.

"It smashed small saplings and trees like matchsticks as it careered through the bush, we spotted it several times and once watched it through binoculars. It definitely was there.
www.barossa-region.org...

The fact that so many were witness to this event makes it so credible, unless it's mass hallucination.

Cool thread.

Being an Aussie myself, i know that kangroos 'nest' at night. I have seen big areas of ground in WA that have been flattened like that by roos sleeping at night.

The tree is a Paperbark Tree. The bark falls off or can be pulled off in large sections and yes, you and paint and write on it.

I DO however believe that there is more to most remote areas of bush than meets the eye.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
Nice thread Foof.

Do you have a higher res shot of the tree?

Sure do. I have them all in their original resolution, which are huge.

The tree one is 2448 x 3264.

My internet is capped at the moment, so I shrunk them down for both thread aesthetics and ease of upload.

It is just about time for me to catch some z's here, so tomorrow morning I will upload the original tree image and link it if you like?


reply to post by A Conscience


Thanks. I hadn't read that particular tale.

There is plenty of credible witnesses around. Probably hundreds more we don't know about because of the stigma attached to stories like this.

Originally posted by swinggal
Cool thread.

Being an Aussie myself, i know that kangroos 'nest' at night. I have seen big areas of ground in WA that have been flattened like that by roos sleeping at night.

The tree is a Paperbark Tree. The bark falls off or can be pulled off in large sections and yes, you and paint and write on it.

I DO however believe that there is more to most remote areas of bush than meets the eye.

Quite a possibility about the 'roos. As I said earlier, I know they are in the area.

You are right about the tree too. They are fairly brittle. Hopefully, when I post the hi-res version tomorrow, you can see what I saw, which was that it seemed to have been ripped off in a large chunk. I don't see a person going out there to do it, although I can't 100% discount that it was done by someone.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
Nice thread Foof.

Do you have a higher res shot of the tree?

I've tried and the file is too big to upload to ATS media.

So if the interest is still there I can upload it externally and link it.

reply to post by fooffstarr


Even a zoom and crop on the tree would be good.

As someone said, paperbarks tend to shed their bark but it would be good to see if there are any scratch marks showing how the bark was pulled off.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by fooffstarr

 

Even a zoom and crop on the tree would be good.

As someone said, paperbarks tend to shed their bark but it would be good to see if there are any scratch marks showing how the bark was pulled off.

Ok, well I'm going to crop out the part in question itself and upload it. Only thing missing will be the exif data if you wanted it.

Link to Tree Hi-Res

reply to post by fooffstarr


Thanks mate.

Looks like a bush fire went through there at some time?

reply to post by Chadwickus


Was years ago.

I don't know the exact year, but was long enough ago that it didn't spark my interest... which means probably 15 or so years at least. (Too young to care )

reply to post by fooffstarr


WhenI was young and used to accompany my grandfather on shooting expeditions in the Southern highlands, I saw these impressions many times. kangaroos are habitually pack animals, and although seen singularly, the pack is never far away.
When we manage to see them singularly, it is just a freak occurance that they didn't hear or smell you!
At night they are commonly found to 'roost' with the rest of the herd, which is noramlly close to a water source.

Very nice investigation. Good on you for getting into the field, keep up the good work

It wouldn't surprise me if you found something out in that region if you went out often enough. There are alot of stories from that neck of the woods since the first settlers, i've heard.

Love to hear about any further investigations you conduct!

reply to post by fooffstarr


Hi Foof,
I just wanted to say that I hope you don't think me overly sceptical with my 'Kangaroo' comments!
The truth is : thats what it looks like to me....I am not saying that there are no Yowies out there to be encountered though. And I respect the fact that you are out and about, having a look- not being the idle armchair critic!
May you find your Yowie

Here a litttle tale you may find interesting.........
When I was at primary school ' Emu Heights Public', I remember a story in the local newspaper ( early 1980's).
The story explained boy returning home from school to his family home that was in a fairly remote locale, on the outskirts of Lithgow.
He would disembark from his afternoon bus, and walk 2 or 3 KMS to his home; a rural property.
Not returning home on time, the boys mother and brother drove the bush track which lead to their home in search of the boy.
They located the boys school bag and jumper; not long after they found the boy as if dazed, weeping, distraught and wandering around aimlessly not far from the roadside.
The boys mother anxiouly too him to hospital where they diagnosed shock, and administered tranquilizers.
When the boy was calm enough to explain what had happened, he explained that as walking up the dirt road he saw a large figure on the road side about 50 ahead, after negotiatng a bend.
Startled the boy remebered seeing this huge 'yowie' coming toward him; and that was the last thing he could recall.
That believe it or not is a true story. I think it may have been the Penrith Press that printed the story or a local paper from Springwood.
But one things for sure my friends and I, whom lived in a similar yet not as remote bush setting, were very scared! I think it was around 1983.

reply to post by KRISKALI777


Hi mate.

I don't mind at all. I've just been focused on other topics today and hadn't gotten around to replying to this one yet. Thanks for your interest.

You are probably right.

As I said in my first post, I tend to add my preconceived explanations to things I see when it comes to this topic. I'll be the first to admit I'm over-eager to find some evidence to back up my story.

I'm already planning my next trip out. I'm too much of a scaredy cat (and for good reason probably) to go out there at night alone, but I would consider it if I got a group together.

I'm trying to get hold of a cheap trailcam or 2, but my budget is pretty pathetic.

See what happens.