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The abominable truth

Bigfoot, aka sasquatch, the abominable snowman, yeti, or, to us in Australia, the yowie, has sparked interest throughout theworld for centuries

By ZACH HOPE

American bigfoot hunter Rick Dyer with what he claims is agenuine sasquatch, who he nicknamed ‘‘Hank’’

The famous 2009 NT Newsfrontpage yowie story

Aussie cryptonaturalist Timthe Yowie Man

Theymay be

paranormal entities,

almost ghostlike

SOMEWHERE in Washing-ton today, a bald-headed, gun-toting Georgian claiming tobe the greatest bigfoot hunterin the world will provideuniversity-scrutinised ‘‘evi-dence’’ that may just changethe world forever.

Bigfoot, aka sasquatch, theabominable snowman, yeti,or, to us in Australia, theyowie, has eluded captureever since his massive ape-like, hairy and smelly framefirst scared the pants off Eur-opean settlers centuries ago.

Rick Dyer now reckons hehas the proof, the spoils offive years’ work that culmi-nated one evening outsideSan Antonio, Texas, when‘‘Hank’’ decided to nibble onthe wrong piece of Walmart-grade, deer urine-drenchedslab of ribs that were leftdangling from a tree.

If Dyer delivers, no-onecould dare question his title,and perhaps even forgive his2008 hoax that had the world’scryptonaturalists, conspiracytheorists, open-minded opti-mists, journalists and wetblankets in a similar frenzy

We don’t yet know whatuniversity has tested hisclaims, nor is it clear whatevidence he will produce, butwe are told it will involve abody and DNA results.

After scrutiny, Hank andDyer will embark on US-widetour as a big two fingers to allthe doubters and make asquillion along the way —Hank will have to find com-fort in his contribution toscientific knowledge.

So while Dyer and Hank arechanging the world from theUS, it is time to reflect on theTerritory’s own, albeitmeagre, advancement of thismost fascinating topic.

The first stop must beAcacia Hills, the sparselypopulated hot bed of strangeactivity better known as aninexplicable magnet forUFOs.

In 1997, mango farmer Ka-trina Tucker reported beingwoken at 3am by a strangeand distressed howling soundwhich she believed to be ananimal caught in a fence.

She hopped on the4-wheeler to investigateand ended up within metresof a creature about 2m tallwith matted dark brownhair, long arms and giving offa terribly smell akin to ‘‘acave full of bats, or a chookshed, or urine’’, as reportedby Australian Yowie Re-search (a real website).

The animal ran away inwhat looked almost slowmotion, but not beforeleaving footprints, whichwere later dismissed bypolice and naturalists.

She claimed the beast haddestroyed her fence, a featshe said was not possible tohave been done by any man.

The following year, Darwincarpenter Darryl Campbellreported that he was forced toflee an ape-like creature nearthe Adelaide River bridge onthe Arnhem Highway.

‘‘It was a big bloody gorillaor ape,’’ he said shortly afterthe encounter.

‘‘It was crouched down onthe ground and hobbledalong holding grass and other

junk in its hands.‘‘They (European tourists)

saw it too. They stopped toask what it was.

‘‘They were shaken up. Iturned and drove backtowards the animal but gotscared and I tore off myself.’’

Today locals at Acacia Hillsand neighbouring localitiesare sceptical.

Some have heard the ru-mours, but most grin at themention of the word and pol-itely reference alleged mari-juana crops, which are all,naturally, a bit further alongthe Stuart Highway.

One woman at Livingstonheard of sheep going missing

from a nearby property evenafter it was installed withdingo-proof fencing.

Other residents said thatthere had never been anysheep in the area.

At Acacia, local fire wardenLouie King, who has been liv-ing there since 1990, said henever heard a single rumour.

The closest encounter theSunday Territorian could findwas from long-time KentishRd resident Alex Maksacheff,who said he went looking fora yowie, shotgun in hand,about 15 years ago after hisneighbour told him he hadfound strange footprints.

Mr Maksacheff qualified

the story by adding that theneighbour, long since movedto cooler climes, didn’t mindthe Schnapps.

‘‘He said it was some bloodycreature,’’ Mr Maksacheffsaid. ‘‘It was the first and lasttime I’ve heard of themaround here.’’

The most recent, andnotorious, alleged encounterwas the NT News-headlined‘‘Dog killed by Yowie’’ case in2009, in which a seven-month-old puppy was found withits head ripped off inDarwin’s rural area.

The owners suspecteddingoes, but AndrewMcGinn, who had been re-

searching yowies in the TopEnd for more than a decade,told the NT News: ‘‘The waythe guy’s dog was killed wastypical of a Yowie.

‘‘I know it sounds fancifulbut over the past 100years, dogs get killed ordecapitated and people reportfeeling watched, having goatsstolen or seeing some tallhairy thing in thedays beforehand.’’

Other documented encoun-ters have been reported fromYambah Station (1987), theTanimi Desert (1998) andKings Canyon (2001).

Economist-turned-crypto-naturalist and CanberraTimes columnist Tim theYowie Man has visited theTerritory several times to in-vestigate the mystery.

TYM, as his title conveni-ently converts to acronymform, has been chasing themysterious creatures sincehe first spotted what he be-lieved was a yowie in the BlueMountains 20 years ago.

He conceded this sighting

could have been a ‘‘feralhuman’’, like an encounternear Alice Springs manyyears ago when a yowieturned out to be a naked andhairy man running awayfrom a nearby remand centre.

TYM is one of about 20 or 30cryptonaturalists who ac-tively chase yowies and otherstrange beings such asbunyips, ghosts and big cats,more or less full time.

He was cautious to endorsethe NT sightings, and freelyadmitted he had never foundevidence of yowies, but hismind is open.

‘‘Most sightings are inmountainous and coolerareas. If you are a large hairyanimal you’d think you’dprefer that to the NT, which isgenerally quite humid andhot,’’ he said.

‘‘But I’ve been up there afew times and, interestingly,all reports from the NT, peo-ple have described smellingthem first, and that’s prob-ably because if you were bigand hairy you would smell.

‘‘In 10-15 per cent of sight-ings in Australia, people havesmelled them first, in the NT,in all cases people havesmelled them first.’’

For this particular reason,TYM recommended would-beNT yowie hunters ap-proached their tasks with‘‘clean nasal passages’’.

He also said to searchareas where there wasa history of sightings, coverand easy access to water.

Today, TYM is comingaround to the theory thatyowies may, in fact, be super-natural beings.

‘‘Some people say thatbecause your bigfoot or yowiecarcasses are never foundthey may be paranormalentities, almost ghostlike, inwhich case they’re not likelyto be hunting at all.’’

Reported Western encoun-ters with yowies go backto the early colonists, but itwas not until the 19th centurythat written accounts beganto fully emerge.

The name ‘yowie’ isbelieved by some to have beenadapted from the term ‘yahoo’used by Jonathan Swift todescribe the savages inGulliver’s Travels.

Author Graham Seal saysthe term also sounds like theterm for ‘dream spirit’ in theYuwaalaraay language ofnorth-eastern NSW.

Hairy beasts going by vari-ous names are folklore inmany Aboriginal tribesthroughout Australia, andare even represented in an-cient rock paintings.

Many sightings and foot-print records have been dis-proved, but some remaintantalisingly unresolved.

TYM, who, for the recorddoubts Rick Dyer’s claims,will continue the search.

‘‘I’ve spent a lot of timelooking and talked to hun-dreds, probably thousands ofpeople from around theworld,’’ he said.

‘‘Some of them might behoaxing, but most of them,I believe, have genuinelyseen something that theycan’t explain, so eithersomething is out there, orthey’re being hoaxed.

‘‘What it is, I’m yetto determine.’’