Everything You’ve Been Desperate To Know About The Yowie, Australia’s Bigfoot

When it comes to mythical creatures, it is WAY more fun to just believe they exist than to wave them off as fake animals. BORING! Who wants to live a life where Bigfoot isn’t real? Where the Lithgow Panther doesn’t stalk the Blue Mountains of NSW? Where fairies aren’t potentially living in the deepest recesses of your backyard?

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This leads me to the Yowie. Australia’s answer to Bigfoot. Or are they? See, where America talks about this ONE big creature that galumphs around the mountains (??), the Australian Yowie is not just one random evolutionary blip. There’s meant to be loads of them, scattered all over. Like a secret animal SPECIES.

We’ve covered the Yowie on our latest episode of true crime/mystery podcast All Aussie Mystery Hour, which you can listen to on iTunes, Spotify, or below:

But I’ve learnt so much about this creature, I couldn’t help but give you a quick deep dive. Here’s what you need to know – but deffo listen to the podcast for some insanely spicy sighting stories.

1. They’re Not Insanely Huge

They’re definitely big – Yowies are said to be around 2-3 metres tall. But that’s not the giant, looming figure I imagined. In fact, it’s essentially a metre beyond a very tall basketballer. They’re also not the little fat guys the Cadbury chocolate make them out to be – they’re reportedly muscular, but slim – with abnormally long arms.

2. They Live Closer Than You Think

Thought Yowies lived in the outback, somewhere remote where you’d never, ever run into one? WRONG. Most reports come from areas of dense bushland, like the hinterland areas around Lismore, as well as the South Coast of NSW. In fact, NSW has the majority when it comes to Yowie sightings – Woodenbong, on the border of QLD, is reputed as the ‘Yowie Capital of Australia’.

Many Yowie sightings have also been along highways running through these hinterland areas, with the most recent being a man driving through the Gold Coast hinterland, before encountering a Yowie crouched on the highway.

3. They Might Be Related To Apes

There’s a lot of contention around whether Yowies are, in fact, real – or a mythical creature based off of an actually real animal. See, Aboriginal oral history has numerous mentions of the ‘Yahoo’, a creature who sounds similar to the modern description of a Yowie, and was referred to in 19th century papers are the ‘Australian Ape’. Australian historian Graham Joyner in his 1977 book The Hairy Man of South Eastern Australia argued that media confused the Yahoo with the new term, Yowie – a name that’s since stuck when referencing these creatures.

However, Joyner also believes the Yahoo did exist, but likely went extinct at some point in history. He argues that the modern Yowie is fictional and sightings are not legitimate.

4. They… Might Talk

One reported sighting doing the rounds is that of Tony Duffy, a Gympie resident who says he met a Yowie while camping back in 1977 and conversed with the creature.

“He was quickly able to learn a few words in English and we spoke for about two hours,” he told Gympie Times.

Duffy said the Yowie first spoke in a language he thought might be Latin. However, he is the only witness of a Yowie who has reported them speaking to him.

Want more? Listen to All Aussie Mystery Hour for more spicy sighting stories, details about Yowies (their feet? Terrifying) and other good shit. Also, Australian Yowie Research has LOADS of great news clippings, photos, and drawings from Yowie sightings, FYI.

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