The Australian Outback’s Strangest Creature of All

We have a lot of strange and unusual creatures in the Australian outback, and I’ve written about quite a few. We’ve got…

So it just can’t get any weirder, can it?

Hold on a minute! Didn’t my post two weeks ago about Feral pigs start in exactly the same way?

Yes, it did, but when I said then that it can’t get any weirder, I secretly knew that it would. How weird?

Yowies weird, that’s how weird!

Yowies

I suspect we have all heard of Bigfoot. Well a yowie appears to be the Australian equivalent. Apparently, we have at least two kinds of yowies here; little ones and big ones.

There is a wooden statue of a yowie in Kilcoy, here in Queensland and to be honest, I don’t know if this is a little one or a big one. If it is a little one, I wouldn’t want to bump into a big one anytime soon.Yowie-statue-Kilcoy-Queensland

What is a Yowie?

‘Yowie is the term for an unidentified hominid reputed to lurk in the Australian wilderness. It is an Australian cryptid similar to the Himalayan Yeti and the North American Bigfoot.’Wikipedia

At first, I thought this was just another “Loch Ness Monster” type story, but having looked into it I’m not so sure, there have been a huge number of sightings.

Search Google for “yowie” and you’ll find all lots and lots of information and many stories.

One site that got my attention was Dean Harrison’s Australian Yowie Research and they do a very good job of explaining what a Yowie is. If you want to know more, visit YowieHunters. But, if I may borrow from their knowledge, there are at least two known sorts of yowie here; the smaller 4 to 5 foot yowie and the bigger 6 to 10 foot species.

Or, as I put it earlier, little ones and big ones.

Do they really exist?

Again, if you check out the site mentioned above, in the left-hand side you will see a menu for Reports/Sightings. There are a lot of sightings listed in every single state of Australia.

But are all these sightings (let me be blunt) reported by nutters?

Well, the TV crew of a program called “Animal Planet” believe they have recorded the sound of a yowie.

Yowie Sightings

As well as the sightings listed on the yowie hunters website mentioned earlier, I found this on YouTube.

Matt McMahon is an SES worker from New South Wales. SES, in case you didn’t know, stands for State Emergency Service here in Australia. He’s part of a team of people who rescue you in floods, bushfires, cyclones, that sort of thing.

Not someone you would think of as a nutter. So do yowies exist? You decide…

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{ 13 comments… add one }
  • Mike Williams October 10, 2020, 12:40 pm |

    “Animal Planet” believe they have recorded the sound of a yowie.”

    Yes.
    They had earlier met a group of QLD yowie hunters.
    The QLD guys asked if they could accompany the crew.
    This was denied.
    So..they went a few hundred meters way from the crew.
    To look for yowies.
    So they started making noises and hitting sticks against trees.
    The Animal planet people heard it..thought it was yowies and responded.
    The QLD thought the animal planet crew were yowies..
    Yes…as insane and idiotic as this is..this is what happened..

    • BobinOz October 16, 2020, 7:07 pm |

      Seriously? That’s what really happened? Ha ha, that’s just too funny. I can imagine it happening as well, which makes it even funnier. Thanks for letting us know.

      • Mike Williams October 16, 2020, 9:36 pm |

        Thats exactly what happened….It was the group who were with QLD “yowie hunter” Ray Doherty on the night…not the sharpest bunch of people.. 🙂

  • Mark January 19, 2018, 9:24 pm |

    Just found this page and yes I know Im going to regret looking up Yowie but look it up I now must.

    • BobinOz January 19, 2018, 10:43 pm |

      If you could actually catch one instead, that would be better 🙂

  • gavan duffy January 18, 2018, 8:34 pm |

    Each year there are a large number of Yowie sightings. I t is time the universities took a greater interest in these creatures and did some real research into them.
    Both state and federal governments are aware of Yowies but say nothing. I wonder why this is.

    • BobinOz January 19, 2018, 10:43 pm |

      Yes, there have been a lot of sightings, and I have now fixed the link in the above article to Dean Harrison’s Australian Yowie Research website. If you visit, you can check out the sightings under the Reports/Sightings links listed half way down the left-hand side of the page.

      With so many sightings though, you’d think that someone would have actually captured one by now and I think that’s what’s needed to really prove these things exist.

  • Jimmy September 9, 2015, 3:48 am |

    The host completely detracts from any story told. His appearance in the video has me calling shenanigans from his frightening eyebrows to his decision to push through the branches to create a sense of ‘mystery’?? Idk. I wish it hadn’t been presented in this format or maybe I wouldn’t have noticed that an emergency worker saw a figure on 2 legs and told his mate to open fire….Really? It’s clearly humanoid and an emergency worker who gets up at all kinds of unholy hours to preserve life says it’s on 2 legs shoot it??
    I believe they saw the ghost of Jack Daniels. Or it was Malcolm Fraser. Or man bear pig.

    • BobinOz September 10, 2015, 2:20 pm |

      Yes, I suppose it is unusual for the SES to open fire on a two legger, but maybe they have all had a bet on who gets the first yowie? The host does try hard to add to the drama, but I suppose it is his job Jimmy.

  • jenny sherston May 19, 2015, 9:03 pm |

    In 1999 we were driving from Perth back to Newman, about 400 or 500 meters up the road this thing ran across the road it was at least ten foot tall, it looked human, but not human. Almost ape like, but not. it was huge, it didn’t seem to be bending it’s legs or arms, it appeared out of no where and vanished just as fast. Myself an partner also children saw it, but have never since seen it again. I always thought it was to strange to tell anyone, till now. I just googled weird sightings, and I saw this sight. I’m amazed others might also have seen it as well. And that its real. It puts a stop on any camping ideas I’ve ever had.

    • BobinOz May 20, 2015, 8:51 pm |

      Wow! Sounds like you and your family had a proper sighting of most probably a yowie. Maybe you should report it to the website I mention in the article. You all saw it, so it happened; these things must be real. I got a sneaky suspicion they are.

      Otherwise that was one heck of a fancy dress costume someone was wearing somewhere between Perth and Newman back in 1999 🙂

  • cheryl soo August 17, 2013, 11:59 pm |

    similar sighting in Bardon Qld in 1960’s Large blackish creature with orange yellow round eyes 7 foot tall.
    Never again experienced anything before or after.

    • BobinOz August 19, 2013, 1:39 pm |

      Wow! Really? That’s something you won’t forget in a hurry and clearly you haven’t. That really was back in the day though, too many houses in Bardon now, I don’t suppose he’ll be back in a hurry 🙂

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