Book Review:The Yowie: In Search Of Australia's Bigfoot

The Yowie: In Search Of Australia's Bigfoot  by Tony Healey  and Paul Cropper, 

Anomalist Books,2006 (Foreword by Loren Coleman)

The idea of a bipedal ape 7-10 feet tall (sometimes smaller, on rare occasions, taller) is, of course, ridiculous- another version, perhaps, of the infamous Drop Bear, the mythical Australian creature used to frighten children and foreigners.  Yet from the present day to first settlement, and before that into antipodean antiquity, this ape has been reported by both indigenous inhabitants and newcomers.  It has been called the Yowie or Yahoo, an Australian answer to the Sasquatch, "Abominable" Snowman and dozens of other upright simians that haunt forests and deserts, the remote place of the World.

Tony Healy and Paul Cropper's 1994 book Out of the Shadows- Australia's Mystery Animals was a fairly detailed look at some of Australia's best known cryptids like the Bunyip, Thylacine and Marsupial Lion.  There was also a chapter on the Yowie, and this book is a far more detailed examination of this perplexing mystery.  Split into 7 chapters and 2 appendixes (one, "A Catalogue of Cases", running to about 100 pages, a third of the book) the book looks at sightings in both the Colonial and modern era, "hot spots" (places with a consistent history of sightings) and habituations, which have always struck me as too good to be true. But people like Neil Frost and Ian Price in the unnamed Blue Mountains town who along with a few other people have reported interaction with the creatures over a period of time, seem down-to-earth people with no obvious gain and probably more to lose by talking openly about it.  The authors also spend a bit of time on other Yowie researchers like Dean Harrison and Timtheyowieman- really!- and of course Rex Gilroy of whom one gets the impression has more enthusiasm than discernment.

There are closer looks at some of the enounters mentioned in the Case histories, and sightings by a couple of better known people- Bill O'Chee, now a National Party senator who along with about 20 other students from Southport School saw a Yowie in what is probably the best multiple witness sighting.  There is also Major Les Hiddens who while guiding some scientists through dense rainforest between Millaa Millaa and Cairns came across a sleeping mat made from vegetation- one of the scientists, Dr. John Campbell, commented that "If I was anywhere else but Australia, I would have to say that was a primate nest".  The book also looks at the Yowie in Indigenous Australian culture and folklore and again there is a long history of interaction with the creatures, including distant histories of fighting with them... memories of battles with Neanderthals?  It sounds unlikely, but the authors observe one indigenous tribe who have oral histories of volcanoes that have been extinct for thousands of years.  One chapter is dedicated to the Junjudee, a smaller hominid that Healey and Cropper are inclined to see as juvenile Yowies, but also acknowledge that indigenous people (those who talk about it) see the Junjudee and Yowie as distinct entities.  There is also a look at several places in the book at English names and origins of the term "Yowie" ("Yahoo" is almost certainly thanks to Jonathan Swift) as well as Australian places with suggestively simian names in both native and Western languages.

Still, as Ian Simmons comments in a recent book review in Fortean Times, "The plural of anecdote is not proof, it's anecdotes".  Physical evidence is not non-existent but it is rare, and the footprints in particular are more perplexing than illuminating- while there are "traditional" footprints similar to prints elsewhere in the world, there are also three toed and even two toed prints on record.  The authors offer a series of possible explanations at the end, from outright hoaxing to the "paranormal" (my least favourite suggestion, I have to admit- that makes a nonsense of serious scientific research) but they admit that all the suggestions have problems- the descriptions are generally historically consistent in terms of appearance and behaviour (and smell!!) but it is difficult to see how such creatures could remain hidden so long.  Ultimately, the choices are that the Yowies are  phantoms, real

creatures or complete myth, and by the end of this book we are no closer to an answer.  But this book is a fascinating and objective evaluation that at least demonstrates there is a real mystery to be solved, and one that belongs on any serious Fortean's bookshelf.