Whilst on a hunting trip with three friends, one late afternoon, we were driving back to our campsite from the hill country where we hunted during the early day until the sun became too high. We had a blowout on the van’s rear left tire, which was all shredded and causing sparks to fly off the wheel arch. So, myself and two mates got out and walked behind the van while the driver slowly made his way down the mountain. In this way, we could make sure no fires were started as the country was bone dry at the time.
Unfortunately, my mate behind the wheel of the van gradually left us far behind, and before long, he was out of sight. We had no spare tire, by the way. It was getting quite late, and the sun was going down behind the hills quickly. It was late winter/early spring, so it got dark rather early. As we walked the 7 or 8 kilometers to the campsite and trudged along chatting, I began to hear very heavy footfalls in the bush to our left and up the slope. At first, I thought it was a big Roo, but Roos do not follow you in the bush; they bound away.
My mates soon heard what I was hearing as I brought it to their attention, and we stopped to listen. The footsteps stopped when we did, and we waited. When we started walking, the steps began again, always keeping pace, very heavy, making no effort to be quiet, just stopping when we stopped and starting again. We threw rocks up there and called out, etc. My mate Todd, who is half Aboriginal, was very scared and wanted to run, but now it was dark, and that would have been dangerous, etc.
So, after about an hour of being stalked, I got up the guts to climb the road bank with the tiny torch we had that was almost dead and have a look. I did just that, and when I got to the start of the slope, I took a few paces into the dark bush, shining the weak torch back and forth. Suddenly, to my left, a bulky but super fast figure leaped across the beam in front of me and landed, squatting behind a large boulder that stood about 20 meters away beside a tree. I heard it land there, and I took another pace forward, shining the torch now, right at that spot.
Just then, a huge reddish hair-covered head, left shoulder, and upper arm leaned out from behind the rock and looked straight at me. The muscle mass was beyond belief, the hair was long on the arm, and I could see the left pec muscle rising and falling as it loudly breathed in and out. I could see the dark place where its eyes were beneath a large brow ridge but only blackness, no real eye shine. I was amazed, not really scared, but shocked and in disbelief. I spoke out to it, saying that I can see you, I can bloody well see you, I know what you are, and please stop following us as you are scaring my mate.
As I said this, my mates, behind and below me and well out of sight, could hear me and were calling out to me, “Bretto, who the fuck are you talking to?” I didn’t answer; I just kept looking at this massive reddish being as it watched me from behind the rock, moving slightly now and then. I must have stood there for at least 2 or 3 minutes, and then I said, “Ok, you go now, I am leaving but I’ve pegged you so you can just bugger off.” I retreated backward, keeping the light on it until it disappeared into the dark, and then I rejoined my two mates on the roadway. They were frantically asking me what it was I was doing, who I was talking to, was I seeing things, what the F was going on, etc.
I told them I will tell all when we are back at the camp with a cold beer, but Todd knew by the look on my face that I had seen something shocking, and he said, “It’s a F..ing Yowie out there, isn’t it?” I said, “I’m not sure what you call it, but it’s no man, it’s no Roo, and it’s bloody huge.” Again, we had to talk him out of fleeing down the road in the dark. I remember saying, “It’s no use running, this thing is so big, if it wants to hurt us, it will do so very easily and very quickly. It will throw us down the gully like three puppies.” And so we just had no choice but to keep walking, which we did.
The Yowie got up and recommenced following us again. At this stage, I was actually quite amused and just handled it. Todd was beside himself with fear, but we managed to talk him down. I neglected to mention that when we got out of the van, we left all firearms in the van, as it was a public or logging back road which tourists would use as a back way to the ACT, so we couldn’t really walk for hours down this road lugging big rifles.
We walked on and on in the dark with that thing walking beside us, and finally, we got near enough to the camping ground that we could occasionally see the firelight that my mate with the van had lit for us. However, just as we were beginning to feel safely home, another loud, stomping set of footsteps began to approach us from the direction of the camp and coming around the side of the slope.
Now I felt that we were being caught in a pincer movement and began to worry, but at that moment, the Yowie that was shadowing us diverged and began to walk away, up the slope, angling away toward the second thing coming our way. It seemed that at some place in the bush, about 100 or so meters away and up the slope, the two beings met. I don’t know what they said to each other, but I’m sure they had a laugh at our expense.
We got safely back to camp and had that beer. That night we didn’t talk about it. We discussed how we were going to get a new tire from Yass the next day if we could cadge a lift from a tourist or a farmer or someone in town, which is what happened. But on the next day over a morning cuppa, we opened the subject and went over it. That night changed my life, and it was not the only time I have been close to a Yowie.
I now live beside a vast expanse of bush that is home to at least three of these things which know me and my movements. I have been a keen but only part-time researcher of these amazing creatures and have collected a fair number of footprint photos, tree breaks, food scraps, etc. They often approach the houses at the back of town, which is a very small town. I have heard them in the swamp behind the house calling during mating season and have gotten to know quite a lot about their habits and movements as they are semi-nomadic.