There’s a big creature roaming around Australia, leaving giant footprints wherever it goes. Tall enough to tower the tallest man alive and hairy enough to shame any monkey out and about in the jungle. And, no, it’s not Bigfoot. It’s the Yowie!
Ever since the 1700s, multiple people have witnessed this Cryptid. An ape-like half-man, half-animal that nobody knows too much about. Some people claim it’s dangerous and shouldn’t be messed with; others claim that the Yowie is a shy creature we shouldn’t bother.
I know you’re thinking about Bigfoot again. It’s not that and it’s not Chewbacca. Let’s meet halfway through and call it the Australian Bigfoot. Its name is Yowie, though!
Who (or what) is the Yowie?
According to aboriginal folklore and trustworthy cryptozoologists, the Yowie is a huge creature that lives in the most secluded areas in Australia.
There are two facts everyone can agree on: this creature is hairy and its nose is big and ugly. Unfortunately, everything else is up to discussion.
For example, the Yowie’s height could be anywhere from 6’11 (perfect basketball height) to 12 ft. (or, as I’d like to call it, halfway-giraffe height). We don’t know how it truly looks, some people claim it’s an ape-like creature; others, that it’s more goblin-looking.
And that discussion is about looks alone – wait until you hear about its personality: it could range from happy go lucky, to shy, to territorial, to completely hostile. Either people are making stuff up right on the spot or this Yowie guy needs some meds right away.
Simply put, we could be talking about an aggressive, dangerous gigantic ape-like creature or a shy, sweetheart-like creature who has the perfect frame for basketball. It’s interesting either way, though.
Alright, let’s just say it’s an Australian Bigfoot and call it a day.
Wait, wasn’t Bigfoot from America?
Oh, you American blokes are always trying to steal from us Aussies! What’s next? Is the kangaroo one of the Founding Fathers?
All jokes aside, Americans do like to claim everything is theirs. Well, if I’m being honest, I never met an American before, so I wouldn’t know. I’m not Australian either. But I digress.
Here’s the fascinating thing about the Yowie: it looks like Bigfoot. Or, at least, the description of this creature matches that of Bigfoot.
So, we might be talking about something that’s the same or similar to that American mythical creature. This means the Yowie is either Bigfoot’s distant cousin from down under or belongs in the same species group.
There’s a theory that claims there is a tunnel system across the United States. Some people claim that’s how Bigfoot moves around the country and easily hides when someone is around.
We put that together with the Hollow Earth Theory – and you have a creature that moves freely around the world. From America to Australia and who knows where else! Bigfoot and the Yowie could be one and the same. Probably not, though.
Folklore, fact, or fiction
Believe it or not, multiple people agree that the Yowie exists. No aboriginal doubts its existence, cryptozoologists spend their lives trying to find it, and several people have seen it.
Multiple witnesses have spotted the Yowie in different places throughout time. The term Yowie comes from a 19th-century book. So, we might be talking about a 300-year-old creature or multiple creatures who can reproduce.
Yowie hunters spend their days (and most of their lives) going after this big creature. These people have plenty of evidence of this creature’s existence. Otherwise, it’d be a sad profession.
Then again, most of the evidence handed to universities and laboratories always come back inconclusive.
You might ask: is this Cryptid folklore, fact, or fiction? Well, it probably is a little bit of column A, a little touch of column B, and a little dash of column C.
Yowie or Yowies
We briefly covered how multiple witnesses have seen the Yowie in different times and places. Does that mean anything? Well, yes, of course, it does!
There’s little that we’re 100% sure of when it comes to this creature. Sure, he is hairy. And Australian. That’s it! But plenty of people have seen it before – through multiple generations.
Here’s the thing: there’s a chance we’re talking about a single mythical creature that’s been roaming around Australia for hundreds of years. That’s a possibility. Or, it could mean the Yowie isn’t one thing but one species.
It’s easier to believe that there’s not one Yowie but a Mr. and Mrs. Yowie who have little Yowies living far away from civilization. So we might not be talking about the Yowie – but yowies.
This theory helps us understand how this creature managed to be in countless places in (at least) three different centuries.
Has anyone seen the Yowie before?
Sightings before the 19th century
- 1795: It is believed the first Yowie sighting took place in 1795, but there’s not much information about it.
- 1875: The term “Yowie” was used by the Kamilaroi people and documented by William Ridley in one of his books. Plenty of Kamilaroi people claim they saw the creature.
19th century sightings
- 1876: An Australian journal posed the question “who has not heard […] about the Yahoo-Devil or hairy man…” which leads us to believe plenty of Australians knew or saw the Yowie before.
20th century sightings
- 1912: Robert Holden claims there was an outbreak of ape sightings during the early 1900s. There’s a big possibility they’re talking about ape-like creatures (Yowies) instead. There are no apes in Australia.
- 1977: Several people in Oxley Island heard weird animal noises at night. Rex Gilroy, a known cryptozoologist, claimed it was the Yowie – and soon investigated the incident.
- 1990s: Several people spotted the Yowie in Acacia Hills. There are photographs… of its footprints.
- 1994: Another cryptozoologist known as Tim the Yowie Man (I’m not making that name up) claimed he saw the Yowie in Brindabella Ranges.
- 1996: A couple saw an ape-like creature near the coast of Australia. A two-meter tall creature, full of hair, and with disproportionally large limbs.
- 1997: A mango farmer reported there was a hairy ape-like creature roaming around in his property.
- 1997: Dean Harrison, a Yowie researcher, claimed he was nearly killed by the creature itself. That sounds like a unique event, though. I doubt it’ll happen again.
21st century sightings
- 2000: Once again, in the Brindabella Mountains, a resident of Australia’s capital claimed he saw a huge, hairy beast. There’s a videotape of the incident.
- 2001: Multiple people have spotted the Yowie in the Mulgowie area.
- 2009: Dean Harrison, a Cryptid researcher, almost got killed by a Yowie – again. Come on, buddy. What are you doing?
- 2010: A man living in the capital of Australia claimed to have seen an animal covered in hair, standing on its two feet, and with arms who were large enough to touch the ground. A friend of his realized it could’ve been the Yowie.
- 2011: A man reported to the National Parks’ authorities the sighting of the Yowie near the Blue Mountains, in Sidney. There’s a videotape of the incident and photographs of the footprints.
- 2012: An American TV crew claimed they had audio recordings of the Yowie walking near Queensland.
- 2013: A music videographer claimed he saw the Yowie near Bexhill.
- 2014: Two people looking for the Yowie claimed they have film evidence of the creature. They also claimed to own several pieces of fur samples. That same year, another man claimed to have seen the Yowie multiple times.
Yowie vs. Yahoo
Graham Joyner, an Australian historian, claims the creature never existed – and that, in fact, the term first appeared in 1975 because of a misunderstanding.
According to Joyner’s theory, this creature isn’t called Yowie. Its real name is Yahoo (like that search engine you never use because Google exists).
This creature was (allegedly) first talked about during the 1970s. This was a Bigfoot-, Sasquatch- or Yeti-like creature from Australia – but it’s actually the Yahoo, only named differently.
It does make sense, though. The Yahoo, says Joyner, is the big, hairy creature that appears in Aboriginal folklore.
Or there could be two similar creatures, a Yowie and a Yahoo, who are both hairy apes roaming around Australia. They have a lot of scary spiders over there, two Bigfoot-like creatures wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.
Real talk: Does the Yowie exist?
It’s hard to determine whether the Yowie exists or not.
On one hand, it’s hard to believe something so big, disruptive, and hairy could be out there without being found. On the other hand, there are plenty of places in Australia that are off-limits; maybe, the Yowie is hiding there.
Or maybe, just maybe, this beast has the unique ability to hop from Australia to America and be back for dinner.
Whenever someone gets close to him, he jumps from one continent to another, changes passports, and uses another name. International criminals do that, so international creatures could do it just as well. But that’s just a thought, though.
Liked this article? Check out our episode about the Yowie below!
