Creatures, Myths & Legends

19th century Yowie encounter revealed

By T.K. Randall
December 11, 2014

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) While the Patterson-Gimlin footage is often attributed with kick-starting the modern Bigfoot phenomenon, it was by no means the earliest known sighting. Stories of large, hairy hominids have been reported for hundreds of years in countries all over the world including Russia, China and Australia.

One particularly tantalizing tale comes courtesy of Henry James McCooey who detailed his unusual encounter with such a creature in bushland between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla in 1882.

"When I first beheld the animal it was standing on its hind legs, partly upright, looking up at the birds above it in the bushes, blinking its eyes and distorting its visage and making a low chattering kind of noise," he wrote following the encounter."If it were standing perfectly upright it would be nearly 5ft high. It was tailless and covered with very long black hair, which was of a dirty red or snuff-colour about the throat and breast."

McCooey went on to describe how the creature's limbs seemed to be strangely out of proportion, that he judged its weight to be around 8 stone and that it appeared to possess 'prodigious' strength.

"Having sufficiently satisfied my curiosity, I throw a stone at the animal, whereupon it immediately rushed off, followed by the birds, and disappeared in a ravine which was close at hand," he wrote.

Source: ABC.net.au

Tags: Yowie, Bigfoot