Location: Bangalow, New South Wales
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: 1969
Witness: Errol Morris
The time was between midnight and one o'clock in the morning.
My friend and I were walking along the Pacific Highway on completely flat terrain with trees along each side of the road with the moonlight showing the centre white painted road markings for quite a distance ahead.
The edges of the road were in shadow, which is why we were walking (for 5 hours) along the centre of the road.
We had not seen a vehicle on the road for over three hours as we were hitch-hiking to Sydney to Brisbane. Our last lift dropped us in Ballina at a coach stop near an overhead rail line.
The creature appeared to stand over six feet tall while slightly stooped at the shoulders. The arms seemed a bit too long for a man. Even though it had stopped and turned its head to look at us, we weren't able to discern a neck as one would expect. It appeared to have a slightly protruding forehead. The eyes were not clearly visible as it head was bent forward a little, with a rather large mouth with the chin seeming to form part of the chest.
As I have stated, it clearly turned its head to look at us. It was very solidly built with very well developed upper thighs and feet that looked like it had toes. The hips appeared narrow with flat, as opposed to protruding, buttocks. The chest was barrel shaped with the shoulders slumped forward.
It took two steps to our three. We know this as it was walking along through dry leaves off to our left beyond the tree line. When we realised that it could not possibly be a four-legged animal, we froze in the middle of the road.
Up to this point we had been silent, but as we both realised at the same time that the sounds were not from a four-legged animal, we were so frightened that we could only whisper quietly to each other.
As we stopped in the middle of the road, we heard the foot falls hesitate a moment, then nothing. We stood frozen with fear. The sounds started again, but this time we heard footsteps in the gravel on the roadside and then this 'thing' appeared in full view about twenty feet ahead of us and stopped in the middle of the road and slowly turned its head and stared at us.
As we stood there experiencing a fear I have never known, my friend and I screamed. At this, the 'thing' moved briskly across the road, but it didn't run. It strode rather than ran, into the trees off to our right. After we had stopped screaming, we could only hear the muffled sound of it striding away. My mate and I stood in utter dismay and both of us with tears streaming down our faces.
We didn't move for a good ten minutes listening intently for any sound before we started back the way we had come as fast as we could run. When we eventually stopped, breathless, we discussed what we had just seen and vowed to each other that this would never be spoken of as long as we both lived, for fear of ridicule.
This was an event that nobody would ever believe. (This is not a joke.)
Other observations: Several minutes before we heard anything, we both detected a foul smell which we both jokingly blamed each other for, even though we both knew it had to be a rotting piece of road-kill somewhere on the side of the road. The smell became stronger as we walked along and my mate had commented in a whisper that there must be a dead cow somewhere in the paddock off to our left which seemed to be following us.
As the 'thing' came into view in the middle of the road, the odour was incredibly strong and pungent. We discussed this later and both agreed that it was coming from the 'thing'. Once the 'thing' had passed, the smell also faded and it is an odour that I will never forget. At no time did this 'thing' pose a threat to us, in fact we both agreed that it seemed frightened by our screaming.
About ten years ago, I saw a photograph purporting to be a 'Yowie', which I swear was identical to what my mate and I had seen.
I contacted my mate to discuss this photo and he reminded me of our vow. His words to me were, "Mate, I never saw a thing that night and I will never talk about it...ever. I told someone about it a few years ago and then had a visit from the police who asked me about doing drugs, so forget what you saw. I have."
He never spoke to me again after that conversation.
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