Location: Coffs Harbour, New South Wales
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: Jan, 1980
Date of report: July 9, 1980.
Source: The Eastland Opinion News.
The hardy North Coast perennial, the legend of the Yowie, has broken into the spotlight again with a reported sighting by a Coffs harbour man. The man, a middle-aged itinerant worker, claims to have spotted the elusive beast on a Boambee banana plantation.
Although wishing to remain anonymous for fear of ridicule, his articulate description and obvious fear lead some weight to his claim. He said he saw a seemingly half-Human, half-animal form bristling with masses of red hair at the plantation about six months ago. At first, he said he thought he was seeing things but the next day he caught a fleeting glance of it again dashing though the plantation.
That afternoon he collected his pay, vowing never to return there – and he hasn’t. Because of the expected “rubbishing,” he didn’t breathe a word of his bizarre experience to anyone, not even his wife. But the strain of bottling up the sighting became too much; he had to talk to someone, and he came to Wednesday Magazine.
He said he would tell of his close encounter of the Yowie kind if no mention was made of his identity. We obliged and that’s his story.
True or false, we can’t say except to point out that the man’s alleged sighting is not new. Yowie stories have long been rampant on the North Coast, stemming from a long held legend of the birth of a half human-Yowie child almost a Century ago. A researcher once claimed in a nationally published magazine that she had interviewed three North Coast people, all of whom claimed to have seen the mutant – the offspring of a white woman raped by a Yowie.
Absolute hogwash, you say? Perhaps. But who can say for sure? Last year for example, a series of huge footprints were discovered in bush adjacent to the Korona Basin Road. The discovery, by a mother and daughter puzzled local residents and no satisfactory explanation has yet evolved.
“Something is out there – we just wish we knew what it was,” – the frightened woman said at the time. – Paul Callaghan.
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