Location: Dunoon Village, New South Wales
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: April, 1981
Terrain: Mountainous, with thick bush
One of the most widely publicised modern yowie incidents occurred on the 20th May 1981 when three young bushwalkers told reporter Gary Buchanan of the Lismore Northern Star that they had encountered two strange animals in rugged bush six kilometres west of Dunoon.
The encounter took place when the boys, aged fourteen, thirteen and eleven, were exploring thick scrub on the top of a range of hills. Around 12.45 pm two of them saw a hairy man-like creature cross the bush track from right to left. Shortly afterwards a second creature appeared from the same direction.
' The second animal seemed to stumble, stopped behind a tree standing on the left side of the path, and peeped around the tree towards us, ' said the oldest boy.' It kind of squatted behind the trees and looked at us for about 5 seconds before running across the path behind the other animal, which had its back towards us and appeared to be waiting for its mate to catch up.' Both animals then disappeared, but could be clearly heard moving through the undergrowth.
The boys claimed the animals resembled nothing they had ever seen before. Their dog had 'gone berserk' when they sighted the first creature, making a crying sound and then chasing both animals down the bush path.
The boys laughed off suggestions that they had misinterpreted a sighting a sighting of ordinary bush animals. They pointed out that the creatures were about two metres tall and walked on their hind legs. 'I've never seen a wild pig walk down a hill on its hind legs,' commented the eldest lad.
' They weren't wallabies either, because they hop, not run, and these definitely ran. They moved quickly, but looked slightly awkward, and bent forward a little as they moved.'
On being asked whether the animals resembled gorillas, the eldest of the boys said,' Yes, but these weren't gorillas. Gorillas are black and bow-legged. These had straight legs and were brown, more human-like.
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