Location: Fingal Head, New South Wales
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: 1990 - 1991
Terrain: Bushland: Mangroves and wetlands
Comment: The Witness has an Aboriginal Heritage and has many significant stories pertaining to the Yowie
I first remember my Grandma told me about them when I was a little fella. Our community lives on a Peninsula above the Tweed River, and I have lived here most of my life. We were always told "not to go near the aboriginal cemetery because that is where the Hairy Man lives". When they use to go inland, hunting, they would leave any possessions they didn't need in these caves in the headland, and the Hairy Man, who used to live with the tribe stayed in the caves and looked after all the gear.
I also remember a ledge in the mountains, probably 30 kilometres inland from Fingal, where we looked down on a community of Hairy Men.
The European community, just up from ours knows about it too, I think there were a lot of sightings in the 50's. That was when the sand mining and the logging started. The tribe disbanded a bit, but he stayed here, living more down by the mangroves and the scrub nearby.
This sighting was when I was about 16, and ten other boys and I were walking down the road, past the cemetery, we saw something from up the hill, and it looked like a bush, but we knew it hadn't been there before. It was close to the lagoon and the track was just off the road where we all live. It was about dusk, and as we got closer I thought it was a man, sitting at the side of the road. I walked right up to it, about 1 to 2 feet away from it. It was sitting there with its arms around its knees. He didn't move, he just looked up at me. I was speechless. He was right on the side of the road.
While he was sitting there, he would only have reached up to my stomach in height, so if he stood up, I would say about 6 or 7 feet tall. He was a darkish brown colour, and there was an animal smell around. There was hair all over his face except for his eyes, which were a brown colour, a bit lighter than the hair. I remember the jaw stood out a bit more than a humans. The hair was long, rough but not matted, and pretty long all over it. I don't recall seeing any ears, it had a short neck. My first thought was that it was a gorilla or monkey, but when it looked up, then it looked more human than anything.
My friends, are all local aborigines, and when it looked up, it sort of shocked us all, some of the guys a bit further away from him started running, and then we all went. We ran to my house as it was the closest. We were all saying we had seen the Hairy Man, and my Dad, and my uncles and aunties all confirmed that yes he lives there, and we probably had seen him.
In the Fingal area, we have seen lots of footprints, and hair and stuff. Most of the people in the community have seen them. We all know the smell of the hair, we used to find it all the time in the bush. I had some when I was a kid, but can't remember where it is now. A lot of people have mentioned, that when they walk down the street, it feels like someone is following you in the bushline, and you hear the noise of breaking twigs and sticks.
I even remember one was in my Uncle's kitchen once, they were out and when they got home, they walked in the front door, and saw the Hairy Man in the kitchen, going through the food cupboards. But as they went inside, it went out the back door and into the trees.
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