Location: Narooma, New South Wales
Date: July, 1978
Date of report: July, 1978
Source: Southeast Magazine – Batemans Bay District
Fact or fiction….it is on again. The Yowie reports are coming in thick and fast from residents living between Bega and Batemans Bay with a particularly number coming from the Bodalla area.
The first report of a Bear like creature was from a Narooma man who for obvious reasons wishes to remain anonymous. The man claims that he has seen one creature on two separate occasions, and three in the one place in the last couple of weeks. They were reported to be completely covered in hair, having no neck, and having the head sitting right on the shoulders and the biggest one standing two metres high (7 to 8ft).
They were rusty brown in colour and walked on two legs and in stooped a position. He describes their eyes as being “big, beautiful, Doe like eyes,” which were very penetrating. The area which he said he saw them and had varying close contacts was in a general area Nth-West to Sth-West of Narooma.
He said he has been doing quite a bit of fox shooting over recent weeks and was accompanied on most occasions by his 16-year-old son.
The two of them were out in the bush Nth-West of Narooma about 3 weeks ago when he said they smelled a peculiar smell and heard a sound unfamiliar to them.
They were camping out in the back of a utility at the time. “I thought it must have been related to something, but thought no more about it,” he said. “Then another time we were in a location a bit further South and saw some funny, large footprints in the sand in a creek bed.” He said he was certain that they were not made by a person even though he knew how Human footprints seem enlarged in the sand.
On another occasion he heard the strange sounds again, a bit further South, while he and his son were shooting in the valley. “The next time we were in a creek bed just West of Narooma, we heard a noise in the bracken.
The sun was behind us. This thing came out and it was about five to six feet in height. It looked like a bear or a man in a bear suit. It spun around and disappeared. We heard it going like hell through the bracken. I have marked all the local sightings on a map and it seems funny they are all in a certain area,” he said.
“Then about three weeks ago I couldn’t buy a fox whistle so I made one up of my own. This time the young bloke was with me. I whistled up in an area of timber and bracken. A mob of cattle panicked and then we saw something moving along a creek.
“At first I thought it was a cocky cow but then realised it was too bloody big. If it were a bloke then he would have to be a hunchback. Another time we were in the scrub and there were no birds about. Again we smelled this peculiar smell and heard stamping in the scrub, like wild stock stamping in the bracken, and saw this thing again. The other day I was coming back from Bermagui and decided I had three hours to spare so I went back into the same area for a bit of a sniff around. This time I saw three of them.”
He said he felt they appeared to be one mob covering a particular area, or four groups in separate areas. All of them had been in farming areas and bracken country.
On the last occasion, he said the first two he saw looked like bears or blokes who needed a haircut. “Two were down in a gully and while I was watching them, something made me look up on the hill and there was this big one.
It looked like it was watching me. It gave me a howling type noise and then the other two looked straight up to where I was standing. Then they disappeared quickly into the bush and when I looked back to the other one, it had gone too.”
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