Location: Woodenbong, New South Wales
Event: Yowie Encounter
Date: August 1977
Another Yowie sighting occured in Lindsay Street, only about 270 metres from Thelma Crewe's house.
Because her husband wanted to avoid publicity, the lady who saw the creature kept quiet about her experiance for a couple of days. Finally , however, she contacted the Lismore Northern Star because she felt the matter 'was too darned interesting to keep to myself'.
Jean Maloney said she had been woken around 2.30 am by the sound of her Australian terrier yelping in the backyard. As well as the dog's yelping, she could here a high-pitched screaming sound. Jumping out of bed, she ran to the back porch and switched on the 200-watt yard light.
I went down the stairs and ran into the backyard when I suddenly saw the creature in front of me. I was within six feet (1.8 metres) of the jolly thing and I think I stopped breathing for a moment because of the fright. It was sitting on it's haunches and had my dog completly crushed up against it's chest.
The dog was almost completely covered by the creature's arms which were wrapped around the dog, one above the other. It looked as though the creature was trying to crush the life out of her.
The creature looked straight up at me for a few moments then dropped the dog, which I thought was dead at this stage because she fell to the ground and did not move. It then backed away from me towards the grape trellis, but it never took it's eyes off me.
It backed away to the left side and wrapped it's right arm around the trllis post. The creature stayed there for a few moments making these strange, deep grunting noises. The noises were very loud. It then ran off to the right, down the side of the house between the garage and disappeared towards the front street.
Jean claimed the creature stood about six feet (1.8 metres) tall. Long ginger-coloured hair hung from it's arms and the restof it's body was covered in shorter brownish hair. It had a small head and no neck. It's face was ape-like, with it's head appearing very small in comparison to the rest of it's body. The animal had a wide chest, powerful-looking legs and long, slender arms. She also noticed a strong, offensive odour. ' The only thing I could compare it with would be a ferret,' she said.
Jean later examined the terrier and found it was bleeding from scratch wounds to the chest and the back of the neck.' I thought the dog was going to die,' she said. ' She could hardly walk, and if you moved her too much she would yelp. I also noticed that she was badly bruised on the chest.' The dogs hair felt very greasy and stank so badly that she had to be washed in Dettol.
Jean's daughter later found three distinct footprints alongside the house but two of these were destroyed by rain.
The remaining print was examined by Northern Star reporter Gary Buchanan. He described it as being 22 centimetres long by 11 centimetres wide, with five toes roughly equal size. Buchanan also spoke to a next-door neighbour who confirmed that he had heard the dog's screams and loud grunting noises coming from Jean's yard.
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