Location: Bilpin, New South Wales
Event: Possible Encounter
Date: 22/03/2014
Time: 11:40am
I took my girlfriend bushwalking at this site. We were about 300 metres from the end of the track and she was 30 metres ahead of me - I am a big guy and was watching my footing on some of the slippery footing there.
Rose is part deaf and talks quite loudly, we had been silent for a fair bit of time and our foot fall had been quiet due to the wet conditions! She asked me if I was ok? As soon as she spoke a huge frame burst through a thicket of young coachwood and callicoma away from us. It made the crashing noise for about 3 seconds and then all went silent.
I am a hunter and grew up in the bush and was expecting to hear hooves clattering over the nearby creek bed from a red deer.
Rose was still calling as I told her to stop talking. She is from the Philippines as has no knowledge of Aussie animals or yowies. I didn’t make further mention of it to her so she wasn't scared.
In a state of alertness I looked for tracks or ground disturbance but found none on the track. Leaf litter off the track is about 1/2 to 1 foot deep. We proceeded to the end of the track to where there is a bridge across the creek and a viewing area for the small waterfall there. Rose took the stairs down to the creek and I followed, we had been standing for about 10 seconds then we heard a definite sound of a dense object being banged against a tree trunk of some size - only once.
We climbed the stairs and at this point I was sure we were being watched by something animal, human or other so as we grabbed a drink from my back pack I took out my decent sized bush knife and slipped it into the waistband of my shorts. We took some quick photos and then started to walk out. Rose knew something was worrying me and asked if I was ok. I told her some throwaway line and we started walking.
In roughly the same area that we heard the crashing through the vegetation, the breeze carried up from the creek a distinct odour of sewerage like that found coming off the pump out trucks that service our suburb.
I am used to the different smells of decay and the forest, as I have worked in the natural resource sector nearly all my life. I am also familiar with the sounds of bodies moving through vegetation at different speeds and I am positive this was no animal.
The trip out was uneventful, although the one thing that was very odd was the lack of bird activity. We had gone through several kinds of vegetation that would have noisy bird activity in it at that time of day but there were no birds from the time we left the car to the time we returned.
Some points of interest that make me think:
# The lack of bird activity,
#The quietness of our walking combined with the sound of the waterfall may have concealed our approach,
# The lack of breeze carrying our scent,
# The lack of tracks or soil disturbance in the area,
# Something made a man made sound with rock against timber,
# Toward the waterfall there are large areas of mulch foraging like that of lyre birds but for the enormity of it, there must be a huge population of them
# That sewerage odour that came from the creek was definitely out of place.
I don't know what I encountered, I did not see an actual form. I am aware of Yowies from both the white and aboriginal folk I grew up with. One thing I cannot shake from my experience is the feeling that I was being observed. I have felt this before in hunting situations and honestly believe something was watching us after we disturbed it.
I hope this account helps you, I've told you honestly what happened to myself and Rose a few weeks ago. My cousin is a regular visitor to your site and told me to make a report, he is no doubt that we have had an encounter.
Please feel free to contact me if you think there is any value in my report.
Regards,
C.
© Copyright AYR
Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
www.yowiehunters.com