Location: Beerwah, Queensland
Event: Yowie Sighting
Date: Sept 6, 2002
Terrain: Pine forest.
I was in the State Forest, looking for Carnivorous Plants, I am a Horticulturalist by trade. I was on a forestry road off Roys Road, about 10 kilometres from Beerwah.
I got there early in the morning, I frequent the site quite regularly taking photos and notes for myself. I had hopped out of the car, and was crawling around on my hands and knees, looking for plants, when I heard this really strange noise. It was high pitched, the only way I can describe it is like a cross between a dog and a bat. It lasted about 5 seconds, I don't know how to describe it, not sure if it was a yell or a scream.
I've been in the bush most of my life, and I had never heard a sound like that before. I ignored it and carried on looking for plants. I was at that site probably another 30 minutes. I then got in my car, and drove toward Beerwah about 1.5 kilometres to a swampy site. I didn't find any plants of interest there, so I turned the car around and started driving back toward the original site.
I passed that site, and went on maybe 1.5 to 3 kilometres further along the road. I saw a lizard in the middle of the road, so I adjusted my steering so I didn't run over it. I stopped the car. Got out with my camera and thought I might as well take some photos of it. It was laying flat on the ground. I was about 2 metres away from the lizard, in the centre of the road, the pine forest was about 10 metres to the side of me. I was just looking in the lens to start taking a photo, when I heard something behind me.
At first I just turned my head, and there was this black furry thing, about up to my waist in height. It was quick. But instead of taking the fastest route straight into the forest, it went on an angle, sort of across the rows of trees.
It was about hip height, then all of a sudden it got taller, almost to my height about 6 foot tall. It got quicker. It was then, that I turned my body, and I tried to snap a couple of photos, one wide, and one zoomed in. Don't know whether I got it or not, as I didn't have time to get the camera to my eye. And the creature was moving fast. It was windy that day, and I was upwind of the creature, so didn't have any indication of odour.
I stood there about 30 seconds to a minute in shock. I rushed back to the car, put my camera down, grabbed my knife, and ran as fast as I could along the route it had taken.
I got almost down to the creek, I could hear banging and rustling ahead of me at the creek. But when I got to the creek, I couldn't see anything. Because of the pine needles on the ground, I couldn't see any prints or anything. There was a bridge a couple of hundred metres to my left, so I went to it, and had a look around, didn't see anything, so I went back to my car and went home.
I would describe it as fractionally wider than a normal sized man, but I really only saw the shape, no real features, and once it was upright, I lost vision very quickly. I probably only saw it a couple of seconds.
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