Yowie (cryptid)
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- For other uses of the word see the Yowie disambiguation page.
In a modern context, Yowie is the generic (and somewhat affectionate) term for the unidentified hominid reputed to lurk in the Australian wilderness. It is an Australian cryptid analogous to the Himalayan Yeti and the North American Bigfoot.
Rather confusingly, Yowie (or "Yowie-Whowie") is also the name of a completely different mythological character in native Australian Aboriginal folklore. This version of the Yowie is said to be a bizarre, hybrid beast resembling a cross between a lizard and an ant. It emerges from the ground at night to eat whatever it can find, including humans. This creature's characteristics and legend are sometimes interchangeable with those of the bunyip.
The origin of the term "Yowie" in the context of unidentified hominids is unclear. Some presume that it simply arose through confusion with the aforementioned Aboriginal legend. On the other hand, Jonathan Swift's yahoos from Gulliver's Travels are sometimes cited as a source. The word "Yowie" was also apparently a slang term for the Orang-utan in Victorian England.
The earliest published reference to the word in its current usage is in Donald Friend's 'Hillendiana' (Friend, 31), a collection of stories about the goldfields near Hill End in New South Wales. Friend refers to the "Yowie" as a species of "bunyip", an Aboriginal term used to describe monsters said to dwell in many Australian rivers and lakes. Researcher Rex Gilroy popularised the word in newspaper articles during the 1970's and 1980's (Healy & Cropper, p.13).
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[edit] Sightings and reports
Reports of Yowie-type creatures are common in the legends and stories of Australian Aboriginal tribes, particularly those of the eastern states of Australia (Healy & Cropper, p.6). The mid to late 19th Century saw a wealth of sightings, most describing a large, gorilla-like creature (albeit usually bipedal), which lived in remote mountainous or forested regions. Reports have continued to the present day with the trail of evidence following the pattern familiar to most unidentified hominids around the world - i.e. eyewitness accounts, mysterious footprints of hotly-disputed origin, and a frustrating lack of conclusive proof.
[edit] Candidates
Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy has attempted to popularise the scientific term Gigantopithecus australis for the creature (without support from the Australian scientific community), based on his theory that they comprise a relict population of the extinct ape Gigantopithecus. There is, however, no evidence that Gigantopithecus ever existed in Australia.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Healy, Tony and Cropper, Paul The Yowie: The Search for Australia's Bigfoot, November 2006, Anomalist Books, ISBN 1-933665-16-5.
- Rex Gilroy "Giants from the Dreamtime-the Yowie in Myth and Reality"
- Friend, Donald "Hillendiana", 1956, Ure Smith, Sydney
