Thought i would make a short post and introduce myself.
I am an inner city Sydney dweller, however I enjoy the outdoors and regularly fish, camp and hunt when time permits. I enjoy the more remote areas of the state so I am often travelling into the north west or far west of the state in pursuit of my hobbies.
I have been lurking these boards for several weeks now. I have found the information, passion and pride taken in the research work you guys do to be very admirable.
I will declare my position up front and I must say that I am a fence sitter, however in this relatively young and very expansive country I am quite sure we are yet to identify all the species of fauna which exist here. I would say I am a fence sitter based only on the fact that I have not had a personal experience with one of these animals. The closest I have come to an experience would be finding what I would describe as small human shaped foot prints which were spaced quite close together suggesting a shorter gate than an adult human, the prints also were shallow in soft red dirt so obviously the animal was not very heavy, at the time they were very fresh and had no signs of weathering. As most would know on these boards, no one in this day and age would be roaming the scrub without boots. It is quite a remote property in North Western New South Wales with large tracts of scrub leading to both national and state forest there is also hilly country within those parks. I have found it impossible to explain these tracks and after discussing with my hunting partner and the land owner we are yet to come up with a plausible reason for the tracks. Since reading through these boards extensively I now think it is possible they may have been from a juvenile or smaller specie of yowie.
It is extremely interesting the field work that some of you are undertaking and the lengths you are taking to get some concrete evidence of this animals existence, it seems clear that these animals are adapted extremely well to the Australian environment and have learnt how to be effective in avoiding being captured or killed by a human.
Another area which is extremely interesting to me lies in aboriginal stories and customs relating to these animals it seems to me that these people had contact with these animals and possibly even the alibility to communicate with them. I am sure that people here would have made extensive enquires with aboriginal contacts in relation to their knowledge on the subject, however I wonder if there is not more to be gleaned from these sources or historical records. I think that these animals would definitely share a lot of the same food, shelter and water resources that aboriginal people once used again another reason I believe aboriginal information on the subject would be excellent to point researchers in the right direction in regards to locations, baits and contact methods.
As you can see I find the subject very intriguing, I am now going to be hyper aware of my surroundings whilst in the bush and be on the look out for the signs that are often spoken about here of these animals and report here if I do find anything of interest.
Thank you all for providing such excellent and detailed information, I wish you all luck in your research and expeditions. I hope to contribute in what small ways I can however I think reading and learning from you guys who are out there with boots on the ground is the way to go!
