Folklore Cryptid of Kimberley

[Believer]

I have lurked on this site for many years as a visitor. And have enjoyed the reports.

I work in the Kimberley with Aboriginal people. During a recent fishing trip to the North of Broome I was with a couple of my aboriginal work collegues. We were throw netting for bait and one of the guys was collecting Mangrove Snails to treat his sick child's sore throat.
The mate collecting the snails suddenly left the mangroves, at the same time his partner grabbed the 2 little kids and took off at pace back towards the car and beach.
I was urged to follow and quickly! At this time there was a smell in the air like sulphur/rotten smell and the other aboriginal with me pushed me along. I said what were they mucking around for? I was told to keep moving fast towards the clear areas. My mate kept looking over his shoulders into the mangroves. I looked around and saw some movement amongst the mangroves, but I am short sighted and the glasses were covered in salt spray from the throw net. The movement did seem to be following us. When we got to the beach the women had packed the camp and children.

We drove off, as we drove I asked what that was about? I was told it was the Boon Boon Man? When I pushed the subject I was told they were a big creature which lived and hunted amongst the mangroves. I was told it was very similar to the creature from the Predator series but hairy??. Apparently the creatures stalk the mangrove forests and will steal small children and fish off of hunting groups. I was told it knew there was a sick person who would be easy to take as it had seen the collecting of the snails.
Apparently when the aboriginals go fishing and hunting amongst the mangroves on certain creeks, they must first spear fish which is placed up high into the canopy with the use of a spear. When the group return through the mangroves they check to see if the fish are gone from the high position and know they are being stalked. They then position themselves to best protect the smaller members of the group. I have tried to be objective on this experience, I have asked what systems are known haunts, and whether there is access to natural freshwater sources nearby? What are the food sources? I have been told any system with freshwater wells and swamps with bat roosts are definite areas to be cautious. I also enquired whether these creatures left the mangroves? I was told they will sneek up to camps at night but most people don't realise s they see the footprints and thinks its their own group going to the toilet.

[forestguy]

Wow. Great contribution, I love hearing from an indigenous perspective. Thanks.

[AL Pitman]

WELCOME BELIEVER

Why is it that we are all running around trying to prove to the skeptics the existance of the YOWIE when it is they who should be out there trying to disprove the fact , it takes real gonads to go alone into areas like you have discribed , its easy for the negative lot to theorise from the comfort of their homes , take them out just once to an highly active place like the one you wrote of and let us see the reaction when left there alone for an extended period of time , if they could still be found upon return I'll bet that their whole attitude would be changed dramatically .



MY FINAL DECISION IS MAYBE ...............

[Dion]

Hey Believer

Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forums,

[RingMaster]

Hi guys
When i read your post it reminded me of a place i went fishing with a friend a couple years ago.

Its on the beach at a place called "Iluka" on the northern NSW coast, great fishing, heaps of bandicoots all through our camp at night. A lot of srcuby land and a few swamps.

Any way, i caught up with my friend over christmas and we started talking about "Iluka", i mentioned i would love to buy a place just across the river at "Yamba" (my lotto dream). He told me that the local aboriginals are happy to live and roam around in Yamba but will never cross the river and venture into Iluka or the area (state forest or national parks ,not sure which one it is). They are very superstitious of the place, i am not sure wy, i think my friend said something along the lines of bad spirit's. While i was there i never did an aboriginal on that side of the river.

Could this be a Yowie thing.
Its a large area, there's even a military exclusion zone there for the air force to practice bombing runs, while there we actually seen 3 fighter planes at night come in low and fast (aprox 1000 feet), when they got towards the military zone they hit the after burners and went for altitude, an awesome thing to see. There were other military aircraft in the area during the week that we camped there.

Are there any reports of Yowies or strange things in that area?

[deadpool]

If theres a zone to practice bombing runs.. I wouldn't think there would be any Yowies in the area. When those fighters kick the afterburners into gear they make an awfully loud noise.

But, i'm just going on from what i've seen at airshows, Riverfire (in QLD), etc. If there were any around that area, they would have adapted to the noises by now and are probably half deaf

[topender]

Oh cool

correlation of stories from seperate sources, i was told it was called " boon Goon" but i couldve heard wrong, they also call it Mangrove monkey as i mentioned in the other thread, the old fella told me that they are greatly feared and will take kids, goats, dogs etc, would love to spend some yowie time in the Kimberely, there were stories of chinese getting abducted many years ago, never seen again despite searches

[RingMaster]

Oh cool

correlation of stories from seperate sources, i was told it was called " boon Goon" but i couldve heard wrong, they also call it Mangrove monkey as i mentioned in the other thread, the old fella told me that they are greatly feared and will take kids, goats, dogs etc, would love to spend some yowie time in the Kimberely, there were stories of chinese getting abducted many years ago, never seen again despite searches

Yeah hard to pass up on Chinese Takeaway lol

[Believer]

Topender,

I am still a bit sceptical as I see it as more spiritual. The area is a very popular camping, fishing and camping spot. And I will go back there shortly for another look.
This place is so well traversed by people hooking crabs that anything like this would be "Broomered" and everybody would be there. Especially the gun toters!!
Your name is probably correct as the locals pronounce things quickly and are very guarded with that sort of info

[Ella]

Wow, Believer, i sure wish you'd post more often! This is absolutely fascinating. If any of yall have heard of similar occurences in the United States, except for the names and a few of the geographic changes, I sure wish you'd post it here. Being uneducated about Yowies, and knowing little about Bigfoot, I have nothing to offer to the thread, but just want you to know how good your contribution is. And as you see on this thread, I'm not the only one who thinks so!

[topender]

" chinese take-away".......................LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL.

I get stories about the Broome kimberely area a bit up here, the most recent was a story told to me by a friend in Kunnanurra , he met a Sydney artist who was travelling around topend painting scenes etc, he camped at an isolated gorge about 200 kms north west of Kunna, had started painting at the mouth of the gorge in the late afternoon..dusk colors etc, he felt uneasy, this increased until apple size rocks were being lobbed towards hin from the cliffs above, he felt terrified, left his art stuff at the spot and walked back to camp, heard unearthly screams, slept in his locked troopie overnight, went back to get his stuff in the morning, all the stuff was smashed to bits..eisal,..canvas, paints , chair and strewn over a wide area, he was somewhat terrified and left straight away back to kunnanurra where he spoke about it with my mate kevin.
The other bit of info was that the Anthrolpologist who documented the ancient art up that way called ("the Durack paintings), he was commisioned to document all aboriginal art on the station owned by one of the media families...packers, murdoch ? , he also came across some evidence of large man type creature living out there.

[forestguy]

Its on the beach at a place called "Iluka" on the northern NSW coast, great fishing, heaps of bandicoots all through our camp at night. A lot of srcuby land and a few swamps.

Any way, i caught up with my friend over christmas and we started talking about "Iluka", i mentioned i would love to buy a place just across the river at "Yamba" (my lotto dream).[/color]

Bugger - wish I'd read this earlier, I've just been down there for a few days.

[Rastus]

Illuka is on the southern end of Bundjalung National Park. I grew up at Evans Head on the northern end and have said elsewhere on this forum that the area has had some odd happenings in the past, not just the park area but the surrounding area also. Beautiful part of the world though so I suppose any cryptid or whatever might just want it for themselves and try to scare us humans away when the chance arises .

Also spent quite a bit of time in the NT and WA around Timber Creek and Kununurra / Wyndham regions. Hell of a lot of isolation and empty space up there so who knows.

[Dean Harrison]

I lived in Yamba and Maclean for quite some time.

About 4 years ago, I was sitting at the Lookout at Maclean, when a couple struck a conversation with me. To my amazement, the Female began to speak about a creature called the "Yowie". Biting my tongue, I acted rather vague on the subject, but with interest. She went on to say that she personally knew many of the local Aboriginals of the area and relayed a few stories that they had shared with her. According to this Woman (who's partner seemed very embarrassed by the subject), the Aboriginals say that there are many of them at Ashby, a stones throw across the Clarence River, however they very much keep it a secret.

Even more amusing, apparently there is a group in Australia called the AYR that specialise on this topic, and if I wanted to learn more about this 'Yowie', they have a great Website full of all manner of things Yowie related. Heck, I guess that's how I found you guys..... great to be here - can't say that enough, I have learned so much from you lot. Top site guys, keep up the great work. How can I join?

I had always wondered about Yamba, Maclean, Iluka etc, as they really are right in the heart of sighting locations, but we don't hear a squeak. Just above Maclean is Woodburn, where a couple of years ago, had a statue of the Yowie on the side of the Pac Hwy. Close sightings to the North, South and West, but none from the mentioned locations. I will be down there the Week after next.

DMH

[AL Pitman]

I was in the YURAYGIR national park which adjoins BUNJALUNG last weekend this whole area is so vast you could not possibly drive around it in only one day , it would be an ideal place to exist .

Some friends of mine , a young couple camp out at Station Creek usually during the week if they can so as to avoid the crowds , the girl will not stay alone at the site when her fella heads to town for supplies , she claims there is YOWIES in that area and she just does not feel safe and it's as if something is watching her even when her fella is down at the water fishing .

DEAN .... I had lunch today on the Maclean lookout and as you look accross to the Clarence Peak you just can't help but wonder it seems so populated around the towns but get off the highways a little and it soon becomes very isolated indeed , another area certainly worth more consideration ..


MY FINAL DECISION IS MAYBE .............

[Yowie88]

How long will it take to travel Yamba, Maclean and Iluka from Brisbane.

[AL Pitman]

About 3 1/2 hrs each way , but try this www.travelmate.com.au/MapMaker/MapMaker.asp



MY FINAL DECISION IS MAYBE ..............

[iwanttobelieve]

Thanks Believer. Interesting story.

I'll have to be more mindful next time I'm throw-netting for livies.

Don't know if I'll stick a fish in a tree though. Well, maybe a catfish.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers.

[topender]

Hey IWANNA

if your getting anywhere camping, why dont you take one of the pheremone discs i got from the states....they REEK, trouble is that you end up with a Yowie sitting on the side of your air mattress smoking a cig sfter he's "finished with you "..............and will he still love you in the morning?

[Dean Harrison]

We have had our disks sitting in front of our trail cams for the past 4 Weeks. Looking forward to seeing if they have made an impact (other than on our nasal hairs as we set them out).

DMH

[Believer]

G'day Topender,

The rock throwing appears to be a common occurence around sacred sites. When I was in the Pilbara one of my local boys used to tell me about certain spots to avoid when camping. He used to say that these spots were the home of powerful spirits and rocks used to land around the camp fire. The longer you stayed the more frequent and accurate they became. Some of these spots are on the plains to the South of Roebourne. There is nowhere for a rock thrower to hide without being seen! Travelling through these area with other aboriginals I have been told not to camp or the fellas have been very uncomfortable as we pass.

The areas to the Northeast of Kununurra are the remotest in Australia. I have travelled through alot of it and there are only 3 access tracks to the coast between the Gibb River Road and the Timor Sea.

I have been told tales of Aboriginal Tribes who have chosen to not communicate with Europeans. These people still follow the traditional ways. At certain times of the year Elders from the Coastal Communities will meet up with these tribes as they know they will pass by following tradtional hunting patterns. Initiations and marriages are arranged with these tribes to maintain the customs of the area.
The most bizarre myth around is of Pearlers on the remote farms. Who will not land on certain beaches due to the presence of an Aggressive Pygmy group??? It has been conveyed by several differnet generations that bored workers have gone ashore looking for art sites and been attacked and driven back to ttheir boats!! This tale I put down to the protecting of sacred crops!

[RingMaster]

G'day Topender,

The rock throwing appears to be a common occurence around sacred sites. When I was in the Pilbara one of my local boys used to tell me about certain spots to avoid when camping. He used to say that these spots were the home of powerful spirits and rocks used to land around the camp fire. The longer you stayed the more frequent and accurate they became.

I watch this doco on ABC last year about "spirit stones". Very interesting, they talk to old people that were cutting brush back in the 40s and 50s, to this day there is no scientific explanation for what happened, the aboriginals thought it was spirits that were angry with them clearing the bush, or even the little people.

I have tryed to find a download for the doco but no luck, if anyone can find it let me know, I would love to watch it again.

PROGRAM SUMMARY, A MUST READ

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/netw/200 ... 213000.htm

[RingMaster]

LoL here's there home page



http://www.spiritstones.tv/home.html

[Harlem]

Hi guys
When i read your post it reminded me of a place i went fishing with a friend a couple years ago.

Its on the beach at a place called "Iluka" on the northern NSW coast, great fishing, heaps of bandicoots all through our camp at night. A lot of srcuby land and a few swamps.

Any way, i caught up with my friend over christmas and we started talking about "Iluka", i mentioned i would love to buy a place just across the river at "Yamba" (my lotto dream). He told me that the local aboriginals are happy to live and roam around in Yamba but will never cross the river and venture into Iluka or the area (state forest or national parks ,not sure which one it is). They are very superstitious of the place, i am not sure wy, i think my friend said something along the lines of bad spirit's. While i was there i never did an aboriginal on that side of the river.

Could this be a Yowie thing.
Its a large area, there's even a military exclusion zone there for the air force to practice bombing runs, while there we actually seen 3 fighter planes at night come in low and fast (aprox 1000 feet), when they got towards the military zone they hit the after burners and went for altitude, an awesome thing to see. There were other military aircraft in the area during the week that we camped there.

Are there any reports of Yowies or strange things in that area?

Hi,

Just reading through this thread (as I am new) but have lived in the Maclean area (most) of my life and can clear up why the aboriginal people don’t go to Iluka. It is an old warring ground for the tribes and has bad juju (it gives me the creeps). This I found out from an aboriginal elder when I did my year 12 geography project on the local aboriginal tribes.

I have no doubt that there could be yowies in the national parks around Iluka, Yamba and Brooms Head and heading east into Ashby and Tullymorgan as most of these places are quite isolated.

Cheers 8 years later

[Slats]

Hey Believer
Thanks for sharing, great to hear the aboriginal story to it. I to am a West Australian only down in Perth.
Can you share anymore information about your experience?
In particular whereabouts you were, when it happened?
I would like to ad it to my sightings and encounters map.
Did your friends give any indication to size of the creature as I have read the little ones are more common in the North than the big guys.

Cheers Slats

[Tuckeroo]

Hi Harlem,
Good to see you remembered something from high school. Sounds like you enjoyed that area of study.
I know this area of the Clarence river and agree with what you said about why the Aboriginal people
avoided the Iluka peninsular (if you can call it that) a waring ground and generally has bad spirits.
I was also told that they would come fishing in the daylight hours but in almost a panic would make sure
they were back on the western side of the Esk river by sunset.

It seems a shame that a beautiful piece of coastline has such a negative connotation.
It makes me wonder whether this bit of the coast was a traditional ‘waring ground’ or that there was just a one off
event where people were killed and it left this negative history.

This ‘waring ground’ idea came to mind again when I read a post on AYR about the Wallabadah Manuscript 1903.
( AYR 24.09.2012, p 15/ 54 ) the recollections of William Telfer jnr.
In this report Telfer refers to an aboriginal elder Bungaree of Gunedah who describes another race of people…
‘at one time there were tribes of them and they were the original inhabitants of the country’.

This quote got me thinking about a story I came across a few years ago. I wanted to provide a link so you could
read it on AYR but I’m not sure how to do it so I thought I would post it again in this thread.

It happened many years ago on Micalo Island in the mouth of the Clarence river. I’m guessing the spot is along
Oyster Channel somewhere, which feeds into Lake Wooloweyah.
I’m writing this with respect to indigenous culture and an awareness of the attitudes of the early settlers in those days.
The quote is by a man called George Gray and comes from research by the Clarence River Historical Society.

The title is ‘Lime burning and the aboriginals’ from George Gray’s journal.

He was born in 1846 and lived for most of his life in the Clarence Valley.
He says that in his early married life; which is the only piece of information to provide a clue to when this
incident happened. He worked as a Lime burner on Micalo Island in the mouth of the Clarence river.
He lived there for a while with his family and had some men working for him.

Going by his birthdate/married life, this incident may have taken place around the 1860’s - 80’s. He died in 1941.
I’m quoting exactly what the text says, the only thing I did was break it into three paragraphs to make it easier to read.

‘Then I took a job lime burning. We found a heap of oyster shells away from the usual place where they were worked.
The heap was 60 yards long and 10 yards wide and 8 feet high. It was evident that at a distant period an oyster bed
was in the channel which is now only filled with the tides, and at that distant period the aboriginals used to feed
on the oysters and they built up the heap as I have stated.

On the top of the heap oak trees were growing – one was three feet in diameter, that proved that it was hundreds
of years since the blacks used to feed there. We felled the trees to burn the shells and after we got well into the heap
we found numbers of skeletons of aboriginals buried there.
We would find in places seven or eight lying in a row and it appeared they were all buried at the same time.
Then a little further we would come upon another lot all buried the same way.

It was evident a disease must have raged among them and many died at the same time and were buried in rows as stated,
which was contrary to their custom as they always bury the dead in a sitting position.
The bones were the largest I have seen of a human nature. The skulls were much thicker than that of any beast I have seen,
their shin bones like horses and their teeth like horses also. This as I have stated must have occurred hundreds of years ago.
All the bones were well preserved, as the shells contain salt it kept them clean and they could be seen to great advantage.’

This story creates a lot of questions. Who were these people that are perceived as human but with some difference ?
Not one or two but multiples of them. I couldn’t help but think of Bungaree’s ‘original inhabitants’
from the Wallabadah manuscript.
Just say they dug half way down, this depth alone would make the skeletons at least a few hundred years old
or maybe well over a thousand years, at the time.

This puts them outside the time period of catching European diseases, so what disease could have killed them as George speculates.
He doesn’t describe them as being different sizes such as male, female, child, so one would assume they are all male
and if this is the case you would think tribal warfare as stated by Bungaree. But what larger stronger group gets killed off
by a smaller one unless it’s less intelligent, capable or less in numbers ?

George quickly changes from seeing them as human to beast when he describes their skulls as being much thicker then any beast
he has seen. Does he mean thicker than a horse, bull or rhino ?
George seems to know exactly what he is looking at and how he’s interpreting it.

I’ve read other parts of the journal about his life in Grafton and he doesn’t seem to be one to embellish his stories or dramatize things.
Whenever I visit Yamba and drive over Oyster Channel bridge, I look up stream and see those nice waterfront houses
that could be sitting on some interesting history. What did those men see that day all those years ago.
I wonder if the Lime burner’s showed any respect for the dead by covering them back over or did they just shovel their bones into the fire,
just to end up as mortar for new buildings in Grafton ?
As for Yowies in the lower Clarence, I'll leave that for another post.

T.

[Harlem]

Tuckeroo,

That information was amazing. As I go into Yamba at least twice a day, I am always looking at Micalo island in a different light. Most of it is privately owned now and it is hard to get onto any forrest area of it.
Still might be time to visit the museum and see if there are any other reports.

Thx for the info and super keen for any more information in the Lower Clarence!!!
Harlem

[Tuckeroo]

Hi Harlem,
I’m glad you found the Micalo Island story interesting. It has fascinated me since I first came across it a few years ago.
While Evans Head and Woodburn have some stories, I've never heard of any weirdness in the sou-eastern part of Bunjalung
down to Woombah and the Iluka peninsular. The only strange thing is that Aboriginal people won’t go there.

Locally, as Dean mentioned in the earlier part of these posts, the western side of the Pacific Highway Ashby and Tullymorgan
are more Yowie country. There was some activity just south of there at Lawrence in 2017. The report is on AYR, I don’t know
if you have read that one ?

The ‘robenfield59’ posts regarding Candole State Forest were interesting and detailed.
I’ve been a few k’s into that forest from the Sandon River side and found it to be eerie and isolated, and that was a few years
ago before I thought too hard about Yowies.
For me the area around Clarence peak has a strange feel about it, especially that Lake Arragan camping area,
try camping there of a night with no one else around and that strange house way up on the ridge.

I became more interested in Yowies around 2011 when I was in the Clarenza area of Grafton after a motorist,
late at night saw one on Centenary drive. I was on a property just up the road from the alleged sighting and inquired
about it to some acquaintances who assured me that the old vagrant in a coat had been seen or heard a few times.

They believed it but there were kids about and they had brought home gossip from school so with a wink it had to be
an old vagrant in a coat. It made me realise the sensitivity of this subject.
That was 7 years ago and surprisingly enough while writing this I discovered a new report on AYR from a truck driver
only a few weeks ago having a sighting just past the second creek crossing south of Grafton.
Jeez…….that’s only about 3 k’s from the sighting 7 years ago.
Makes you wonder whether it’s the same beasty roaming about the place.

T.