Im local to the Newcastle, NSW area and have a few things I wanted to share that could be of interest.
Before listening to a podcast a couple of months ago, I had never actually taken the yowie to be a serious thing.
In all honesty, the cadbury chocolate bar was the extent of what I knew.
I hadnt heard of ANY stories about them and I didnt even know how apparent it was in our Aboriginal culture either- the shame !
Being in my 30's, I thought that to be a little strange in itself and a reason as to why I invested so much of the last couple of months researching these things.
After i read and listened to countless encounters, my research led me to the aboriginal side of things because once I started reading traits about these yowies a memory quickly popped into my head .
It was something I read from an article about my aboriginal family,the Worimi , a tribe residing in the Port Stephens area.
The paragraph the text comes from is called "The dam dog"
The Dam Dog
I don’t know what it was, but we used to go to what we call the
Point. (That’s where the white people lived and where all the shops
were). We’d go down there and if we were late coming home of a
night, our parents would always warn us about what they called a
Dam Dog. (This is where the mums did their washing). As soon as
we got near the dam someone would sing out “Here comes the Dam
Dog”, well we’d run for our lives! My sister reckons she saw it, but I
don’t know. I don’t know if it was just a way for our parents to get us
home. But there is a certain tree over there near the cemetery, they
reckon stones used to get thrown from it, so when we’d get near
that tree, we’d run too.
link to story-https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/reso ... ephens.pdf
Now, I know most of these stories are a way to get kids home before dark but why? And are they just that?
I guess what really made me think this story was relating to a yowie, would be the stones being thrown from the tree.
The name "dam dog" is also similar to "dune dog" another nickname ive heard the yowie called.
The worimi customs and beliefs also read as the following -
Evil Spirit
The Worimi feared an invisible spirit they called “Guwiyn” who exercised harmful or evil acts over their lives. They feared the dark as any mysterious noise at night was attributed to “Guwiyn” and they never moved around after dark without a fire-stick to keep him away.
Yurriwina
The little hairy man they called “Yurriwina” or Brown Jack was a creature that roamed throughout the bush particularly at night and was feared by the Worimi. It is believed that the clever man (Giraadji) could talk to these creatures.
https://worimiconservationlands.com/cus ... d-beliefs/
I do hope to go and talk to the worimi elders and see if there is any other stories they could pass on.
The other thing that I think could be of interest is something that happened to me around the winter of 2007.
Myself and about 10 others went up to the Watagans one night...We were at boarding house dam to be exact.
We spent the night drinking, listening to music & just being your normal 20 year old louts.
Then myself and a friend drove down the mountain to pick another friend up from the bottom.
As the 3 of us were driving back down the hill into the boarding house dam something stepped out into the side of the car.
I was driving. so it stepped towards my window /door pillar but I was almost passed it as it happened, so i didnt get a good look...I stopped and said "omg did you see that, was that a naked man "
Anyways they said "yeh yeh we saw it, hurry up and GOOO, dont stop here" So I started driving again.
When we got back to the others where we were all drinking I refused to get back out of the car.
I had this super bad feeling and I just wouldnt.
My night ended there and I stayed in the car with those 2 friends for the rest of the night.
The other boys didnt believe anything we said, which was so frustrating at the time, because we were seriously scared about who that could of been.
Its been 10+ years since and occasionally someone will joke about the time kel saw the naked man up the mountain...but no-one still believes it.
I hadnt given it much thought since either...
Well since falling down the rabbit hole...or should I say yowie hole...this memory came flooding back.
So much so ,that when I started thinking about it my heart was beating out of my chest...was very strange.
I really got myself to remember that night and what I saw and why I thought he was naked.
Well I just saw one colour. No clothes. Thats why I said that...
So I message my friend who was in the back seat of the car at the time...We havent seen each other in over 7 years...The message goes like this....
"Hey Jordan...you remember that night we camped at boarding house dam and I said I saw a "naked" man...well did you really see something? And if so what did it look like? Do you remember anything else weird about that night ? Theres something with rocks but I cant quite remember,my memory is foggy...let me know if you do remember and if you really did see something or you were just listening and playing along with silly ol me "
And this is the reply...
"Oh shiiiiiiit ! As pissed as we were i will NEVER forget that !!! It did happen. I feel like he sort of had long shaggy hair and yeah there some sort of rocks being thrown. Your not being silly. I remember it. Ive told people and they dont believe it haha"
You can imagine my reaction when I read "long shaggy hair" ....
The rock thing is VERY foggy...it happened to the boys who stayed on partying outside while we were in the car.
I need to ask one of them...If they can confirm that rocks did "fall" down the hill or were thrown id be pretty confident in saying that what stepped out to the side of the car wasnt a naked man...it was a yowie.
At this stage...im not.
But I mean...If I knew about yowies back then...would I have said holy s#@t was that a naked man...or would I have said holy s#@t thats a yowie !
This could be how easy they are going undetected ...the education isnt there for the mainstream.
Anyways, like I said..ive fallen down the rabbit hole and unfortunately my partner doesnt believe.
I sound crazier and crazier the more I talk about it to him...
I just had to share this with people who might actually take me seriously.
If the Watagans is nothing to go by, I believe the worimi stories to be a good indicator of something hanging around the Karuah area and another great piece to the yowie puzzle.
Has anyone looked in the karuah/medowie/wallaroo areas? Id love to hear if you've come across anything of interest !
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