Yowiehunters Forum

Does anybody here remember a story reported in the Macleay Argus (Kempsey, NSW) newspaper in the 70's.

I grew up in Kempsey in the 60's/70's and fondly remember Kempsey, Bellbrook, Willawarren, Upper Macleay as a yowie hotspot.

There was one story in the early 70's of an aboriginal gent being woken in the night and being drawn to his kitchen window where he saw a face and was ultimately 'sucked' out the window, breaking the glass and falling to the ground below. His wife corroborated the story.

The interesting thing was that for a face to peer through the window 'it' would have had to have been 7" 6' inches tall. Somewhat consistent with your average yowie height.

The story, being what it was, was actually reported very objectively without the usual parody or finger-poking, which was quite unusual for a country town newspaper.

Anybody remember this story and could it have been a yowie, given the height and location. Greenhills, where it happened was on the very edge of Kempsey at this time and was backed by forest extending back into dense forest.

Hi Opus,

Sorry, can't help you with this one, I'm afraid. Couldn't find anything by Googling, either. When Dean or Cass are back on deck, they might be able to recall the story for you.

Kind regards,
Shazz

Hi there,

Just found a transcript of the story that I refer to on a ufo website. This is basically how it was reported in the Macleay Argus newspaper:

An Aboriginal Is Levitated Through A Closed Window During A Ufo Flap In 1971

The town of Kempsey situated on the Macleay River in northern New South Wales has been the centre of extensive UFO activity, since at least 1971. Like a small number of other areas throughout the rest of Australia, sightings have continued, suggesting that factors common to the area are of significance to the manifestation of the UFO phenomenon.

Enquiries into these areas may eventually lead to the elucidation of the nature and motive of this elusive phenomenon. Just after 6 pm, on Friday, April 2nd, at least 14 Kempsey residents observed what appeared to be a pink flare approaching the river from the south. Reaching the river, the light turned, following the course, of the Macleay River, in a north-westerly direction.

It finally disappeared in the direction of Greenhill, an aboriginal settlement area. It was at Greenhill that an extraordinary drama unfolded several hours later on the same night. At about 10.00 pm, an aborigine went into the kitchen of his home at Greenhill to get a drink of water. Suddenly he saw a "small face pressed against the window pane. It had no hair and was the shape of a small saucer".

Too terrified to run away, the aborigine was drawn towards the face by some unseen force. His wife in the next room, heard glass breaking and ran into the kitchen just in time to see her husband disappearing horizontally through the top section of the bottom window.

The 5 feet 3 aborigine was apparently lifted bodily a distance of four and half feet and transported horizontally without any body movement, smashing through a window pane (only I0" by 32") above a sink piled high with dishes. He landed on his back seven and a half feet below the window level, but he wasn't even winded or stunned by the fall. The man's wife rushed outside to see him jump up and run "like hell down to the gravel near the house", where she found him crying and shaking.

"I thought he had the horrors", she said later. She accompanied her husband to hospital where one stitch was put on his finger. The man had been drinking but was sober at the time of the incident. I would think that indeed the experience would be very sobering anyway!

As a footnote to this, despite my saying that this was reported in a fairly objective manner, the Argus cartoonist of the time, Tony Nolan, did have a poke... as you would expect a cartoonist to do.

The punch line of the cartoon, was along the lines of, "Outer space baloney, who says it wasn't a 7 foot 6 peeping tom with a vacuum cleaner'.

This cartoon was indelibly etched into my mind because Tony Nolan had drawn the 'creature' remarkably like a lot of amatuer yowie drawings that I have seen. Basically it was a very tall, lanky creature that looked furry, holding an electrolux.

When I read the cartoon I saw a yowie not an alien, which is really interesting because, this was 1971. The stylised, Whitley Strieber grey with the almond shaped eyes wasn't in circulation then. This was pre-'ET the Extraterrestrial'. We were all watching re-runs of Lost-in-Space, Doctor Who, My-Favourite-Martian and such. Aliens back then tended to be in shiny space suits and/or have antennae.

Anyway, my Dad's explanation of the event was that the Aboriginal gent had probably had a tad more to drink than he said. Had gone for a glass of water, seen his reflection distorted in the window, spooked himself and lashed out at it and broken the window cutting his finger. His wife walked in (probably having been drinking as well) to see her husband sliding out the window to chase the 'apparition' away and fallen through to the ground. A little extra alcohol taking the edge off the fall.

Occam's razor suggests this as the most plausible explanation. No disrespect to our indigenous friends, but Kempsey did/does have a large aboriginal population living at Greenhill and alcohol is a problem.

This of course does not explain the sighting of the light in the sky.

Hi Opus

I have been meaning to reply to this thread for a while but due to log in difficulties was unable to. I grew up in Kempsey and am very familiar with the case and other paranormal phenomenon in the area. I am of the belief that this was strictly a UFO/ET encounter due to the fact that this encounter occurred during the middle of a UFO flap in the area. There were a high number of UFO sightings in and around the town at this time which was documented by researchers and the local media.

Also, the UFO/abduction literature is full of accounts of people being transported (usually through walls and windows - without breaking them) by unknown energy sources. I guess the weirdest thing about this case was the fact that the window was actually broken.

I always take the opportunity to go exploring the vast wilderness areas west of Kempsey when I`m in that neck of the woods. It is truly remoteand vast, inhospitable country!

[Excerpt from an email I sent to SAB5 whilst elsewhere...]

I will state that I am skeptical that the Greenhills incident was either a yowie or a UFO, however I posted that in order to see if there was anyone else who recalled that incident as I am always interested in opinions on it.

I prefer to go with my father's explanation as posted. I have the utmost respect for indigenous Australians but I'm sure that you would agree, having grown up in Kempsey yourself, that alcohol was a particular problem especially in the Greenhills settlement.

As a skeptic I do not rule out the possibilty of either yowie or ufo, I'm just not convinced that there is enough proof that it was either. I'm interested in your thoughts as to what occurred on that night noting that other witnesses did say that they saw lights following the course of the Macleay earlier in the evening.

For myself, I have had a number of what I shall call 'interesting experiences' when I was growing up in Kempsey and one persistent event that still has me puzzled to this day. Unfortunately of all my experiences I am left with no answers so my nature is to draw a line under them and leave them as unexplained. Because of my personality, my profession and my life experience I am not prepared to accept a paranormal answer without evidence/proof. That is not to say that I deny the possibility of this being the answer.

Thanks for the post and I'll look forward to anything that you may have to offer.

Regards