I have a copy.
Here is the text, I also have the sketch
DMH
The first night in the scrub saw us camped about a kilometre and a half from our final destination. Up in that country it takes a good hour to move 1 km through the scrub so it's all fairly slow going.
It was the next morning that we came across something that no one in the entire party could explain.
It was something that none of us had ever encountered before and left us quite baffled.
Having moved out of our overnight harbour area and travelled barely a couple of hundred yards, the forward scout came across this very strange construction on the ground.
Someone or something had constructed a rectangular sleeping mat on the ground made from fronds.
It was perhaps a little over a metre long and a metre wide.
This mat had been slept on that very night and the vegetation that made up the mat was extremely fresh. And guess what sort of fronds they were? Yep, Calamus..
We all stood around examining this strange discovery with various options of what it was and what made it in the air.
None of us could come up with any sort of logical answer.
We examined the ends of the fronds to see if they had been cut with some sort of sharp object but that was not the case.
They had been chewed off from the main vine, not cut.
One of the party, Dr John Campbell our expedition archaeologist, said that "If I were anywhere but here in Australia, I would have to say that was a primate nest".
Now there is some food for thought, and here is a bit more to digest.
Statement by Cpl J Webster Trg Sqn. SASR on the sighting of the unknown creature (Melon Man).
On the 23rd July 1985 while working in the Downey Creek area of the Palmerston National Park, I observed a creature, not animal or man. A number of us had arrived about an hour earlier by Land Rover, 10 in all. We had camped 15-20 metres off the track among the trees, in the bush. I had gone back to the vehicle to gather some stores. Upon arriving there, I saw the creature about 50 metres away, on the side of the track. It was rubbing itself against a tree, as it saw me it stood up on its two legs, stared at me for a few seconds then walked off into the scrub. - 29 Jul 85 J Webster.
It was indeed a brave move by Corporal Webster to put pen to paper and make this statement. He was also motivated enough to provide us with a sketch of the creature he sighted, which is also included here
