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Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 12:23 pm
by Dean Harrison
Freshly Transcribed Today.


DMH



.........................................

Location: Jamison Valley, New South Wales

Event: Yowie Sighting

Date: 1989

(Chinaman’s Gully - Blue Mountains)
Military Training Exercise
50 minute Interview.




Peter was an explosives expert performing guerrilla warfare training with the 4th battalion SAS. The group came in contact with a Yowie during exercises and were sworn to secrecy by the Military Hierarchy and ordered not to mention the event to other Soldiers.

“We were sent in at night, it was raining. We had ghillie suits, not like the new stuff, it was the green and brown cammo strips and to get the shine off them, you rolled in mud and get into awful smelling c**p, and the idea was you become one with the ground.

You didn’t have aftershave or deodorant, you had to smell of bush and that’s what we did.

We got dropped off down by a river down along the bottom. We were given mud maps, just a general outline to the next meeting point. They would leave a bag on a tree and that was our next target. And there were, like, some resistance fighters who would leave us clues to our next target, you know. We had enough food, and we’d live off the land. There were 3 to a group and we were aware of groups of other commando’s out there trying to capture us, and then we’d become prisoners of war and tortured and all that c**p.


We decided not to go the way the mud map told us to go because they would know. We decided to go a little bit further out of our way to get to our point. It was a higher road we had to go to, so we thought we’d go along the river a bit and cross country up through the gully, through Chinaman’s Gully.


It was right off the chart. Nobody goes in there. There’s no bush tracks or anything. We went in there stealthy. We did a thousand metres in 2 hours. We did it with the sides of your foot going to ground and you’d roll your foot in so it makes no noise, so you go slow-slow….


Two other guys with me had SLR’s and we took a 60. I’m 6’4” and a half and was built like a brick dunny, so I was the Gunner.


So what happened was, we’d come through the Ruined Castle down the creek to the bottom, and the smell was like something was dead. It WOOFED!

We could not believe this smell.


One of the guys with us was a half cast. He looked horrified. We thought it was cow or a horse that had died.


We came to a sandstone escarpment in an easterly direction and there was a 100 metre clearing, or downed timber. We were going through the open area. We’d surveyed the area and couldn’t see anything. Half way across, I propped, and the other two blokes propped behind me, and I just saw a head pop up behind a downed gum tree and it was about 15 – 20m away. I saw the head and it was all matted and that, and I though oh that’s another Ghille suit, right, and we’ve walked into an ambush. They’ve got the higher ground and we had the lower ground and we were stuffed in the open with nowhere to go.


And then a mate of came up behind me and he was shaking. I said ‘What’s wrong’? He says ‘That’s not one of us’. I said ‘What do you mean not one of us’? He says ‘It big’. So we watched it and it just grew out of the ground. I mean, it must have been lying there just watching us and the damn thing just got up.


It was like two blokes on each others shoulders. It kept getting higher and higher, it was massive. Massive arms, thick legs, head. We called him Cro-Magnon, you know, he had this big slopping forehead, the eyes were offset into the skull, it had a brownish blackish face. It had…….. you wouldn’t call it hair…… and you wouldn’t call it fur….. umm, it was about 2 – 3” long.


It just looked at us.


We had our weapons, but I lowered mine and took the ammunition out. It was only blanks anyway. The other blokes saw me do this and they took their amo out and um..… we came non aggressive, you know what I mean….

It was just looking at us. The stance of it was aggressive first off, and when we did the less aggressive stance, it started to relax a little bit.
We decided to walk off into the bush. Well, it stayed parallel to us.

We wanted to get out along the escarpment and turned our radio on and got a squelch. As soon as we did that, we got three rocks thrown at us, so we turned the back off, and then there was nothing, so we thought ok, that’s fine.


About an hour or hour and a half after that it was getting dark and we could hear it again. We decided to set down for the night and have some dinner. We could hear it. We put out night vision goggles on so we could walk out and we got about 50m and the damn thing just popped out from behind a tree. All three of us saw it.


This ended up going on for days. It kind of got used to us. Was sort of like a big kid playing peek’a’boo with us, snapping trees, thumping the chest. Not aggressive, just playful. Then we’d hide behind trees and ended up laughing at it by this stage.


We thought we could have been its next meal from the size of it. It could have just come out and ate us if it wanted to. It was massive.

Every time we’d turn the radio on, the frequency seemed to make it a bit aggressive. It threw stuff at us. It just didn’t like the high frequency it was on.

When we left the area, it broke a tree limb that we’d use a chainsaw on. Snapped it and threw it. And when one of us urinated on a gum tree, it just bellowed its guts out at us.


We were 4 days late to getting back to where we were supposed to be.

When we got back there, we got chewed out by the RSN and the Lieutenant that was waiting for us.

When we told them what happened, we were told to get in the Rover. The Major came over and made us swear we saw nothing, we heard nothing and not to talk about it.


Later, I was talking to a couple of other blokes a little bit higher up than what we were, and we found out from other fellas in that Unit, that they’d all had similar things happen in this area, in the Jamison Valley. They’d worked in there for nearly 10 years, and then stopped it. Nobody was allowed to do exercises in there anymore.


Cunungra Training area, up in Queensland is even more bizarre. They’ve seen them rummaging through the backs of Rovers, trucks, you know, and everything. There was a 14 x 11 tent, a twenty man tent, and one Junior Officer walked in and there was one there going through the packs. That Officer defecated himself, ran and left his weapon.


Back to the Jamison Valley Yowie, I’m 6’4” and a half. If I put a bayonet on top of the SLR and held it in the air, it would have touched its chin. So he could as an estimate, be as tall as 11ft high…..

It had hair on the backs of its hands, and its hands were rubbery, like combat gloves. The skin on the hands was darkish grey. The feet had hair on the top, but no hair on the bottom.

Our feet, when we step on a log, our foot doesn’t bend. IT’S FOOT moulded around it. Its heal was on the ground one side and its toes on the ground on the other. It curled over, like it was grabbing onto it as it walked over it. We saw it.

And it rarely left tracks. It always stood on logs and rocks as it walked so it didn’t leave prints.


You couldn’t fight this thing off. It was massive”.


P.




Further notes: [Penis had hair all the way down the shaft, seemed to have facial expressions (in the eyes) when it played hide and seek as though it was enjoying the games, possible offering of food at times and same in return, 5 day encounter over all – main action on the 1st and 4th day, no real sign of aggression, primal type flat nose, nose moved when it smelled the air, black lips, wrinkled face, leathery hands, thick nails claw like, separate six toed print found – rear toe like primate, guttural noise starting low rising to high pitch at times, shook its head when one man threw up, not considered to be an animal, child like personality at times, pupils were like a diamond shape (also heard that from a Report near Ballina some years ago), dark eyes during day and reddish glow at night, clank rocks together, more than one there at times, further references regarding missing people and Military Ops etc…]






© Copyright AYR
Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
http://www.yowiehunters.com

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 4:42 pm
by Rusty2
That one sounds legit too , I've heard a similar story from a subscriber .
Interesting about the foot bending like that , the metatarsil break ?
Sounds like Neils playful childlike friend . Very cool...........

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 6:02 pm
by Nuns
Freak'n GREAT report.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 6:17 pm
by Troy
Wow what a great encounter to get to spend that much time with one. Great observations, for me it is a big eyeopener that it walked on stones and logs most of the time. That gives me some good ideas on how to set the cameras.
Cheers Troy

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 10:47 pm
by Smokeyr67
Well, sorry, but you need a fact checker:)

There is, and never has been a 4 Battalion SAS, sorry.

The report talks about them patroling stealthily, 500m/h (standard patrol is about 10 times that) but then they talk about having used a chainsaw???

This obviously puts the rest of the report into the "attention seeking Walter Mitty type" category.

Also, no one calls it Canungra Training area and if they where using SLR's and M-60's the tents in that period where 11x11 not 14 x 11.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 11:15 pm
by Gartloney Rat
I thought the miltary context was questionable also. Agree there is no 4 battalion SAS. 4 battalion RAR is indeed a commando battalion and is part of Special Ops command. However it was not redesignated as such till 1996. Back in 1989 it was linked to 2 RAR and known as 2/4 RAR. In those days it was a light infantry battalion. If the soldiers were carrying SLRs it pegs the events to pre 1990 when the SLRs were phased out. Anyway enough military trivia. I'm uncertain as to whether this impacts on the veracity of the rest of the account.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 11:45 pm
by Smokeyr67
Gartloney Rat wrote:I thought the miltary context was questionable also. Agree there is no 4 battalion SAS. 4 battalion RAR is indeed a commando battalion and is part of Special Ops command. However it was not redesignated as such till 1996. Back in 1989 it was linked to 2 RAR and known as 2/4 RAR. In those days it was a light infantry battalion. If the soldiers were carrying SLRs it pegs the events to pre 1990 when the SLRs were phased out. Anyway enough military trivia. I'm uncertain as to whether this impacts on the veracity of the rest of the account.

Unfortunately, any errors in a report destroy it's credibility for me:(

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 7:36 am
by Dean Harrison
Hi Smokey,



I can fully transcribe the part of the interview where he describes the roll of their people, if required. There was a lot more detail, and I Paraphrased.

We did a quick Google search and found numerous references to the 4th Battalion working with the SASR (However I am no expert on such matters).

"Under pressure from the previous events in the world, from Canberra Government has decided to set up one more unit of terror operations, which will join the TAG component SASR’s.

This unit, located in the Sydney-based Holsworthy Barracks in its composition has about 70-odd members. This tag is in the establishment of elected personnel of the 4th Battalion (Commando), Australien Royal Regiment (4 RAR), Australian Navy – RAN and rapid intervention unit in amphibious environment, and is similar to the British 40, 42 and 45 Commandos units from 3 Commando Force Royal Marines.

Read more: http://www.special-ops.org/sasr-special ... z2Txu8R564"


There are many other examples.



The reference he made to the Chainsaw, was meaning 'It would have taken a Chainsaw for a Human to bring down the branch, that it tore down with just its hands'.

The 14 x 11 tent Vs an 11 x 11 tent, well, that's not such a big deal is it?



All in all, he sounded credible. Again, I am no expert on all aspects of the military, or tent sizes..... He was more interested in telling us about the Yowie encounter, rather than worrying about semantics.




DMH

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 9:42 am
by Smokeyr67
Dean Harrison wrote:Hi Smokey,



I can fully transcribe the part of the interview where describes the roll of their people, if required. We did a quick Google search and found numerous references to the 4th Battalion working with the SASR (However I am no expert on such matters).

"Under pressure from the previous events in the world, from Canberra Government has decided to set up one more unit of terror operations, which will join the TAG component SASR’s.

This unit, located in the Sydney-based Holsworthy Barracks in its composition has about 70-odd members. This tag is in the establishment of elected personnel of the 4th Battalion (Commando), Australien Royal Regiment (4 RAR), Australian Navy – RAN and rapid intervention unit in amphibious environment, and is similar to the British 40, 42 and 45 Commandos units from 3 Commando Force Royal Marines.

Read more: http://www.special-ops.org/sasr-special ... z2Txu8R564"


There are many other examples.



The reference he made to the Chainsaw, was meaning 'It would have taken a Chainsaw for a Human to bring down the branch, that it tore down with just its hands'.

The 14 x 11 tent Vs an 11 x 11 tent, well, that's not such a big deal is it?



All in all, he sounded credible. Again, I am no expert on all aspects of the military, or tent sizes..... He was more interested in telling us about the Yowie encounter, rather than worrying about semantics.




DMH
Dean, 4 RAR was unlinked from 2 RAR in early 1995, and it became 4 RAR(CDO) in Feb 1997

PM me for details of the SAS structure (it's pretty much public knowledge, but I'm not going to blurt it out here:))

14x11 is a modern tent, 11x11 is what we used in the eighties/early 90's (22x11 was the Taj Mahal)

Canungra was is and aways will be the LWC, nungas or that bloody place up the hill.


If you need someone to check the details before you publish, theres obviously a few of us who are in the know:)

Shane

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 9:59 am
by Dean Harrison
Hi Shane,

Thanks.

Are you in the know regarding the Camp Kerr/Tin Can Bay incidents also?




DMH

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 10:13 am
by Smokeyr67
Dean Harrison wrote:Hi Shane,

Thanks.

Are you in the know regarding the Camp Kerr/Tin Can Bay incidents also?




DMH

I've spent a lot of time in that area:)

On our pay slips it's called WBTA.


The reason I'm on this forum is from a sighting on the public road between the Camp Kerr gate and Tin Can Bay, a large red upright animal, could have been a huge roo, or our hairy friend.

Theres lots of other stories from WBTA, but most are alchohol fueled:)


Shane

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 12:18 pm
by FM80
I see what smokey's saying about the possible errors in the story, seems a bit strange, BUT.......

If this story is not legit, why would he invent all the stuff about the SAS? Surely inventing the yowie story would be enough. He could have just said he was hiking for a couple of days. I can't see why he would make up such an elaborate back story.

And so what if he called it Canungra instead of the nick name. Most likely he was telling the story to someone who has no idea what 'nungas' or 'the place on the hill' is, so forget that being evidence of a made up story. If I told people I worked for "OB" they'd have no idea therefore I use the full name of the place.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 12:53 pm
by Smokeyr67
FM80 wrote:I see what smokey's saying about the possible errors in the story, seems a bit strange, BUT.......

If this story is not legit, why would he invent all the stuff about the SAS? Surely inventing the yowie story would be enough. He could have just said he was hiking for a couple of days. I can't see why he would make up such an elaborate back story.

And so what if he called it Canungra instead of the nick name. Most likely he was telling the story to someone who has no idea what 'nungas' or 'the place on the hill' is, so forget that being evidence of a made up story. If I told people I worked for "OB" they'd have no idea therefore I use the full name of the place.

I see your point about location, but noone calls Canungra anything like Canungra training area, it's either Land warfare centre (LWC) or Canungra, Nunga in the mess.

I don't understand why someone would embelish their story with obvious B/S, but to me it points to a pathological liar, so that puts the rest of the story in doubt for me:(

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 2:29 pm
by Nuns
Too cynical

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 2:46 pm
by Dion
Hey Smokey67

If your knowledge of the military is indeed correct what would the procedure be for someone or group of individuals within, who may have had an encounter with say, Yowie be?

I dare say that they would be told to remain silent and to poo poo anyone who did come forward? but that would be a wild guess.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 3:10 pm
by Smokeyr67
Dion wrote:Hey Smokey67

If your knowledge of the military is indeed correct what would the procedure be for someone or group of individuals within, who may have had an encounter with say, Yowie be?

I dare say that they would be told to remain silent and to poo poo anyone who did come forward? but that would be a wild guess.
Dion, the secrecy would last about 5 minutes:)

Yes, the guys reporting would have the piss taken out of them, but when you hit the boozer they would be very popular.

There is no procedure, I wouldn't even put in a sitrep, after all it's just an animal, would you report a Koala sighting?

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 3:15 pm
by Dion
No worries

Disagree on the animal comment if they were they would be in Zoo’s.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 3:42 pm
by Smokeyr67
Dion wrote:No worries

Disagree on the animal comment if they were they would be in Zoo’s.
If it's not shooting back, its an animal:)

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 12:31 pm
by Ray Doherty
I have Army guys call it Cunungra to me but thats Military to Civilian - Just an easy reference point, I do understand that they do call it something different amongst them self.

The 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, (4RAR) was an Australian Army infantry battalion and part of the Royal Australian Regiment. The battalion was formed on 1 February 1964 and was renamed the 2nd Commando Regiment on 19 June 2009.

From infantry battalion to special forces [edit]
In 1996, a decision was made to convert 4RAR to a Special Forces unit. On 1 February 1997 was renamed to 4 RAR (Commando).[7] Regular serving members were given the opportunity to undertake special forces training provided mainly by 1st Commando Regiment or elect a posting to a conventional forces unit. General Reserve positions existed in the new structure and reserve members discharged or posted to GRes units. The initial years were busy creating a structure and recruiting members suitable for commando training. Bravo Company was raised first followed by Charlie Company in 1999, both taking 24 months to reach full maturity. The pace of battalion life during these development years was hectic with capability development, equipment acquisition and training, focussing every member's attention. The unit conducted operations in East Timor and Iraq, and later lost members in Afghanistan. It has also been awarded citations for bravery and the meritorious unit citation.[13]

On 19 June 2009 the battalion was renamed the 2nd Commando Regiment. At that time, 4 RAR remained on the order of battle, with its colours and traditions maintained and protected, ready to be re-raised as a regular infantry battalion in the future if required.[14]

Here is the link on this Unit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Battal ... n_Regiment

Sorry I just cut and paste it. From memory I think they are based in Holdsworthy and alot of people confuse them with the SASR but they obviously are not.

Still an interesting story, thanks for putting it up Dean

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 8:29 pm
by NotSoBigFoot
Just out of curiosity, how often would police liase wit military personnel at cunungra?

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 12:35 pm
by Bandit
I would think that the military would notify police of all intended training exercises , pretty scary for the public to see guys in camo running around with slr's and machine guns !

The whole chainsaw thing shades this report a tadd although it is prime territory .

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Sat May 25, 2013 12:50 pm
by Smokeyr67
NotSoBigFoot wrote:Just out of curiosity, how often would police liase wit military personnel at cunungra?
Depends on if the boys misbehaved in Surfers or not:)

In my time, they came through a couple of times a year, I think they called themselves SWOS during my first posting, SERT later on (20**)

Other than that, there was the odd team building weekend, but I can only recall a few of them. (We had more sports teams than Police)

The SGT's Mess had a lot of Police visitors, until one peanut came in, had a few drinks, then set up his RBT at the gate. No more coppers in the Snakes pit after that!

The public wouldn't see anyone running around with shooters, its Commonwealth land, with warning signs all around, and it's rare that you would approach the boundary on exercise.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 12:33 pm
by forestguy
I'd also picked up on a few of the mistakes in the report of the encounter, but I'm usually willing to allow for a bit of slippage in terminology btw civvies and specialists, esp with military stuff where someone might be trying to cut down on jargon to get the gist across, while the interviewer might paraphrase in a way that they don't realise changes the actuality of 'x'.

One bit I came back to was the reference to NVG. I wouldn't have thought they were in widespread distribution in 1989 - maybe an earlier gen starlight scope or similar, but I'm not sure about goggles - happy to be corrected.

OK, 2 bits. If I'm deliberately moving that slowly, then I'm not likely to blow it by wandering across the middle of a clearing. Maybe that's just me.

Regardless, another interesting encounter reported from military land.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 1:43 pm
by Rastus
Hi Forestguy, ex Army myself and can safely say that yes NVG were widely used in 1989. I was a tankie with 1 Armd Regt and we used AN/PVS-5 or PAS-5 as we called them. These were a 2nd gen goggle and done a decent job if the night was not to cloudy but very grainy in overcast conditions or when under thick tree canopies etc.

I have been out of the army since the mid 90's and have forgotten some things until someone or something jogs my memory ( I think I lost a lot of brain cells due to the cheap drinks on base (cheers) ) so I suppose it is possible for this guys terminology to not be 100%. Having said that I dont particularly believe this story, just doesnt seem convincing , and there are a lot of things I DO remember, so this story doesnt sit well with me I'm afraid.

As some of the other guys have said If this did occur there is no way it could be kept secret by those involved. Everyone knows pretty much everything about other members of a section/platoon, troop /squadron etc and soldiers being soldiers the bush telegraph and rumour mill would soon put the story out there if something like this happened :)

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 6:13 am
by Smokeyr67
Rastus wrote:Hi Forestguy, ex Army myself and can safely say that yes NVG were widely used in 1989. I was a tankie with 1 Armd Regt and we used AN/PVS-5 or PAS-5 as we called them. These were a 2nd gen goggle and done a decent job if the night was not to cloudy but very grainy in overcast conditions or when under thick tree canopies etc.

I have been out of the army since the mid 90's and have forgotten some things until someone or something jogs my memory ( I think I lost a lot of brain cells due to the cheap drinks on base (cheers) ) so I suppose it is possible for this guys terminology to not be 100%. Having said that I dont particularly believe this story, just doesnt seem convincing , and there are a lot of things I DO remember, so this story doesnt sit well with me I'm afraid.

As some of the other guys have said If this did occur there is no way it could be kept secret by those involved. Everyone knows pretty much everything about other members of a section/platoon, troop /squadron etc and soldiers being soldiers the bush telegraph and rumour mill would soon put the story out there if something like this happened :)
AN/PVS-5 was introduced in limited numbers in 87 to the AAAvn, and slowly filtered down to the arms over the next few years, but where still in very limited suppy (we didn't buy that many), but the SAS would have been able to get a bigger stock than most units. I think I still have a headache from using the bloody things!

Rastus, sadly the days of cheap drinks are long gone, but if I'd have thought of it, I would have had my section claim a Yowie sighting, and we would used the story to get free drinks for years:)

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:47 pm
by yowiedan
I was just reading this great report and looked at where the soldier described where he went from ruined castle down the ridge and around mount solitaryThis spring im planning a few weekends to do both night and day research around this very area.We are planning going around the southern side of mount solitary and also another trek starting from bullaburra following bedfords creek to where it meets up with wilsons glen creek and up to woodford.I hope we get some action out there when we do this.planning on taking both camera's and sound recorders and maybe a flir when we go so fingers crossed.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 11:00 pm
by Rob
Is it possible he meant 4 SQN , as that is what the SAS are made up of, 500m an hour sounds right according to the people I have spoken to. And I have to say I always call it canugra every time I have to go there, but then again I'm not Army.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:09 am
by Rob
According to Wikipedia (the all knowing font of truth :lol: )between 1960 and 1964 the SAS were a part of the RAR, becoming their own entity on 20 August 1964, also 4sqn doesn't exist, so maybe there is an element of truth when he says 4 RAR. I am far from an expert on Army history, just thought I'd throw some possibilities into the ring, to help prove the encounter.

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:17 am
by Rastus
those that have served in any branch of Defence will know that you will never forget the name of the various Units / Ships / Squadrons you may have served with. It would be like forgetting where your home town is or that you forgot you had a hand at the end of you arm. Just doesnt happen. And you know exactly what they are called, so for him to say 4th Battalion SAS to me is an outright lie. My 2 cents worth. (tank)

Re: Military Training Encounter

Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 1:22 pm
by deadpool
There actually is a 4 Squadron (existence of 4 Squadron has never been publicly acknowledged¹) SASR. I don't know if the primary witness replaced squadron with battalion just to keep it that little bit more secret²?

¹ http://www.smh.com.au/national/secret-s ... 1uwhy.html
² The deployment of the SAS's 4 Squadron - the existence of which has never been publicly confirmed - has put the special forces unit at the outer reaches of Australian and international law.
The Herald has confirmed that troopers from the squadron have mounted dozens of secret operations during the past year in various African nations, including Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya.