A listener writes “Hi Wes, my name is —— and I just listened to you on Talk is Jericho and your story reminded me of something I experienced when I was a kid.
I live in Australia in New South Wales and at the time was in a small old town called Greta, this happened sometime between 1995-1997 based on the school I was in at the time and the friend I was with. My friend lived on the edge of town about a 10 minute walk to (at the time) quite a large bush area. We were on our way to a creek we would frequent on the weekends where we would swim.
Anyway on this particular day we were walking up to the bush line where all the trees start, the bush area there is quite dense and it’s easy to get lost if you didn’t know how to get to the creek and back. It was about early afternoon and as we approached the line of bush land we heard the trees rustle to our left. We immediately looked and froze. This large thing stood up and kind of stared at us, it appeared to be overweight and a similar structure to an overweight male who has short legs. It was covered in short hair and I don’t remember it’s face too much but from memory the color of the hair on it was just all a dark brown and it’s face seemed to have blended into the leaves of the tree.
It then slightly bent forward and let out a loud bellowing “aaarrrggghhh” type yell and we both turned around and took off back to the house. We never went back to the bush land there and no one believed us when we told them what we’d seen. My friends father did admit to hearing the yell but thought our imaginations had got the better of us. The only thing we could think of was a gorilla but I don’t even think gorillas are native to this country and if they are I have no idea where they would be.
Anyways, thanks for reading. Just thought I’d share that with you since I enjoyed listening to you on the podcast and will now be a frequent listener to yours. Take care”
William C
You need to get this guy on Wes. There is only 1 yowie encounter you posted a long time ago.
Amanda B
Um no, gorillas are definitely not native to Australia! Surprised an Aussie wouldn’t know or question that as we’re taught Australian animals throughout school.
Sounds interesting though, so far only one Yowie encounter so good to see another in the works.
Patricia R
You know there have been quite a few animals that were imported to Australia at different times since the early 1800’s that have proliferated–some got loose, some were abandoned but did well on their own —camels, mules, cane toads, and rabbits just to name a few.
At one time, the rabbits ate nearly all the vegetation in a large part of the country, all because one British guy brought 24 or so of them to live on his land, so he could shoot them for dinner once in a while. They multiplied and got way out of hand.
The cane toads were brought from South America, to help eradicate insects, and they multiplied and were all over the place, covering roads, wall to wall toads. I don’t know if they still have so many but this was about 40-50 years ago. I think.
It can be a mistake to import animals from one continent to another–one just doesn’t know how they may survive or affect the animals and ecosystem already in place.
Anyway gorillas might do well in parts of Australia so one never knows.
I think this was a sasquatch or Yowie, as they call it, but the idea of a gorilla there isn’t too far fetched.
Simon P
The cane toad is the worst thing to happen to Australian wildlife. It was introduced to eat the cane beetle which was destroying the sugar crop. When it arrived, it decided the local fauna was much tastier so left the cane beetle alone. There are tens of millions (if not more) of them now.
Daniel S
No, you would need a breeding pair at leased, a group of gorillas, the zoo’s have trouble breeding gorillas successfully, but then again the poms did introduce rugby that breed of gorilla took off!
Robert P
I think he was joking. Of course he knows gorillas are native to Texas.
Simon P
I know the area around Greta quite well. It is close to the Watagan’s NP where there have been several sightings.
http://www.yowiehunters.com.au/index.php/new-south-wales/1462-watigans-new-south-wales-1988
http://www.yowiehunters.com.au/index.php/new-south-wales/1464-watigans-new-south-wales-2003
http://www.yowiehunters.com.au/index.php/new-south-wales/1580-watigans-new-south-wales-2004
http://www.yowiehunters.com.au/index.php/new-south-wales/1628-watigans-new-south-wales-2012
Kim S
Hey mate other areas in nsw is Lismore , coraki and bungawalbyn.