As I have said, there was more than one hominid form with which the 'hairy man' became confused in ancient Aboriginal tradition. I propose to deal with each one separately. This page in text form...Click here

Ngaut-Ngaut

Ngaut-Ngaut, the blood sucking hairy man of Western Victoria, was said to kill and eat any Aborigines that strayed into his domain. These average human height beings were called Dyirri-Dyirritch by the Swan Hill district tribespeople, who said these cannibals preyed upon the Aborigines throughout the Murray River region of New South Wales/Victoria.

The Dyirri-Dyirritch

The Dyirri-Dyirritch would dig a deep trench in which he placed an upright spear, then camouflage the top with bracken. Any Aborigine falling in would be impaled on the spear, Dyirri-Dyirritch then roasted and ate his victim.

Wallanthagang Hairy Manbeasts

The Wallanthagang hairy manbeasts of the far south coastal tribes were described as small human-like creatures that inhabited the tea-tree scrub and forest of the Cambewarra Mountain area, which lies slightly north of the Shoalhaven River, at the southern end of the Kangaroo Valley.

Waladhegarra or 'little hairy people' and the Mumuga

From here to Port Hacking they were known as the Waladhegarra or 'little hairy people'. They shared the region with the Mumuga, hairy men of great strength. They were smelly creatures, defecating all the time, and would chase Aborigines who approached thier rock lairs with loud cries and throwing large stones.

While the name Yowie was commonly applied by the tribespeople to these primitive hominids
we can see they were known by many other names as well.

Homo erectus

Ghindaring

On the northern side of the Grose Valley, deep in the Blue Mountains, extending northwards through the vast reaches of the Wollongambie Wilderness, the Darkinjung tribespeople feared a malevolent hairy manbeast called by them Ghindaring. His body hair was said to be reddish, and he was associated with volcanoes (still active hereabouts a few thousand years ago). These creatures wandered the mountainside, and Aborigines kept clear of them lest they became the next cannibal meal of one of these monsters.

Winembu

Throughout north-western New South Wales aborigines feared primitive hairy hominids of smallish stature, called by them 'Winembu'. There are places still inhabited by these creatures into which Aborigines refuse to go, particularly on the Gwydir River at Moree and along the namoi River around Walgett. Much larger hominids than these average-size hairy people were known to the north-western New South Wales Aborigines.These hominids were not exactly giants, reaching no more than 2m tall, but they were powerful. muscular creatures and the Aborigines kept well clear of them. They inhabited the large hilly country north of Tibooburra up to the Queensland border.

The Cave Dwelling 'Bundja Bundja Ganja' beings

On into Queensland we find yet many more names of the 'hairy people'; both normal height to giant-size. The cave-dwelling 'bundja bundja ganja' beings, preserved in the folklore of the Wangkumara aborigines, lived near Coopers Creek and over a wide area of the rocky country of the border ranges in north-western New South Wales. they were of average human height, made fire and used crude stone and wooden implements, and were of course cannibalistic, eating Aborigines at every opportunity.

Little Hairy Red Men or 'Junjdy'

For example, although the Aborigines of far north Queensland believed in these ferocious creatures, they also believed in the 'little hairy red men', or 'Junjdy' that inhabited the rainforests of Cape York, Cairns, Tully, and elsewhere thereabouts; and similar beliefs in the existence of 'little hairy men' were entertained in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales tribal folklore.

Little Hairy Red Men or 'Junjdy'

Described as shy, timid little people less than half the height of an Aboriginal, they were said to live in tribal groups, making crude shelters and stone or wooden tools. Obviously the Aborigines of Queensland and northern New South Wales were describing the negrito pygmy-sized natives discovered by anthropologist Norman B Tindale and Professor Joseph Birdsell in 1938.

These forest-dwelling natives often possessed reddish hair and the secretive lifestyle gave them an aura of mystery in the Aboriginal psyche. These little natives were ruthlessly hunted down and killed by the Aborigines at every opportunity. The Yowies, however, were generally treated with much more respect. Although the Yowies were just as secretive in their wanderings as the unfortunate Negrito pygmy folk, they were far more dangerous.

However the Yowies pale in insignificance when compared to the true 'manimal monsters' of dreamtime Australia, the 'stone feet' of dim antiquity; huge monsterous beings at least three times the height of the tallest Aboriginal of which more will be said later.

7foot high Aboriginals and Stingray catch

Comparison's With Other Relict Hominid's...

For many people the Yowie's description automatically evokes comparisons with the Himalayan Yeti
and 'Bigfoot' of North America. Or lesser known Almastis (hairy man of the forest) of Russia; the Chaing Mi (wild man) of China; the Mie tie (apeman) of Malaysia, and the Kiboornee (hairy jungle devil) of New Guinea.

Whether all these creatures are related is another matter. Footprints left by the Yeti reveal apelike, rather than human features, while some researchers tend to link the Almastis with 'Bigfoot' who together with the Yeti, is argued to be a surviving form of the Pleistocene man-like ape, Gigantopithecus.

The Chaing Mi and Mie Tie and Kiboornee, by their physical descriptions may be linked to the Yowie, as probable surviving Homo erectines, and this also appears to be the identity of the Moeau,of new Zealand, but more anon.

American professor Grover T Krantz, (who at the moment is gravely ill, we send Grover and his family our best wishes for him, Grover has since died R.I.P) anthropologist of Washington State University, has from exhaustive studies and comparisons of what he considered to be authentic footprint plaster casts of 'Bigfoot', concluded that the creature may be a living representative of Gigantopithecus.

Gigantopithecus is known only from its fossilised jaws and teeth, and thought to have existed in Asia from about five million years ago. The great size of its fossil jaw suggests Gigantopithecus reached a height of around 3 metres. Despite widespread scientific opinion that Gigantopithecus would have walked on its knuckles, like a gorilla, and not on its two feet, Professor Krantz has made a convincing argument based on the spread of the lower jaw, that Gigantopithecus was actually an erect biped.

"If you change a gorilla to a vertical posture like a human, and make the neck come straight down, one thing you have to do is spread the back of its lower jaw room for the neck. And as can be shown, the lower jaw of Gigantopithecus spread much more widely than the jaw of a gorilla." "Gigantopithecus was so much like the Sasquatch that I would assume Gigantopithecus is alive today", says Krantz.

Gigantopithecus, the 'South China Giant", orignally identified from six large fossil teeth found in a Hong Kong Chinese chemist's shop by Dutch Paleontologist Ralph von Koenigswald in 1934, does appear to fit the description of the Sasquatch. Fossil jaws and teeth of Gigantopithecus unearthed in China since von Loenigswald's initial discovery show these monster-apes subsisted on seeds, berries and other herbivorous food, although there must have been meat-eating forms, as suggested by the Australian Aboriginal traditions, concerning the habits of the giant hominds (of Gigantopithecus appearance)to follow

The Yowies were descibed as standing, in the case of males, 2m to 2.6m tall, being hairy, muscular vreatures; whereas the females were smaller, at around 1.5m tall, with less hair, of lighter build and with long pendulous breasts. The head of these creatures differed from Aborigines, in that they were long and narrow in shape.

The general appearance of these primitive beings recalls Homo erectus (Java Man), as will be
demonstrated anon.

According to the Aborigines, the sounds emitted by these 'hairy people' varies from grunts to howling. They wandered the remoter forest regions of the eastern mountains ranges, often in small family groups, sometimes in pairs or singularly, sleeping in caves, rock overhangs or in open forest depending upon weather conditions.

They were known to make fire, manufacture crude stone and wooden tools and killing animals for food, as well as feeding upon nuts, roots and berries. They were to be territorial by nature, regarding any place in which they were temporarily in occupation of as if their own, chasing out any rival groups of their own kind, and also any Aborigines who chanced to wander into their territory.

More names below

Turramulli Giants of Cape York

I have said that early Aborigines feared the Yowies as very dangerous creatures, avoiding them as much as possible. Sometimes however, the 'hairy man' became a problem, attacking Aboriginal camps, forcing the tribespeople to defend themselves; as in the case of the Turramulli giants of Cape York, in Queensland's north.

Turramulli and the Imjim Far North Queensland

Hereabouts the Yalanji people and other tribes recognised two forms of 'hairy man'; the Turramulli and the Imjim. The Imjim were a much smaller manbeast answering to the general description of the Yowie, and were often confused with their much larger counterpart. According to the Yalanji people, although the Imjim were big and strong hairy creatures, they were nowhere near the height and strength of the Turramulli. Yalanji elders say that, while the Imjim were from 2 to 2.3m tall, the Turramulli giants were a good 3m in height and very ferocious.

Turramulli Queensland and Jimbra Western Australia

According to the Yalanji people, the Turramulli roamed a vast area of far northern and central Queensland in the long-ago 'Dreamtime'. They are similar to another monsterous hominid form, the Jimbra of Western Australian Aboriginal traditions, to be dealt with later in the book. The Jimbra, like the Turramulli were not tool-users and resemble Gigantopithecus.

Gurumuka

Aborigines of Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, which was formely joined to nearby Arnhem Land during the last ice-age, preserved traditions of another Gigantopithecus-type monster similar to Turramulli. This giant was known as Gurumuka. The Gurumuka's were described as a race of upwards 3m tall, powerfully built, hairy male and female creatures with big teeth. They were omnivorous in their eating habits so ate flesh. They aslo ate Aborigines and were most active at night, and heaven help and Aboriginals caught by one of these prowling giants! Gradually however the Groote Eylandt Aborigines summoned up enough courage to stand up to the Gurumukas, eventually killing them off.

Jinbra or Jinrga

The Aborigines also spoke of what they called the 'Jingra' or Jimbra', a mysterious race of male and female creatures which, according to thier description, resembled (of all unlikely creatures in that desert environment) a huge gorilla-like beast, and which they said, was very fierce, and never failed to attack an Aboriginal if they ever found one on his or her own.

Ginka (local word for Devil)

The white men, conversant with many of the local Aboriginal dialects, and thinking the Aborigines might have confused names, enquired if they might be speaking of the Ginka, the local word for devil. However, the Aborigines were emphatic that this was not so. The Ginka, they pointed out, could never be seen, whereas the Jimbra or Jingra could be both seen and felt, especially if one of them caught you, and they said, nobody had ever been known to have escaped from a Jimbra once they had been caught in its grip.

Side by side with these monsterous Gigantopithecine ape-like beasts, one or more races of giant tool-making hominids share equal prominence in Aboriginal dreamtime mythology and legend, and with the Yowie, they too were known by many different names. As I have pointed out, these gigantopithecine-type monsters shared the land with other, more advanced tool-making hominids

Dinagabbie

Noted explorer/journalist, Mr Allan Robinson, some years ago in Darwin, learnt that Aborigines of the 'top end' (Arnhem Land) believed that a race of 3m tall giant tool-carrying people called the Dingabbie, once migrated up from the southern end of the continent, to spread out into Western Australia and pass through the Ayres Rock(Uluru)Alice Springs district, eventually settling in Arnhem land.

Dinagabbie / Lo-An / Ngurunderi

Perhaps the Dingabbie were the same giant tool-making manbeasts known in Victoria and South Australia as the Lo-An, and also the Ngurunderi of the Murray River region of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Lo-An

Aborigines of the Kulin tribe of the Yara Flats region of Victoria, feared the Lo-An who drove them (the Kulin Aborigines) from their hunting grounds thereabouts, to enable the Lo-An to live on eels and other aquatic life of the area, which their females (who were somewhat smaller than the males) cooked in their earth ovens. According to legend, the Lo-An eventually followed migrating swans to the Western Port area, then followed the coastline until they reached Wilson's Promontory where they made their home.

Ngurunderi

Some of the most important myths and legends of the Aborigines of the Murray River region concerned those of the Ngurunderi. These giant people lived upon the Murray cod fish, as well as the giant kangaroos and other 'megafauna' that inhabited the surrounding countryside in ancient times. The first Ngurunderi giant was said to have been responsible for the creation of the Murray River. These giants made huge stone implements, including knives with which they cut up and skinned the giant marsupials they killed. The Ngurunderi people also knew the use of fire for they cooked all the food they captured

Ngurunderi Myths

One myth says that the first Ngurunderi giant had two wives, which he had obtained in the course of his travels along the Murray River. The women eventually ran away from him and he pursued them all the way down to the South Australian coast, from where the wives were attempting to cross over to Kangaroo Island, at the time still joined to the mainland. Ngurunderi caused the sea to rise, drowning the women. He then crossed over to Kangaroo island where he lived for a time.

Note: The first 'megatools' (giant-sized stone implements) to be identified by scientists were recovered from Kangaroo Island in 1948 by archaeologist Dr a Gallus. At the time they were linked to an early Aboriginal stone tool culture, labelled 'Kartan' after the original Aboriginal name for the island. Could the Ngurunderi tradition be a race-memory of the former presence there of amuch larger form of hominid?

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