Allegedly, this is an artist’s impression of the Yowie. What is happening here? Are folks saying that the Yowie is nothing more than an Australian form of Bigfoot?

What kind of beast is the Yowie?

First, a little introduction to why I am asking…

The Ray Wallace-created wooden tool, above, is compared with an often-published “Bigfoot” print, the Blue Creek track. Wallace’s hoaxed tracks have hurt the database of hominology, but they do not ultimately distract the field from the questions at hand. People still wonder about what is Bigfoot. (Dave Rubert photo of the wooden fake is used by permission.)

I wrote about the unfolding of the Ray Wallace story in my essay, “Bigfoot’s Bogus Burial: The Media and the Wallace Myths,” in the anthology, DarkLore Volume 1 (2007), edited by The Daily Grail’s Greg Taylor, who is based in Australia (obtainable via Amazon USA or Amazon UK).

For the forthcoming DarkLore Volume 2, as my contribution (one of many), I am examining the various cryptozoological theories for what the Australian unknown hairy hominoid, the Yowie is and how it compares to Bigfoot. I’ve tentatively entitled my discussion, “Yowies: Are They the Bigfoot of Patterson-Gimlin, the Sasquatch of John Green and the Neo-Giants of Ivan Sanderson?” (Well, it’s a working title. LOL.)

The various kinds of images depicting the Yowie give you some idea of the diversity of the topic.

The creature above is a variety of the Yowie seen with a club, as viewed in Harry Trumbore’s drawing from The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates, 2006.

Is the Yowie something other than the classic Bigfoot?

I thought before I finished my essay, I’d be interested in throwing open the question here, for good insights, other points of view, and generally novel ideas that I may have missed. Your quotations, with your permission, might show up in my published treatment of the question, in DarkLore Volume 2.

Yowie illustration (above) by Xavier Lemmens for Fortean Times.

This little drawing is of the Yowie called “The Bombala Anthropoid – a specimen of the tribe, drawn by Will Diamond from a description given by Mr. Charles Harper” as shown in The Sydney Sun of November 10, 1912.

A wooden Yowie statue found in Kilcoy, Queensland, Australia.

Just as I did with the earlier “What Is Bigfoot?” blog posting, I am going with the assumption that the Yowie is an actual biological species, yet to be fully discovered and classified. Based on what you know, what do you think the Yowie is?

Click on the image above to make the Yowie larger, as seen here on the cover of The Yowie: In Search of Australia’s Bigfoot.

What fossil candidates might be responsible for the Yowie?

Gigantopithecus? Reconstruction by William Munns.

When Yowie is discovered and classified, do you speculate that they will be the same species as Sasquatch, and merely different only in terms of representing a geographic subspecies?

Paranthropus? (directly above and below). Reconstructions by William Munns.

Are the Yowies relatives of the Aborigines, misidentified and said to be covered with hair?

Perhaps Yowies are merely evolved Kow Swamp hominids (the skulls of the Kow Swamp/Coobool population being shown above)?

Or are Yowies completely unlike Bigfoot, indeed, a different species?

Are Yowie more closely related to Yeti? Or to Asia’s Malaysian unknown hairy primates?

To orangutans? To Orang Pendek?

Or even have links to African unknown hominoids?

Is there a link to this wooden representation of a Proto-Pygmy, the Agogwe from Africa.

Or do Yowies look like unknown hominoids from elsewhere?

This is the sleeping position of an Almas seen in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia.

Are Yowie more hominid than pongid?

This is a recent eyewitness drawing of a Yowie from Australia.

Please note that a close look at the Agogwe, the Almas, the wooden Kilcoy Yowie, and the above illustrated Yowie all appear to have calluses on their knees, which have been explained by the Russians as a result of the above shown sleeping position.

Intriguingly, these heavily callused knees are sometimes referred to as “camel knees,” because of their obvious likeness to the knees of camels. The hardening of the skin of the knees in camels is due to the evolutionary fact that the camel’s knees (as shown in the Bactrian above) were adapted for bending down on the sands of its native Gobi desert, to rest and sleep.

But then there are some bizarre illustrations of what some people say Yowie looks like.

This drawing of a Yowie was created by Michael Skelton and his daughter after an alleged encounter near Victoria, Australia, in 2006.

This confusing landscape needs your insights.

What are your thoughts?

Let your opinions and speculations fly.

A challenge: The posting “What Is Bigfoot?” (which was done in response to Bill Munns sharing his reconstructions with me) got a little over 50 comments.

Let’s see if you can send along more than that for this “What is Yowie?” question, which pulls in the whole world on this issue!

Australians, Australasians, and Asians, let’s hear from you! North American and European Bigfoot students, do you think Sasquatch and Yowie are kissing cousins?