Dean Harrison, who says he saw a yowie in the flesh, told the news.com.au podcast I have news for youthat he thinks some of the missing people might have been victims of a yowie attack.

“These things are dangerous… and I was nearly or have been victimized many times,” Mr Harrison said.

“And I know there are other people who didn’t come out of it as happily as I did.”

Indeed, Mr. Harrison believes that people have died as a result of encounters with yowies.

“(There is) absolutely no doubt about it,” he told host Andrew Bucklow.

“We are taken seriously by some authorities, whether it’s parks and wildlife, police, different military levels, and there have been situations where we have exchanged information,” he said. he said, suggesting evidence of such deadly attacks.

The now professional yowie hunter recalled his first face-to-face encounter with the creature from Australian folklore.

Mr Harrison said he once heard a yowie make an ‘awful noise’ in his garden when he was 25, but it was two years later when he first got close to the creature in what he described as a near-death experience. . He went for an evening run on a fateful Tuesday night in 1997, but he didn’t expect it to end with his life before his eyes.

He was in Ormeau, a town between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and went for his usual run along a bush track an hour before midnight.

Mr. Harrison practiced on this track frequently without a second thought. But what he didn’t know was that there was something lurking in the bushes, waiting for the perfect moment to attack.

A meeting that marked the course of his life.

“I heard all this crashing coming through the bush behind me and it sounded like a bunch of kids had just trashed the place,” Mr Harrison said.

The sound of snapping branches and crashing leaves started to come closer until a tall figure emerged about 10m behind him.

“I had these inexplicable shivers that are what we call nameless terror…and like a bunny in the spotlight, basically my whole body just locked up,” he said.

“I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew I was in danger…and I knew if I turned around and made direct eye contact, things would get exponentially worse.”

When Mr. Harrison’s flight response activated, he launched into a sprint with the seemingly aggravated creature following close behind.

“He’s screaming and he’s roaring and he’s kind of almost exaggerated talking and with every step… his diaphragm in his chest would bounce,” he said.

“And before I know it, he’s right next to me. I thought, this is it, this is the end of my life. I’m about to die now.

Mr Harrison said the creature dove towards him, but he managed to get away. He said the yowie then retreated into the bush as Mr Harrison walked towards a lamppost.

It was this experience that inspired him to create the Australian Yowie Research database to track the creatures’ movements across the country.

Mr Harrison describes the yowie as a hominid with indigenous roots, with the first “official” report of its existence dating back to 1790.

From various “observations”, they are said to have a “baboon-like” face and stand on two legs.

The yowie hunter said modern yowie sightings have taken place in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, as well as the Gold Coast Hinterland and Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

“We have people showing up all the time, pretty much every day or every other day, we get a report from somewhere in the country,” he said.

While Mr. Harrison doesn’t necessarily want to capture a yowie, his goal is to get “unmistakable footage” to show others the creatures are real and to help with future research.

Additionally, he uses his experience to support others who come into contact with the creatures.

“People (are) in shock and we know people who will not return to the Australian bush again,” he said.

What is a yowie?

Australia’s answer to the Bigfoot, a yeti or Sasquatch, the yowie is a creature based on indigenous oral history.

The Kuku Yalanji tribe of Far North Queensland claim to have co-existed with the Yowie for centuries. They have a long and detailed history of yowie attacks in their legends.

But there is no evidence that yowies exist – no bones, no photos, no specimens. There are, however, numerous reported sightings over the years and across the country.

According to these observations, the yowie is generally described as a large, hairy ape-like creature with a broad, flat nose, which stands between 2 m and 3.5 m tall.

It should not be confused with a bunyip, another creature from native mythology, which is said to hide in swamps and billabongs.