Snowy Mountains and South Coast January 2004

Location: Brindabellas Ranges near Canberra, Namadgi, Kosciuszko National Park, South Coast NSW, Wadbilliga, Mogo.

Aims: to investigate a number of areas of previous sightings, including revisiting a site where I heard strange calls in 1979.

Notes: First stop was the Brindabella Ranges near Canberra. This region had been widely affected by the bushfires that hit Canberra in 2003. The devastation was quite incredible. Many months after the fires, there were still areas completely black and barren, while other areas were showing a lot of regrowth, and some areas were untouched. The Cotter dam area on the northeastern side of the Brindabellas has had a number of yowie sightings. My second stop was an area a few kilometres out of Talbingo in the Kosciuszko National Park. At this location in 1979 I heard some very frightening and unusual calls in the bush at about 3am. This site lies along a powerline road. Human traffic is rare (only one car passed by on this day and it was the Christmas school holidays and a Saturday). In the Talbingo and Tantangara area, there are a number of documented sightings and incidents.

The photo below shows a footprint located where the track crosses the creek in the clearing pictured above. The outline was indistinct and the toes were not clear. It could have been human, given the size. The area is very rarely frequented by people. An area of flattened grass lay immediately beside the creek. My plan initially was to camp at this site, but given this find, my previous experience here and the fact that I was alone, I decided against it. I also found quite a number of emu and fox prints on the powerline road.

I moved on and after looking around in the dense bush between Talbingo and Tumut (and again deciding to be a chicken and NOT camp deep in the bush), I decided to camp in an area of pine plantations a few kilometres from Tumut.

The following day I journeyed across the countryside in the sweltering heat through Cooma and towards the coast to Brown Mountain (see photo below). Brown Mountain and the surrounding areas have had many yowie sightings over the past century, some from truckies pulling over at night for a break before heading downhill to the coast. On my drive through the mountains ranges of the south coast it struck me how much wilderness there is down there. it's vast, and its uninhabited by people.