Monster hunter: ‘A yowie tried to kill my son’

Lionel Carroll had always been a yowie believer. Then his ‘sceptic’ son had a terrifying encounter with the mythical monster.

Lionel Carroll was just eight-years-old when he had his first yowie encounter.

Now an adult, he hasn’t forgotten about the hairy, ape-like creature and he’s found like-minded north Queenslanders to help him prove they exist.

Mr Carroll created Far North Queensland Yowie Research on Facebook in 2019 after having multiple run-ins with large creatures he claims are yowies.

“It was at my grandad’s house in Tully when I was about eight, but I put that all behind me because I couldn’t prove it,” Mr Carroll said, speaking of his first encounter.

“But a few years ago I was living on the outskirts of Mareeba and late at night I heard a sound, busted out the side door and saw this large creature shamble over my back fence, and the weirdest part was finding the torn remains of a large kangaroo leg in my yard.

“There’s not many creatures that I can think of that look like that and can do that.”

Mr Carroll said he had now heard dozens of stories from other north Queenslanders who have had similar encounters. He now leads yowie hunting parties and has heard of sightings from south of Mission Beach to Port Douglas.

The group’s exploits have also been able to convert non-believers, with Mr Carroll citing one “professional” who was left “speechless” about the discoveries made on a single expedition, including one that nearly seriously hurt his son.

“My son and another lady, who claim they are both sceptics, walked down to a remote creek after we had heard strange noises,” he said.

“He saw something in the trees and then a huge rock the size of a football came screaming out of the dark, smashed onto another rock a few inches from his foot and made this huge cracking sound. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

While Mr Carroll understands there are still “hundreds” out there that doubt the yowie’s existence, he’s called any effort to undermine the creature to be “closed-minded” and disrespectful to the ancient Aboriginal stories and culture around the creature.

“This isn’t something that came up recently, there’s been sightings all the way back to the early 1800s,” he said.

“Even if 90% of those stories are bulls---, 10% of it is still real and that’s enough for me.”