See interactive map of where Victorians claim to have had incredible encounters with yowies

A “yowie buster” claims to have captured the first ever photo of Bigfoots mating in the Australian bush, as scores of Victorian locations where the giant, ape-like creatures have supposedly been encountered are revealed.

There are Victorians who look to the skies for UFOs, people who claim to have seen ghosts, some who search for big cats — and then there are those who “bust” yowies.

Among the more than 13,000-member strong Australian Yowie-X and 3000-member Yowie Busters Facebook groups are Victorians who claim to have encountered — or found possible “evidence” of — the elusive, ape-like creatures in the bush.

Reputedly with feet much larger than a human’s, big eyes that appear to glow red in the dark and behaviours that include grunting loudly, banging on trees and building apex structures out of tree branches, there are “no definites about what the yowie actually is other than a hairy man/ape that resides in the deep of our and the world’s forests”, the Australian Yowie Research website says.

While some who believe yowies inhabit the state’s bushland say they are timid and gentle, others say they can, at times, stalk humans walking alone at night and be violent and aggressive.

Most yowie busters agree they have thick, dark skin on the face, a sagittal crest skull, wide, flat noses, and urine and faeces that reeks of rotten eggs.

A Yowie Busters Facebook post claims a woman has recently captured “the only photograph of a pair of mating yowies in existence”, that it says may provide valuable clues to a female yowie’s gestational period.

Yowie buster Shane Fowler, who has been “researching” recently in the Daylesford bush, says on the group’s Facebook page he has found what appears to be large footprints, fur and heard tree banging that he believes could be that of yowies.

It’s not the first time in that area of Victoria people claim to have found signs of yowies, also known as bigfoots.

The claimed ‘only photo in existence’ of two yowies mating. Picture: Facebook

Fur found in Daylesford. But is it a yowie’s? Picture: Facebook

In June 2019, a woman camping in the Hepburn Springs/Mt Franklin area with her friend heard grunting that she at first believed to be that of a large possum before encountering what she claims was a “freaking huge bigfoot”, standing between two trees, just five metres away from their campfire.

“I wasn’t drunk and I wasn’t taking drugs, the woman hastened to add on the Australian Yowie Research (AYR) website.

“It wasn’t the light and it wasn’t pareidolia or anything like that. It was solid. I had enough time to get a good look at him. He had short black hair, and he was huge … he was about double our size. He was massive,” she said.

“He didn’t really have a neck, it was like his head was plonked on top of his shoulders. The top of his head was a little bit coned and he was very tall. He was huge.”

A year later, in 2020, another woman who had just moved to a new house in Hepburn Springs claimed to have smelt, heard and seen a yowie near her home, on one occasion watching it leap from her deck, and when spooked run through the bushes to a gully below.

There have been other claimed sightings of yowies in Victoria from Bendigo to Bunyip, Cranbourne to Colac, Healesville to Harrietville, Werribee to Warrnambool, Moe to Mansfield and Lyndhurst to Licola.

There have also been yowie reports from the Yarra Valley, Phillip Island, along the Murray River in Barmah, the Sherbrooke Forest, Emerald, the Otways, Aberfeldy and other locations.

There have been numerous “sightings” in Noojee.

Victorians claim to have busted yowies in the bush. Picture: Supplied

It’s claimed yowie territory is marked by structures like the one above. Picture: Facebook

According to AYR — that claims to be “the largest and most well known research organisation in the world on all subjects yowie related” — 11 per cent of Australian yowie sightings have been in Victoria, with most in NSW (54 per cent) and Queensland (30 per cent).

One of the Victorian sightings referenced is from Mt Warrenheip, where a man called Geoff claims to have been parked with his girlfriend at an abandoned house late at night “when a massive creature appeared, walking from side to side”.

Geoff, who supplied a sketch map of the encounter to AYR, “had a more dramatic encounter” while with a group of friends in the area just a few weeks later, it’s claimed.

And in 2015, a yowie “over 7ft tall” and carrying a cow bell was reportedly seen at Mt Hotham, when it walked in front of a couple’s car; a sketch of which was also provided to AYR.

Geoff’s sketch map of his claimed Mt Warrenheip yowie encounter. Picture: AYR

There are many grainy images of claimed, possible yowies. Picture: Facebook

An Australian bigfoot in the bush, or something else entirely? Picture: Facebook

Woven tree branches in reported ‘yowie territory’. Picture: Facebook

Evidence a bigfoot has passed by? Picture: Facebook

A surprising number of Australians are part of yowie groups. Picture: Facebook

Dean Harrison, who runs AYR, says “there are at least two known kinds of yowie in Australia”, the large yowie of between six and ten feet tall, and the smaller yowie of between four and five feet tall.

Reports of the ape-like creatures dated back to the late-1700s, when Indigenous Australians told early white settlers “in great detail” about an ape-man like beast that lived in the forest, he says.

“The 1800s were abuzz with sightings of the creature around the country,” Mr Harrison says.

“Newspapers and magazines began writing about people’s encounters as they were reported. In most of these reports, the creature was always described as ‘an ape’ or ‘ape-like man’. The same descriptions are given today.”

The earliest known Victorian sighting was in 1849, on Phillip Island, where several people claimed to have seen a six to seven foot creature “that resembled a half-baboon, half-man”.

“At the time of the sighting, the creature was said to be sitting on the edge of a lake, when they shot at it,” Mr Harrison says.

A detailed sketch of a yowie an Australian woman claims to have seen. Picture: AYR

The yowie with a cowbell a couple claims to have seen at Mt Hotham. Picture: Supplied

Aboriginal folklore of the yowie dated back almost a thousand years before the arrival of the white man, with the name likely an adaptation of the Aboriginal words “yuuri” and “yowri”, he says.

“The largest populations of the yowie would have to be on the southeast seaboard of Australia, in remote mountain ranges,” Mr Harrison says.

A long, coarse hair that was found in the bush and thought to possibly be that of a yowie’s. Picture: Facebook

Is this a yowie hand print? Picture: Facebook

AYR says yowies are omnivorous and “will eat anything available”, having “been known to steal chickens and other domestic and farmyard animals and retreat back into the bush with them”.

“They have been seen eating fruit from people’s orchards and going through people’s garbage bins and rubbish tips,” Mr Harrison says.

Yowies also ate road kill “and basically anything they can lay their hands on”, with “yowie areas” marked by “strange stick structures, snapped trees … and trees that have been strangely bent over and woven into forks of other trees,” he says.

Mr Harrison, who has previously said he’s seen yowies in the flesh and that the creatures have killed innocent Australians, claims to have nearly been a yowie’s victim more than once.

“These things are dangerous … and I’ve nearly been a victim or have been a victim a couple of times,” he said in mid-2022.

“And I know that there are other people out there that didn’t get away as fortunately as I have.”

His website claims “a lone human walking through the bush (especially at night) in an active area could be bound for trouble”.

The yowie could start with “a slow stalk” of a human, and then run at the same pace as its potential victim — in the trees and at a 45 degree angle to its prey — when they sprinted in fear, Mr Harrison says.

“Most will get a kick out of just scaring you, but it could be much worse if you find yourself alone with one with bad intentions,” he cautions, adding the presence of a dog — which yowies loathed — making a lot of loud noise and shining a bright light in their eyes could be effective in keeping the bigfoots at bay.

“They are very intelligent in the bush and masters of their environment,” Mr Harrison says.

“They have to be respected.”