‘Yowies’ seen in Hinterland
THEY’RE the subject of myth and legend but 44-year-old yowie hunter Jason Heal says he has proof that ape men live in the Gold Coast Hinterland.
Almost every weekend for about five years, the Brisbane local has sped down the M1 west of the Gold Coast in search of the hominid reputed to live in the Australian bush.
And so strongly does Mr Heal believe he has been in contact with the ape man, he refuses to take his 14-year-old son with him on trips, for fear of tragedy.
He claims he’s had dozens of encounters with the creature since his partner first introduced him to the species in a New Idea magazine article but says one piece of video footage taken in the Gold Coast Hinterland in 2014 haunts him to this very day.
“I’d put apples there to attract the yowies,” he said.
“One particular shot, it was about 3.27am on a Saturday … there was a lot of moisture in the air. I can see it hunched over, it’s on the other side of the rock (on which the camera is perched).
“It’s eyes are glowing, it’s got sort of dreadlocked, matted hair. It’s looking at the apples with intrigue. It’s blinking its eyes in the video … a bit like a human does.”
Mr Heal said he was capturing video footage trying to communicate with yowies by tapping on trees in the Gold Coast Hinterland last year when a yowie spoke to him, asking him his name.
“The best way to describe it is like a caveman, Neanderthal sort of talk,” he said. “(Yowies) can speak English.”
The yowie hunter runs a YouTube channel called Viral 6000 and says he often attracts criticism from naysayers who claim the animals don’t exist that some of the images he has captured are in fact wild pigs.
But Mr Heal said he had seen enough in his lifetime to be sure of their existence.
“Pigs’ heads are straight on their body, their heads don’t bob up and down,” he said.
“They (yowies) are 100 per cent real.”