It’s funny how one mystery can lead to another.
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As devoted readers would know, the Eden Magnet has been writing about the legend of the ‘gorillas of Eden’ recently.
Numerous people have contacted the paper sharing their encounters with these yowies, but just as many, if not more, are highly skeptical.
The yowie is a creature that has its roots in Aboriginal oral history. The mythological beast is said to be bigfoot-type creatures that lived in the Australian wilderness.
The mysterious ape-like creature can easily be compared to the North American Sasquatch or the Himalayan yeti.
While most people seem to discount the existence of the yowie, considering it more likely to be a combination of misidentification, folklore and hoax, there are people around who have dedicated their lives to researching and finding yowies.
One of these men is Paul Cropper. He contacted the Eden Magnet with his findings, and was the reason the paper ran the first story. But the response from the Eden community was unexpected. The online story was shared almost 30 times on Facebook, reaching an audience of more than 7800 people.
But as more and more people are coming forward with reports of yowie sightings, another mysterious creature is being talked about a little further north.
On Tuesday, April 25, the Illawarra Mercury publish a report about a man claiming to have proof of a wild panther in the area.
An eight centimetre-long paw print left in the foothills of the Illawarra escarpment has piqued the interest of a roving big cat enthusiast, who believes it is proof of panther activity.
Vaughan King, 30, has deemed Austinmer’s Sublime Point track a panther-spotting hotspot and flagged plans for organised surveillance, including a program that would see 24/7 game cameras concealed in area bushland.
Mr King recently formed the Australian Big Cat Research group and is now focusing his research the footprint, which he said is very different to that of a dog.
“I immediately thought it looked like the hind foot of a leopard,” Mr King said. “A feral cat would never get that big; the animal that would leave that sort of print would have to be between 50-60kgs.”
So what’s the truth behind these claims? Can yowies really exist and is it possible for a panther to be on the loose in the Illawarra?