Update: Hoaxed Yowie Photograph
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on December 13th, 2012
It appears we were a little hasty in tagging this photo as a hoax.
Rebecca Lang of CFZ Australia updates us with the following:
Hey guys, if you’d asked we could have set you straight – a local artist created the model based on the cover of the book, primarily to get a better feel for what the purported ‘yowie’ might look like. We were lucky enough to get hold of it and filmed the sequence referred to in the post. Just email and ask next time 🙂Rebecca Lang
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
I’ve sent an email to Rebecca Lang of CFZAustralia asking for the contact details of the artist in order to confirm that the model was indeed made after (rather than before) the Yowie photo was taken. Shouldn’t be too difficult if that is indeed the case. Will post the final response…
Thanks for the update Post Craig…much appreciated.
And hello Nightwalker.
Just for the record, no email has been received from you as I write this.
I appreciate you’re embarrassed about your error, and thank you for the numerous times you have praised my work over this case.
I have spent ages researching this case, visited the location and tried to get answers out of Brett Green.
Now let’s look at this logically – there are two possibilities:
Scenario One
I finally get hold of the (NEW) model Green used 12? years ago, which means I have cracked this case!
BUT instead of telling the world and getting kudos for that and nailing the author for perpetrating a fraud, I just showed it a few days ago alongside the book, in the vain hope that someone with amazing detective skills could “read between the lines”. Hmmmm.
Or
Scenario Two.
The book came out some time ago, and the (NEW) model was made much later, based on the cover image and shown on Youtube.
If you have to believe in the ridiculous Scenario One, well, what can I say?
I know if we passed on the artist’s name, based on your previous defamatory track record, you would just accuse them of “being in on the fraud”. You do this to everyone else, so why would you suddenly change your modus operandi?
Folklore being built around a toy – who would have thought? 🙂
Believe what ever makes you feel comfortable.
Thank you for your interest – that’s now the end of the matter.
So has Green’s Yowie photograph been autheticated yet?
The model bears a striking resemblence to the alleged Yowie and seems to be made of molded plastic or perhaps rubber. If so, then obviously a mold exists. Is it the same mold used to make the current figurine? Who is the “artist”? Is it wrong to seek to validate another’s claim? I have received no reply about the actual details as yet…
Rebecca Lang warned elsewhere about taking someone else’s words at face value as ‘the truth’ – this is good advice that equally applies to her word…
I managed to finally get through to CFZAustralia and received a reply. My request for the name and contact details of the local artist was answered:
“This question has already been answered on Cryptomundo.”
In the 3 threads covering this topic there are no posts containing such name and information only a variation of the same themes:
“An artist based this model on the photo of the cover of the same book in the shot. Not the other way around.” “Nothing more to it I am afraid..” “Thank you for your interest – that’s now the end of the matter.”
This does not resolve the matter but if Williams and Lang refuse to provide information for confirmation then there is little more that can be done. In this year 2012, after nearly 40 years of Yowie research the closest thing we have to the Yowie is this photograph by a fellow with a very dubious track record and its corresponding figurine. It is somehow fitting that details of both remain shrouded in mystery.
So, I guess it really is a case of: Nothing suspicious here, people. End of story. Move on…
A “local artist” was responsible for the Katoomba Yowie video hoax of 2006. You know, the one with the wookie poking his head from around a tree. The artist was a skilled model-maker who was working on the “Star Wars” franchise at the time.
Mike & Ruby – Is this the same “local artist” that made your Yowie model and/or mould? If so, you have several very good reasons to conceal his identity. His name is Brett Green, too. Not the same Brett Green who authored “Yowie Tales” – another, younger one. Is the likeness in name just a happy coincidence or are they related?
Nothing suspicious here, people. End of story. Move on…
Update: Although it is often difficult to get straight answers (let alone verifiable ones) from people who have something to hide, profit from fakery, or are covering for friends/family I may have uncovered who is behind this supposed Yowie photograph (along with other fabricated evidence used to support Brett Green’s bogus Gympie Pyramid claims).
Which relative of Brett Green was living in Gympie when the photo was taken in 1998 and is now a successful modeller living in the Sydney area?
Perhaps Mike Williams’ investigation can shed light on his identity.
It is said that Williams knows this artist personally through another of his close hoaxer-researcher friends (the I-was-attacked-by-a-Yowie guy). But like I said – it is often difficult to get straight answers in such matters. . .