August 2, 2006

Yowie Video – Is This Australia’s Bigfoot?

An Australian man with two friends renting a cabin for the weekend (June 24-25, 2006) in the mountains near Katoomba, Australia were toying with a new Elite Laser after dark when one of them caught sight of an animal standing by a nearby ironwood tree watching them. They caught it on film at an estimated distance of 15 feet before it ran away– on two legs. Watch the video clip and you’ll agree that you aren’t seeing a kangaroo or wallaby.

The videographer alerted his fellow laser enthusiasts by posting on the Wicked Lasers bulletin board on Monday evening, June 26 (see the discussion thread at Sasquatch Vs Laser). He offers to send the 4.9 mB video on request to other members on the board by email for their review and feedback.

The clip posted by B. Green at Google video appears to be the original 1 minute video as sent out by the videographer along with the full audio of the witness’s reactions after sighting a glimpse of the moving animal. Go to Original version of Yowie video.

An enhanced version of only that portion of the video which shows glimpses of the animal’s movements was posted by Black Sheep at YouTube. This version unnaturally brightens up the background and washes out the colors, but does provide more visible details to be seen than what was apparent to the witnesses at the time by the naked eye. Go to brightened but shorter film clip.

Within the discussion thread, the laser enthusiast who posted the video reveals himself as Marco Nero of Nero Designs, Inc., a graphic art/laser production company in Australia. In one of his posts he claims to have been the designer and matte painter for the Farscape series and his 15-minute claim to fame (that is, before this video clip) is that he was once interviewed by a film crew for the SciFi channel when they did a piece about Farscape several years ago. Among his comments, he expresses the concern that because of his connections with the special effects industry and his wife working as a costume designer, some people may instantly dismiss the video as a hoax.

Below are some of the videographer’s comments from the message forum where they were originally posted:

We don’t know what it was but it was just on 6 feet tall and was watching us test an Elite Laser last weekend in the mountains at Katoomba. This is a location believed to be occupied by the elusive (mythical?) Australian Yeti which is known locally as a Yowie.

We turned off the laser and chased it. No idea what it was but it was watching us curiously from about 15 feet away. It ran off when we turned the camera and torches on it. Could have been a prankster I suppose but it was a quiet road overlooking a massive canyon/gorge and the temperature was close to below zero at the time.

Here’s a screen grab.

Click on image for full-size version

The video is a bit darker so I pulled a frame and lightened it in Photoshop. Video is unaltered.

Source: Staff Researcher, Squatchdetective Organization

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Breaking News, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Public Forum, Sasquatch, Yowie