Book Reviews Perceptions Magazine, February 2024
The Yowie File:
Encounters with Australian Ape-Men
By Tony Healy & Paul Cropper
Illustrations by “Buck” Cropper
Cover Art by Barry Olive
Fortean Publishing
Sydney, Australia
2023, 336 pages, Hardback U.S. $39.95
ISBN: 978-0-6457392-1-3
[Paperback $29.95; eBook $10.99]
Reviewed by Brent Raynes
In this issue, I interviewed Fortean author Tony Healy about Australia’s legendary Yowie phenomenon [what we commonly refer to as Bigfoot here in America], along with poltergeist manifestations too [he and his co-author also wrote Australian Poltergeist (2015)]. But prior to The Yowie File, they also authored The Yowie (2006) and Out of the Shadows: Mystery Animals of Australia (1994). Though today Yowie is the generally accepted name for the creature, “Hairy Man” is frequently used in discussions on the matter with outsiders, while back in the early 1800s British colonists after their confrontations with the creatures called them Australian apes, yahoos, and youries. They have also been known under many other names like dulagarl, gulaga, jurrawarra, tjangara, noocoonah, and wawee. But alas what’s in a name? I’ll stick with Yowie when talking about these Australian cryptids and Bigfoot when talking about our American ape men.
The authors break these extraordinary accounts down into the following time periods: Colonial Era, 1788-1900; Early Modern Era, 1901-1974; and the Modern Era, 1975-present. It’s a very fascinating and comprehensive compilation of bewildering case histories, and while they objectively strive to examine the zoological and anthropological implications of the data, they also take note of the role of possible psychic aspects when those show up as well as UFOs and mysterious lights, and in that respect I encourage my readers here to also watch our YouTube interview that’s presented in this issue. There’s some real high strange anomalies that have come to their attention, just as they have here in America. Tony has also traveled aboard, visiting Scotland’s Loch Ness and visiting Bigfoot hotspots and meeting Bigfoot hunters/cryptozoologists here in the United States, including my old friends Ramona and Duane Hibner, who I went on some investigations with down in Brooksville, Florida, back in the 1970s.
