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Speaker 1: Myself and my mate Brian, who I was living with

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at the time, had each taken two weeks paid holiday

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from work to go to a spot Brian swore we

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would love. I remember at the time that I'd never

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even heard of it before. I should have, as it

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was relatively well known. It's a place called Mount Warning.

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Mount Warning is twelve hundred meters high, give or take,

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and it's just a big, splendid jungle covered hill with

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a rock summit that sticks up from the coastal hinterland

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in far northern New South Wales. The thing, apart from

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its beauty in historical relevance with the indigenous people of

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that area is that it is the first place to

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receive the rays of sun in Australia. Being the highest

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easternmost point in the country attracts a lot of sun lovers, hippies,

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alternative types in the light, plus a lot of people

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like me who love nature and want to see the

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place for its own and maybe the sun thing too.

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So the three of us took a train from Sydney

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to I can't pronounce this word, murwill Bump, merwill Bump,

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murwill Umba, merwill Umba, where we hired a car and

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a big tent big enough for the three of us

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in our gear, we drove to a place right at

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the foot of the mountain, a kind of caravan park

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with camping sites too. Back then it was called Willumbon

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Wildlife Reserve, which in retrospect turned out to be funny.

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My mate Brian is a herpetologist and a damn good one.

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He still is, and ostensibly the reason for all of

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us going all the way that far north right on

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the Queensland border was so that he could do some

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snake hunting and collecting, which he was permitted to do so.

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Seeing as FJ was no fan of potentially fatal pieces

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of rope, Brian trained me up as his assistant. Basically,

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I helped him catch him bag. I would also render

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first day should we cop a bite from a nasty species.

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Each day we would head out into the vastness of

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the surrounding area, looking for snakes along the roadsides and

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near the creeks, each time probing a bit further up

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the mountain road and its verges. At night, we would

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walk to a large wayside spot two kilometers from the

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campsite with our guitars and gear, and we would cook

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our dinner on an open fire beside the nice clear

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creek that ran along behind the clearing. We would sometimes

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catch yabbies in the creek and cook them in the

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billy right there. We'd stay up there well into the

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night and then walk back down the dark, unlit road

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to the campsite so we could sleep. Rush routine worked

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really well. It wasn't school holidays or anything, but in

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the caravan park there were still quite a few holiday

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makers and gray nomads and such, and so by heading

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up the road each night when it started getting dark,

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we would be away from the other people and be

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at ease to make some noise, have a few ales

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whoop it up a bit, and carry on like you

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do when you are in your twenties. One night, one

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very dark night, Brian explained that on moonless nights, a

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lot more snakes than things are apt to move around,

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as it is safer for them from nocturnal predators. They're

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being less light than normal, which made sense to me. Plus,

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it had been a very hot day, it being late

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November and coming into summer, and he knew that some

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snakes would be soaking up the last of the heat

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from the sealed roads up in the bush and it

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was a very good chance we could back some pythons,

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and as it turned out, he was exactly right. Our

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other mate, Jay wasn't keen on going up and past

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our firepit area on this particular evening. He had a

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book to read and just wanted to kick back in

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the tent and plank quietly on his acoustic and have

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some time for him, which was cool with us, so

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Brian and I took the snake bags. We took a

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good stick, a dolphin torch, and off we went. We

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stopped at the fireplace and bowled the billy for a

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cup of tea as the sun set. Once it was dark,

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we headed up the road that leads to the peak

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of the mountain. It's a long walk to the top,

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eight kilometers from where we were. He hadn't made any

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plans to go all the way to the top, just

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walk along and bag some snakes, enjoy the night's warmth

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and the music. I guess it would have been nine

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or ten that night. Neither of us had watches, and

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mobile phones hadn't been invented yet. We had one eight

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foot carpet snake, which is a beautiful python, a few

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brown tree snakes in the bags, and we're just quietly chatting,

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no torch on for quite some time, so as to

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let our eyes get accustomed to the darkness. It was

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a different kind of bush up there from what I

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was used to up north. It is tropical and more

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like jungle than bush. The thick green tangle whirld came

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right up to the roadsides on both sides of the road,

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except it wasn't green. It was just an all encompassing

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living blackness of vines and palms and figs and ferns

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and trees that sting and stab and things that want

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to bite you everywhere you step. It's not a silent

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darkness either. The forest is full of life and movement,

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with things that croak and squeak and chatter and squabble

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and scurry and fly and hump past your face and

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flap into you and scrabble in the branches above you.

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In the black. We were walking slowly along this dark

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tree covered tunnel of a road to our left, and

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I heard a branch crack. Now many Australian trees are

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self pruning, especially in summer, Ucalyptus especially. They dropped their

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branches all the time. This is one reason so many

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Australian birds and marsupials have adapted to live in hollows

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made where the tree branches have come off. The animals

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and trees have evolved together, so hearing a branch crack

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is nothing unusual. Usually we didn't even mention it. We

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heard it and barely acknowledged it as we kept chatting

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in the dark, barely able to see each other though

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we were right side by side. A few moments later

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came another crack. This was different altogether. This was quite close,

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maybe a stone's throw away, and it came from down

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the gully that we knew was beside us. It wasn't deep,

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maybe thirty meters. It just a fold in the land

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that the runoffs used to join with the creek. Now

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this was a break, the sound of something literally breaking,

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maybe the trunk of a fairly large soul. It just

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went bang, more like a gunshot than a branch breaking.

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You could tell that this tree didn't break like a

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dead fall. It just got broken green, and it was loud,

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and it was closed. And we stopped, but before either

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of us called to say, oh crap. From the same

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spot as the snap came a sound like a cough.

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I've often described it as a bit like someone clearing

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their throat, like a big man going um, or a

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cross between that and a cough. I can make a

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sound pretty close to it. We turned to each other

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and Brian spoke first, but all he got was, did

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you hear that? Suddenly the air was torn apart, like

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as if by thunder. The loudest and most horrific, ear splitting,

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blood curdling scream yell roar hit us like a bomb blast.

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The sound literally vibrated our bodies and in our ribs

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and skulls, and it seemed to take heat and strength

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out of us, if only for a moment. It lasted

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for what seemed like an impossible time. Maybe it was

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about as long as one can hold its breath, maybe shorter.

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I can't, with impunity say how long that scream went for,

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but it was long and drawn out in the most

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ferocious and frightening sound I've ever heard. As it tailed off,

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there was another huff or a cough at its end,

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and the two of us stood, weakened the knees and bones,

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waiting for the hammer to fall. It sounded like the

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warning of certain death to come at any second. We

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had suddenly plummeted into a few horrible moments to the

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very bottom of the food chain. It was a bit

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like when you're swimming out in the surf behind the

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brake and you see a fin and you don't know

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if it's a dolphin or not, and you suddenly realized

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that you might be on something's menu, and there's nothing

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you can do about it, so you accept the fact

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that there are only three out comes. One you will

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make it safely to shore. Two you're going to get injured,

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possibly badly, and three you're going to die today. Well,

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whatever made that sound was close, and it was the

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king of the effing jungle. Years after this incident, I

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would have the pleasure of having a male lion roar

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from twenty meters behind me in the dark. A lion's roar,

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as almost bowel moving as it was, was nowhere near

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as loud and powerful and barrel chested as this thing. Seriously,

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the yali that made that roar must have been freakin huge.

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In those first few moments after the scream, nothing happened.

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There was complete silence, not a cricket chirp, not a

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possum stir, not a frog croak. Everything was silent as

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a grave. It was as if that roar had sucked

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the vitality out of every living thing in that area.

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That area either, but the whole bloody mountain seemed to

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hold its breath. I was snapped out of my shock

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by Brian, whose face was almost nose to nose with

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mine as he said, Okay, Harry Butler, what the f

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was that? Now? Please allow me to just give a

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very quick heads up on that last comment for your

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American listeners. Harry Butler is a well loved Offsea naturalist

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who had a popular TV show on the ABC called

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Harry Butler in the Wild. We had all grown up

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with this show. In fact, Harry was one of the

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people to inspire the late Steve Irwin to take the

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path that he took in life. So there's Brian, eyes

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like dinner plates, waiting for me to give him a

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sensible answer, and I could not. He knew that I

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was very good in the bush. He knew I had

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heard everything that was to hear in the bush. He

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knew I was running through my noise catalog in my mind,

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trying really hard to equate that sound was something in

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my Brett's book of bush Noises. Now, after a moment,

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I gave him my honest answer, I'll be ft if

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I know, Mike. And then it hit me. I was

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back in w J at night with the same bloke,

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and I was looking at the yowie I'd seen all

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those years ago, and I knew what it was in

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an instant that was out there and had made that sound.

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And I said, wait, I think I might know what

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this is. Mate. Brian, looking more serious than I'd ever

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seen him look before, said oh yeah. I said, yeah,

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do you want to know what I reckon it was?

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He looked right into my face. I could practically hear

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his gears turning. He took a moment and he said no.

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Suddenly I wasn't scared. Maybe it was the pleading look

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in Brian's eyes that made me think he was relying

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on me for a solid and helpful idea. The third response,

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I call it there is flight, fight, and a total

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complacence of Bambi volence. So I finally said, well, Mike,

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if it's big enough to sound like that and it

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wants us, we are eft. And Brian replied we're closer

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to the peak than the camp. Let's have some balls

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and just keep going. And then, and only then did

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we remember we had a torch. It had been gripped

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in my hand the whole time. And although our minds

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were still full of tilt, that roar had frozen us

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to the spot, and it took a moment to fall.

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So I shined the light straightforward to the spot where

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the sound had come from, and despite the rays barely

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penetrating that vast green wall, a second after flicking it on,

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there came a thud, like someone dropping a bag of

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cement from the back of a truck. We felt it

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through the road. We knew it was a foot thump,

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a stamp, like what an annoyed horse would do, only

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so much more powerful. Okay, you don't like the light either,

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I thought, so I shined it down the corner of

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the road behind us. Nothing same in front, just more

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road in jungle, and I turned off the light. I

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had kind of judged that as I walked about the

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seven kilometers an hour, that we had been walking pretty

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slowly for an hour or so, and we had covered

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about five kilometers. We were a long way from home,

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and that bugger. Yahwe probably knew it. So we continued

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up the road, slowly at first, and then with an

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f U king Kong attitude, completely unarmed. Of course, the

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noises of the bush came back, but conversation had begun

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to die away, and after about another twenty minutes or so,

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Brian just stopped and said to me, very quietly and seriously, Bretto,

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I can feel it watching us, Mate, Can you feel that?

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Of course I can, mate, But he hasn't made us

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move on yet. That's a good thing, nay, said my mate. Dude,

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this feels wrong. And when the road hits the base

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of the path it stops at this park. Now, said

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my mate, dude, this feels wrong. And when the road

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hits the base of the path it stops at this

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little car park thing. And then there's this little rocky,

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windy footpath to the summit, like through the forest. Mate.

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This was new info, and straightway changed my mind. Suddenly.

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That single lane road felt like a much safer line

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to take than to blunder in total darkness right into

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this thing's backyard with a torch or no torch. The

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blacktop felt like a wiser of two options. Okay, mate,

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let's go home. We did one hundred and eighty degree

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and walked back down that blackest pitch road past where

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the roar happened, down and down and down, watched all

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the way. I have no doubt. We got back to

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our tent at about midnight. FJ was still awake. He

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had been filming some footage on the old microcassette video

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camera we had taken with us to catalog the holiday.

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In the clip, he was laying back with a cigarette

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and telling the camera that he could hear some very

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strange noises coming from up the mountain and that he

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was glad he was staying right here. He hoped we

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were okay. I still have the footage. It's a shame

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he didn't get any of what he was hearing on tape.

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But the gist of it is that he was five

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kilometers away and he heard the roar, so you can

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imagine what standing a stone's throw away did to us.

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We sat in the tent and we talked about it,

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had a couple of stiff drinks, and turned in. Now

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here's the bit that drove it all home for me

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and my mate. Next morning, it was sunny, perfect and

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people out and about, and all the reality around you

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makes your logic denial thing kick in and you wonder

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did that stuff really happen? You get it the day

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after very every real experience with something otherworldly. You guys

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know what I mean. But we went to the little

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shop in the caravan park that morning for some stuff

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and it was like a little general store beside the

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park's end ground swimming pool, postcards, post office, milk bar, etc.

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I joked about something to Brian about the last night's

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goings on, and the really nice bloke that ran the

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shop just up and said, you blokes up near the

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big fella on the mountain last night, eh or something

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like that. It was years ago. Anyway, this bloke goes

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on to tell us that it is playing local knowledge

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and it has been for a long time. There is

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a yalie up on Mount Warning and there always will be,

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and most people know that. He went on to say

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that the indigenous people of the region would go miles

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out of their way to avoid that mountain back in

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their day. He told us about how the lady had

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the little place on the left after the kindergarten in

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Wallumbe had her little terrier just swooped up from its

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running tether by that big bugger in one hand as

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it went straight through her laundry line. The dog didn't

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even yell, It just crushed it in one hand as

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the yowie went straight on through her yard into the bush,

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dragging fresh laundry after it. I had been past her

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house a dozen times or more. So even though we

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didn't need to be, we felt pretty validated by the

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bloke in the shot because even though he may have

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been stretching the truth even a tad. I don't know,

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but I know what we heard on Mount Warning that night,

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and it was big. It was a bloody yowie. It

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could have been nothing else. We don't have bears, We

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don't have cougar's wolves or the sorts of land predators

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that can growl or roar like that. We don't have

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huge deer like moose er el in our forests. That

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Mike Bellow pretty well. It was no koalis fighting or

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possums going at it for fruit, or bats screeching. There

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are yowie's, you might call them sasquatch. It is mysterious,

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but it's really no mystery. It's very plain and simple.