Over the span of roughly three decades, Les Williams went from being a harsh sceptic of the legendary Yowie's existence to a true believer, through and through.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
About 30 kilometres north east of Orange, a then-23 year old Mr Williams and his wife were invited by friends on a long October weekend camping trip to Ophir Reserve from Sydney's west in 1983.
But the typical spring afternoon unfolded in an unusual way near dusk, with the group ditching their metal detecting venture in an old open mine shaft by the creek.
In one of the tunnels before bailing, Mr Williams said one of the women suddenly spun around with her torch to say she'd "heard something growl" and felt really scared.
"We could hear their kids, but she said it wasn't them and I said we didn't have wild animals or anything that 'growled' in Australia, but her terror was pretty obvious, so we left the shaft and headed back to camp," he told the Central Western Daily.
"We walked back up, it was around 5pm with about an hour of daylight left, and we'd just started cooking dinner when we all heard this type of high-pitched lion's roar or werewolf howl from the same direction we'd just been.
"Everyone just kept looking at each other and about 30 seconds later, we heard a second [noise] that echoed like it was coming from everywhere.
"That last one though, you could tell it was something angry, and you knew it was big."
Mr Williams said his mate gathered his partner and their two children, headed to their four-wheel drive and locked themselves in the caravan for the evening.
With just a tent between the pair, a "nearly in tears" Mrs Williams followed suit, heading to their old Holden Torana and begging Mr Williams to join her.
"Right after that second roar, I just remember [my friend] saying 'that's a Yowie' then grabbing his kids and I'm standing there saying 'what, like a Bigfoot? We don't have those in this country' and he said 'yes, we do'," Mr Williams said.
"The second scream was so heavy and large, and there were howls that sounded closer during the night, but I presumed it was just something echoing from the mine and I love a good campfire.
"But I more or less fobbed it off thinking 'these guys are nuts', but I also thought 'shit, if one of these things comes around and I'm going to die, it would be a great way to go; being ripped apart by a Yowie."
'Bellowed deep from inside something's chest'
Though no one met their death overnight, Mr Williams' mate ate his breakfast the following morning "as if his head was on a swivel" for the duration of the meal.
The group then packed up and headed their separate ways home the following day.
It wasn't until four or five months later when Mr Williams said he heard a werewolf howl while watching a movie - triggering thoughts of the night in Ophir not so long ago.
"It just brought that sound right back, but the one near Orange sounded about four times thicker and heavier than it, like it had bellowed deep from inside something's chest," he said.
"I ended up doing a bit of my own research after that, saw photo clippings of stuff like footprints and other sightings from newspapers.
"So, I'd started going from thinking people who believed in Yowies had a few screws loose, to really paying attention and taking it all in.
"By the early 90s, I thought 'these goddamn things are real' and that's when I remember feeling a little naive and stupid because I now know they're here, but you couldn't have convinced me of it before hearing it."
The [howl] near Orange sounded about four times thicker and heavier than it, like it had bellowed deep from inside something's chest.
- Les Williams on hearing alleged Yowie howl or scream at the Ophir Reserve back in 1983
'This thing was jet black and it walked like a man'
Fast-forward some 36 years later, Mr Williams said what he heard has now evolved into a matter of what he's seen.
Near Gosford with his wife and some relatives on the Central Coast in 2019, October 1 was a day bringing memories he'll "never forget" today.
Heading four-wheel driving in the bush near the mountains, Mr Williams said he and his wife saw a Yowie "plain as day" roughly seven metres from their Nissan Navara ute.
"This thing was jet black and it walked like a man in the clear for a solid five seconds," he said, "and I'd say it was about seven or eight feet tall, the thing was huge.
"It had nothing on, no pants on, no shirt, no shoes, and it was about the distance from your typical front door to a letter box away from us.
"I remember my wife slapped me on the shoulder in disbelief, saying the guy's arms were hanging down to his knees and I reckon they were about four feet long.
"You could tell it had a face as well, but you couldn't make any features out, because there was no kind of definition.
"His face was just fully black in colour."
Sharing complete silence between one another in the car, the 64-year-old retired truck driver said the duo had their "breath taken away" for a little while before departing the site.
A father of three with nine grandchildren, he said for someone who went from zero belief to 50/50 some years later, he now says they're "100 per cent real".
"It's in Aboriginal folklore and why would it have been about hoaxing back then, just like native American Indians with their paintings about Bigfoot, who was anyone trying to convince?," Mr Williams said.
This thing was jet black and it walked like a man in the clear for a solid five seconds.
- Les Williams on alleged Yowie sighting in 2019
"I put trail cameras out so I can try to prove it to everyone, but there are too many of us who've all had these similar experiences and sightings, so, are we all lunatics?
"I've heard one and I've seen one, and I know they're real because this thing walked faster than I could bloody walk, so, now I believe.
"For me, I went from being a total 'not a chance' guy to a 'holy shit, they're really here' guy."