Tarra-Bulga - It's a Hoax!

As far as yowie sighting cases go, the Tarra-Bulga case, on the face of it, was a compelling one.

On April 23, 2006, at least six people heard strange 'bellowing' sounds and saw what they described to Parks officials as a 'big ape' at Corrigan's Suspension Bridge in Tarra-Bulga National Park.

Crypto sleuths Paul Cropper and Tony Healy began to do some digging and tracked down witness Mike Skelton.

He provided a detailed description of the creature that helped to put the sighting into perspective - it appears that Mr Skelton most likely saw someone in a 'Chewbacca' suit (a creature featured in the famous Star Wars movie trilogy).

A field site visit by Cropper and friend James Reid sealed the trio's suspicions that the sighting was actually a hoax.

For the detailed story, visit Cropper and Healy's website The Yowie File.

What do the veteran cryptozoology researchers, and authors of the new book 'The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot', think of the hoax? "Clearly someone went to a lot of trouble to hoax this...Possibly this is a clear message never to even take multiple witness cases at face value".

This case could easily have been added to the annals of Australian cryptozoology as a bona fide mystery if someone had not bothered to do a little digging. 

CFZ Oz Team