Message #145829

[Netherworld]

The origin of the term "Yowie" in the context of unidentified hominids is unclear. Some presume that it simply arose through confusion with the aforementioned Aboriginal legend. On the other hand, Jonathan Swift's yahoos from Gulliver's Travels are sometimes cited as a source. The word "Yowie" was also apparently a slang term for the Orangutan in Victorian England.

The earliest published reference to the word in its current usage is in Donald Friend's Hillendiana,[1] a collection of writing about the goldfields near Hill End in New South Wales. Friend refers to the "Yowie" as a species of "bunyip", an Aboriginal term used to describe monsters said to dwell in many Australian rivers and lakes. Paranormal enthusiast Rex Gilroy popularized the word in newspaper articles during the 1970s and 1980s.[2]