Victoria, Australia 1978

A workmate of mine nicknamed “buggsy” recounted a incident he had with himself and his father in 1978 while fishing in western Victoria Australia, I worked with this man for 5 years straight and he was a typical Aussie/bushman his whole life . Extremely honest and hard working, buggsy mostly kept to himself but once you got to know him he was one of those rare gentleman who would give you the shirt off his back if it helped, anyway as I was from the coast and grew up surfing and he was much older and from the bush I was interested in the bush and always had a fascination in the “yowie/Bigfoot” subject, one day I asked him... hey buggs did you ever see or here anything weird out there growing up?? To which he replied “ plenty mate but what do you mean?” At this point he didn’t know I believed in yowie/Bigfoot and wasn’t sure if he’d treat me differently and think I’m weird if I told him so. So I cautiously ask , “ ever see a yowie?” His face turned instantly cold and serious and although it was only me and him on that part of the job site he looked around as if to make sure no one could hear and he even looked at me sceptically which made me feel a little uncomfortable for asking. He said to me ,”do you believe in that nonsense? Do ya?” And I straight away felt stupid and like he no longer respected me , I answered “well yeah I actually do buggsy “ he paused for a moment and stared and began to tell me the following... “ when I was 15 years old me and my dad were fishing” (I can’t remember the name of the riiver he mentioned) he said they had been out for about an hr or so in a remote part , and while they were fishing and chatting they constantly heard noises of breaking branches and thuds on the ground , which they thought were wild pigs or even horses, we don’t have large predators in Australia like bears , cougars, etc . We have dingoes, wild dogs , foxes, as the crashing sound through the scrub got louder and more intense they expected a pig or rouge cattle to appear, instead he said a massive creature on all fours that resembled a gorilla but clearly was not , came crashing into a clearing and began grunting and growling whilst sprinting in and out of the clearing, I asked did it smell as he said they were only about 20ft away from the shore in their boat when this happened, he said he can’t recall an odour but clearly remembered it had no neck and a funny shaped head , he said it didn’t seem to notice them or look at them maybe because ithey were silently drifting down stream when all this began , he said it was dark brown but didn’t have shaggy fur and that it was extremely muscular as it darted in and out of the scrub he said it by no means was a pig or anything they had ever witnessed, the sighting lasted for about 30 seconds until they drifted gobsmacked by what they just saw! Then they lost sight of the creature, but could still hear it for some time, I asked how big would it of been if it stood upright? He estimated no bigger then 6 feet which made me wonder if it was juvenile and maybe playing with a sibling? I asked that and he again looked at me like an idiot , he simply said “ that’s what me and the old boy seen , it wasn’t human but wasn’t quite a gorilla it was what it was” I believe him by the look in his eye the day he told me and the fact he seemed uncomfortable retelling it, but I also sensed he felt good unloading his encounter. Thanks