Encounter-Bunyip State Park Vic-Tree Knock Response

[Merlin Power]

Hi all.

I would like to report what is my third Yowie encounter in the last five years or so.

The first was near Mallacoota, right at the eastern tip of Victoria, the second was near in the Otway Ranges, and now I’ve had a third encounter yesterday (24th of December 2017). Now all three encounters have occurred when I have had a female accompany me. The freaky thing with this current encounter is that it was so close to my home. I live in the outer South-East of Melbourne, and to think that this encounter happened within a 20-25 minute drive of my house is amazing, and totally unexpected.

My partner and I were looking at doing some exercise, and whilst I had explored Bunyip State Park from the Gembrook side, I had not explored the southern end of the park, accessed from the Tynong North Road.

As we were driving into the State Park, we saw a deer crossing the road in front of us. I had never seen a deer in the Australian bush, so that was a surprise to me. Anyway, we stopped at what looked like a decent track to explore, known as Lupton Track. We parked the car on the side of the road, and off we went to get some exercise. Now as I’ve had two previous encounters, I view the Aussie bush with a level of respect and cautiousness that I didn’t previously. Also, I’m constantly on the outlook for things that don’t seem natural. After around a kilometre or so into the bush, there didn’t seem to be anything that I noticed that looked out of place. We stopped at a really nice outlook and took the photo in photo 1. As you can see, it’s very dense forest. It was a great outlook on top of the hill, and worth the walk up there. Anyway, we decided to push on further down the track.

That went well for another 500m or so down the track, then I started to notice things. The first thing was a structure that just didn’t look natural to me. I walked over to touch the structure, and it was so hardly braced that I could hardly move it. Something had forced the structure to be like that, and it had taken a lot of force to get it between the other tree stumps to strongly. I took a photo of the structure (see photo 2), and as I paused to take the photo, I heard what was like a deep thud. It kind of hit you a bit through the ground. I headed back the the track, and my parter had also heard the thud. I was on high alert from that moment on

We decided to keep on walking as we were keen to get our exercise. About another kilometre down the track we found another structure. It was two rather large branches, turned upside down like a teepee, bracing each other, so that the smaller ends of the brunches were in the ground, almost like tent pegs (see photo 3). The chances of the branches falling like that naturally must be 1 million to one.

Then I looked further into the distance, and behind the teepee structure, there was almost an archway that had been made but two large eucalypts. It was almost like an entry into a Chinese village (see photo 4).

The other thing that I had noticed was that as we had walked to that spot, to me I looked like there were signs along the track that just felt like the track was being bordered by branches, almost like a fence.

Anyway, as we stood there, my parter said “have you noticed how quiet it is”. The birds that had been chirping the whole way along the track were completely silent. Not a sound was coming from anywhere.

We both started to feel really uneasy as it was so silent. I then felt the urge to try and communicate. It just landed in my brain that I wanted to communicate. I found a branch a bit thicker than a baseball bat, and decided to do a tree knock. I did a decent one that echoed through the valley. Then about 10 seconds later, there was a knock back. That freaked us out a lot, but at the same time it felt so amazing that something was smart enough to answer back. It was communicating. It sounded like I came from the north side of the track.

I said to my partner, “get you phone out and record the next knock that I will do”. So we recorded a few more knocks, and there was no answer back. We were so disappointed as we really wanted to record it to listen to later. It was like they could sense that we were using the phone to record the knocks.

We decided to turn around and to head back to the car, as we were uneasy about getting further away from the car, and after our experience in the Otways, my partner was freaked out too. We had seen how quickly they could move, and you have no chance of outrunning them. We did feel kind of safe on the track, as you do sense that they would need to reveal themselves to do anything to you. Anyway, on the way back, we saw two deer run across the track, which amazed me again. I also noticed a lot of trees that had been bent so that they were braced against another tree. I don’t think that trees would grow like that (see photo 5).

We made it safely back to the car, and headed home. Now that I’ve had an encounter so close to home, I feel the urge to go back there, but to be honest, I felt vulnerable with just my partner and I.

It only dawned on me as I was typing this that the name of the park itself leads it to something different living in the forest. Bunyip State Park. Well I think that the park lives up to it’s name.

[Shazzoir]

Can't believe nobody has replied yet, but most are with family still celebrating Xmas I reckon.

Amazing work, great retelling, too, and the photos really add to the whole.

Have to say you may be in a 'territory', with all those markers around, but good to see you followed your gut instincts and moved on when you did.

Thank you for an awesome post!

Shazz

[micathia]

Nice one! I love Victoria encounter stories.

I once mentioned in an Aussie 4x4 forum, those off roaders also had a discussion about yowie. One guy said while he was traveling on the dirt road in Bunyip State Park, he saw a carcass hang on the tree 15 feet high with limbs pulled off.


I doubted before, but not now.

[Merlin Power]

Can't believe nobody has replied yet, but most are with family still celebrating Xmas I reckon.

Amazing work, great retelling, too, and the photos really add to the whole.

Have to say you may be in a 'territory', with all those markers around, but good to see you followed your gut instincts and moved on when you did.

Thank you for an awesome post!

Shazz

Hi Shazz.

Thanks heaps for the reply and your kind words. When I get the courage again, I’ll venture back to have another look andto see if I can get some responses. I’m not going there alone that’s for sure. Seeing all the deer around also made me wonder what they eat. Are they carnivores, omnivores or herbivores?

[Merlin Power]

Nice one! I love Victoria encounter stories.

I once mentioned in an Aussie 4x4 forum, those off roaders also had a discussion about yowie. One guy said while he was traveling on the dirt road in Bunyip State Park, he saw a carcass hang on the tree 15 feet high with limbs pulled off.


I doubted before, but not now.

Yeah they are definitely there. After my experience, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion.

I was thinking about my last experience before this one, and one of the photos I took at the Otways of. Crossed structure is pretty similar to the one I took at Bunyip State Park a few days ago. What do you guys think?

[thehairyone]

Gday Merlin , I live in Frankston and investigate an area not to far from Bunyip ,about an hour west I find a lot of tree breaks and structures
inc trees with an 8inch diameter being snapped and leant against other trees away from the stumps ( far too big for even several people to move )
I have had knocks returned and found footprints ( including some just yesterday )
I also hear whoops and vocalizations
This has all taken place over a period of about 4-5 years ,
I go there at all times of the day and stay for overnighters
It takes time but document everything and youll soon be surprised at all the little things you will see
They are definitely in the area
Cheers Greg

[micathia]

Isn't there an encounter report at Emerald VIC 3782?

[Simon M]

Melbourne seems to be growing at a rapid rate, adding suburbs every other year. That's not even counting Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong (and a lot of other places) which seem to be getting more and more populous.

I think Victoria will be the source of more encounters within the next few years judging by the increasing rate of urbanisation that's happening.

[micathia]

The third pic in the op, I saw almost same tree branches just at back of my place. Here is just a Melbourne suburb, so I guess it's just natural. Other pics, especially braches seem be placed in parallel formation, I can't explain.

[ChrisV]

Care to share the other stories you mention?

[Merlin Power]

Gday Merlin , I live in Frankston and investigate an area not to far from Bunyip ,about an hour west I find a lot of tree breaks and structures
inc trees with an 8inch diameter being snapped and leant against other trees away from the stumps ( far too big for even several people to move )
I have had knocks returned and found footprints ( including some just yesterday )
I also hear whoops and vocalizations
This has all taken place over a period of about 4-5 years ,
I go there at all times of the day and stay for overnighters
It takes time but document everything and youll soon be surprised at all the little things you will see
They are definitely in the area
Cheers Greg

Hi Greg. Thanks for your response. It’s good to know that there is someone else out there noticing these things and taking an interest in the topic and that part of Victoria. It is pretty cool that o can hop in the car for 20 mins and have an experience like that.

Unfortunately no vocalisations were heard by me or my partner, but we were only there for two hours total time. I am planning on going back again soon to go further into the park to see what I can find. The first this that we heard was not a vocalisation (well I don’t think so anyway), more so like a stomp or something you feel through the ground. Something heavy made it for sure. Let me know if you find anything else. It’s so interesting.

[Merlin Power]

Isn't there an encounter report at Emerald VIC 3782?

Yes I remember reading one as well a while back when I first got interested in this topic. It wouldn’t surprise me looking at the terrain up there, but these days you would think it would be too busy for the hairy fellas to be around too much.

[Merlin Power]

Melbourne seems to be growing at a rapid rate, adding suburbs every other year. That's not even counting Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong (and a lot of other places) which seem to be getting more and more populous.

I think Victoria will be the source of more encounters within the next few years judging by the increasing rate of urbanisation that's happening.

I think that is a very valid point Simon. It didn’t enter my mind to go looking specifically for Yowies so close to home, I just felt the need to get away from the urban sprawl and to explore a new area, and I had the most amazing experience.

Hopefully we will all be respectful and not disturb them too much. They deserve respect and a place to live.

[Merlin Power]

The third pic in the op, I saw almost same tree branches just at back of my place. Here is just a Melbourne suburb, so I guess it's just natural. Other pics, especially braches seem be placed in parallel formation, I can't explain.

That is interesting. I’d never seen anything like pic three before anywhere else but it’s good to know that it could be natural. I agree, the others are hard to explain which is why they got my attention.

[Merlin Power]

Care to share the other stories you mention?

Here is the more recent one. I will try to find the other one as well.

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=5343

[paulmcleod67]

Yep. The staked treeline is set up to funnel game into a more confined area. My area has almost exactly the same yowie indicators tree tepee like structures of very respectable size, layered branch matting ect... SEE PHOTOS. As for what they eat? Carnivorous generalists like humans. Their diet would depend on resource availability, be that edible plants or prey species like deer and skippies.

In drought or low natural yield, they start taking humans, which is why they fringe country towns or Urban encroachment areas...we are a back up food resource kept at handy distance...just in case. Sounds kooky but Ive got tons of statistical data that suggests it is the case.

[EdSimpson]

Bunyip never ceases to give me encouragement. Rooftops have made a great map.