Monday, April 23, 2007

BINNALL OF AMERICA





One of our most ambitious episodes yet, as Tony Healy, co-author of "Yowie : In Search of Australia's Bigfoot", joins the program, direct from Canberra, Australia. We'll be delving into the Yowie mystery in-depth, following it's evolution from Aboriginal legend to modern day enigma. We'll discuss remarkable cases of Yowie interaction with everyday Australians, the Yowie renaissance of the 1970's, Australia's "other" mystery cryptid, the Junjudee, paranormal elements to the Yowie, and, of course, tons more, in this comprehensive, international edition of BoA : Audio.

We start out by getting some background on Tony Healy, how he got interested in the esoteric and his evolution as a researcher. We find out about the Aboriginal traditions of the Yowie and how it superceded the arrival of European settlers. We then talk about some of the Yowie sightings that came from the early European settlers. Moving on, we discuss the "forgotten years", between 1900 and 1975, where Yowie reports and sightings completely dried up in Australia. Following through on the evolution of Yowie research, we discuss the Yowie renaissance of 1975, when the creature burst onto the mainstream. We talk about what present day Yowie research in Australia is like.




From there, we cover the physical description of the Yowie and how it compares to the American Bigfoot. Next, we discuss the history of Yowie reports in Australia, starting with the Aborginal peoples' position on the Yowie, how they will only reveal some of their knowledge of the creature, why they are so circumspect about the creature, and what some of this hidden knowledge might be.

Looking at the contemporary Yowie situation, we discuss the "neighborhood Yowies", creatures purported to live on the border of wilderness and newly developed land, that in some key cases have frequent interractions with the families who live in the houses right on the border. Tony tells a compelling story of one family's attempt to record the Yowie.

We then talk about some characteristics from Yowie reports and Aboriginal yore, including them appearing after stormy weather, having an interest in human children, and being the sources of mysterious "Yowie bites" on trees. We then discuss one of the most perplexing elements to the Yowie mystery : the enigmatic Yowie foot. Tony tells us about some of the trends that he and co-author Paul Cropper noticed and documented in the book, via a thorough study of case studies broken down into charts based on time and season.

Moving on, we discuss the potential Yowie relative, the Junjudee, a small, hairy, ape like creature with an equally long history of seperate Aboriginal lore and some modern day sightings. Tony tells us some of the major differences between the Yowies and the Junjudees, which suggests that they are two different types of creatures. We also find out how the discovery of the fosilized "Hobbits" on an island near Australia could explain some aspects of the Yowie / Junjudee mystery.

Heading towards the end, we discuss the big picture question of just what is the Yowie. We cover the four different possible conclusions that the book comes to regarding the Yowie (not real, real, real but extinct, and paranormal) and focus on the paranormal aspects of the Yowie which lend possible credence to that point of view, in Tony's opinion. We also find out if Steve Irwin ever said anything about the Yowie in Australia.

Wrapping it up, we find out what's next for Tony Healy, including a trip to America on the horizon.


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Tony Healy Bio
Canberra-based Tony Healy became involved in yowie research in the mid-1970s. Since 1981, he and "Yowie" co-author Paul Cropper have collaborated on many projects, notably in co-authoring Out of the Shadows: Mystery Animals of Australia, which contained a lengthy chapter about the elusive yowie. Over the past 30 years they have searched for lake monsters, hairy giants, out-of-place big cats and other semi-legendary animals in Fiji, North America, the Bahamas, Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, Nepal, Malaysia and in every state and territory of Australia.


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