AYR Casebook: July 1880. Serpentine Creek, about 10 km south of Ebor, NSW

Some of the cases in the AYR files are certainly way out there! Forgive the AI image (we try and avoid them) but we just loved the crazy description. This case is from the Sydney Morning Herald of 7 July 1880. Apart from having, supposedly, a bizarre, snake-like head (!) the creature described seems generally yowie-like:

“Constable Morgan, of Blicks River, reports to sub-inspector Creagh that several well-known residents have seen an extraordinary creature in the bush on the Serpentine River, near the Grafton and Armidale Road. The creature is described as about three feet six inches in height, with a head like a diamond snake, hands like a kangaroo, and a body like a man’s, but dark and hairy. One man saw the creature on six different occasions, and on one occasion he was chased by it.”

On 24 July the Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser provided a follow-up:

“Senior Constable Morgan … was in town this week, and … he informs us that [the creature] has been seen by two parties, one of whom, a boy of twelve years, has come across it repeatedly. On one occasion he was so close as to be able to determine that it was of the male sex; he threw a stick at it, when it gave chase to him, but its progression is so slow that the boy, who was on foot, could run faster …”

Lucky kid! No-one wants to be caught by a snake-headed yowie!