AYR Archives. Fingal, NSW. 1991.

Kylie Slabb, a Goodjinburra man, spoke to an AYR associate in 2001 about his experience.

Although he had heard about the Hairy Man all his life, when Kyle finally came face to face with it, he was still psychologically unprepared. It happened in 1991, as he and several friends walked down Letitia Road on Fingal Peninsula, NSW. Kyle was only 16 years old.

“We walked past the Aboriginal cemetery and saw something down along the road. I remember noticing it. I thought it was just a bush, but there was not usually one in that spot. It was [dusk] – still a bit of light in the west. I forgot about it until we got quite close and then I walked over to see what it was … and he was just sitting there.”

“I walked right up to him, right up to his feet – just one or two feet away. He was just sitting there, holding on to his knees. It wouldn’t register – what I was looking at –until he looked up at me. He looked straight at me and I was frozen. The expression was really, just blank – blank as you could get – completely blank. There were a couple of other fellows with me, just looking at him and I was speechless … and I grabbed Ernie, who was next to me, and he just looked and caught his breath, and just screamed, and that started everyone to panic – everyone ran!”