Pod Insights The Why Files: Operation Podcast Cryptids Vol. 4 | Bunyips, Yowie and Australian Nightmare Fuel About this episode Australia's Outback hides more than deadly snakes and crocodiles. Ancient creatures stalk the wilderness, leaving behind torn campsites, blood-stained trees, and terrified witnesses. The Yowie towers eight feet tall, attacks isolated hikers, and left researcher Dean Harrison scarred for life. Water-dwelling Bunyips drag victims underwater while museums hide skull evidence that proves their existence. Most disturbing are the Yara-ma-yha-who - red tree vampires that drink blood slowly, transforming humans into creatures like themselves. Aboriginal elders warned about these predators for centuries. Police reports document modern encounters. Veterans and park rangers describe glowing amber eyes watching from shadows. Victims return from the wilderness changed, missing time and memories.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCsIhlv52V8
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 Network freedom and flexibility. That's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals. No kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.
0:31 AJ Gentile? Beyond the bustling, modern Australian cities is the outback. It's a land that's ancient, remote, and deadly.
0:40 AJ Gentile? Animals here evolved in isolation. Marupials with pouches. Mammals that lay eggs. Flightless birds that can kill with one kick. And these are just the animals we know about. People disappear here. Campsites torn apart. Blood smeared across tree trunks. Claw marks and footprints that don't belong to any known animal. But the locals know what they are. They have stories. Warnings. The land doesn't just hide these creatures. It protects them. And sometimes, the land gets hungry. And those creatures have to hunt.
1:25 AJ Gentile? In the forests of eastern Australia, you hear the typical sounds of any forest. Wind rustling through the trees, birds, the chatter of small animals. But there's a sound that stands out. Almost human. A deep growl that rattles with every breath. Aboriginal people have several names for it. Dulaga, crinkin', yahoo.
1:45 Speaker 02 Yahoo.
1:48 AJ Gentile? Why?
1:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, sorry, sorry. All those names sound like websites from the 90s. Uh, please, go on.
1:55 AJ Gentile? Well, the settlers gave it a name that stuck. The yowie.
1:58 Speaker 02 Yowie. They literally named it the word they said when they saw it. Eh, well, I guess it's better than naming it... Holy [bleep], look at the size of that thing!
2:10 AJ Gentile? Dean Harrison tracked the Yowie for over 25 years. He interviewed hundreds of witnesses. He had his own encounters and the scars to prove it. Dean described it as massive, seven to eight feet tall, covered in dark hair with broad shoulders, a sloped forehead and glowing amber eyes. It also gave off a stench that made him gag, sweet and sickly, like the smell of death.
2:36 Speaker 03 And the Yowie is like nothing else that you could describe. And the stink from them, that is just, you know, once you smelt one, you never forget it. It's like a burnt electrical, like if you blew up a TV or a radio, that burnt bakelite electrical smell. And it seems to permeate everything in the area.
3:02 AJ Gentile? One night, he was attacked, thrown to the ground. His ribs were bruised, his spine was injured. He still can't walk without pain. But to Dean, the Yowie is no myth. This is a real creature, a dangerous predator, and it's been seen by people for years. The stories show up in police records, park ranger logs, modern newspaper articles, reports from just outside Brisbane, the Blue Mountains, dozens more from hikers and campers who thought they were alone. And if you've ever hiked alone in remote areas, you know that feeling when everything goes too quiet. Dean's research revealed something else. The Yowie doesn't just attack randomly. It watches, it follows.
3:46 AJ Gentile? It likes to attack people who are isolated and vulnerable, miles from help. But Dean wasn't the first to track these creatures. In 1882, Henry James McCuey spotted what he called "an indigenous ape" on the New South Wales coast. Five feet tall, black hair, red fur around the throat. McCuey was so confident in what he saw, he offered the Australian Museum 40 pounds to capture one alive. That's $4,000 in today's money. The museum never took him up on his offer, but the sightings, they kept coming.
4:25 Speaker 00 At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone, and including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.
5:03 AJ Gentile? The yowie reports span decades, and they're not all from the bush.
5:08 Speaker 02 Yeah, that surprises me. When you're looking for something hairy, you usually go straight for the bush.
5:14 AJ Gentile? Stop that. In 1977, hikers near Springbrook saw something massive watching them from a ridge. It was hunched, covered in red hair, and then stood upright, and then it was gone. Not out of sight, just gone. All that was left was the smell: wet, sweet, and rotten. In 1994, a Canberra man, known today as Tim the Yowie Man, was hiking alone when he stopped to adjust his pack. That's when he saw it.
5:46 AJ Gentile? Tall, hairy, the creature stared back at him, then it turned and disappeared into the trees. Tim's been tracking the yowie ever since. In 2009, a former SAS soldier was driving on a remote highway after dark. His headlights caught something crossing the road, walking upright, dark fur, and moving fast. It only took two strides before it disappeared into the brush. The soldier didn't stop.
6:12 Speaker 04 That wasn't a man, and it wasn't any animal I've ever seen. I've seen things most people haven't, but not like that.
6:22 AJ Gentile? At Dalesford Victoria, a woman was sitting by her campfire. She looked up and saw a massive silhouette just 20 feet away. She described it as ape-like, powerful, and watching her.
6:34 Speaker 05 It didn't growl, it didn't charge, it just stood there, like it was waiting.
6:40 AJ Gentile? That same weekend, another camper nearby reported hearing branches break and something pacing through the woods.
6:49 AJ Gentile? People said it might be a kangaroo. But he said it was too heavy. You could feel the steps hitting the ground. Researchers logged both accounts and hundreds more. The reports continue to pour in. Rural farmlands, suburban backyards, outer Brisbane, everywhere. But here's what bothers researchers most. When people talk about the yowie, they don't say they saw something. They say, "Something saw them."
7:23 AJ Gentile? Something deadly lives in Australia's rivers. Something hungry. Aboriginal people call it the bunyip. It means devil in Wemba Wemba.
7:32 Speaker 02 Knock it, knock down. Then I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down. Knock it, knock.
7:37 AJ Gentile? What are you doing?
7:38 Speaker 02 I hear that song by Wemba Wemba.
7:40 AJ Gentile? That was Chumbawumba.
7:42 Speaker 02 What'd I say?
7:43 AJ Gentile? Anyway, almost every Aboriginal group has its own version of the legend. The creature changes depending on the region. Sometimes it's described like a giant seal. Other times like an emu with fangs and the body of a crocodile. But a few details never change. It lives in deep water. It drags people under. Some stories claim it can paralyze its victims with its gaze. And the last thing the victims hear are the bunyip's screams.
8:15 AJ Gentile? The bunyip isn't just a monster. It's a punishment. Elders say it feeds on those who disrespect sacred sites. It's a guardian, dragging away people who pollute the water.
8:27 Speaker 02 How dare you!
8:30 Speaker 02 Oh, you didn't see that coming?
8:34 AJ Gentile? Around the 19th century, settlers started hearing something at night, near still water. Screams and roars, the sound of something heavy surfacing. Then livestock started going missing. People saw huge glowing eyes watching from the reeds.
8:53 AJ Gentile? In 1846, something strange washed up along the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. A skull, waterlogged and weathered. It didn't belong to a cow, a sheep, or a crocodile. Its jaw was too broad, its eye sockets were too large, and its snout had a strange shape. Locals brought the skull to the Australian Museum in Sydney, who put it on display. When tribal elders were invited to see it, they looked once and pointed, and they all said the same word: Bunyip. The museum locked the skull away, and it hasn't been seen since.
9:28 AJ Gentile? But the sounds didn't stop. From the Murray to Brungle Creek, something was moving through the water around Murrumbidgee River, something large. When more livestock was reported missing, the locals knew what was happening. The bunyip was back, and it was hungry.
9:50 Speaker 00 At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet, like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone, and including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.
10:24 AJ Gentile? Museums don't always want the truth to get out.
10:27 Speaker 02 Ha! Museums are just government storage units with gift shops.
10:31 AJ Gentile? In 1883, a group of Aboriginal men sat around their camp at Kakatu Flat. They were winding down around the fire. One by one, they drifted off to sleep. The last man was about to close his eyes when he looked past his feet, and his blood ran cold. A huge pair of wide-set yellow eyes stared at him from the trees. At first, he thought the fire was playing tricks on him. Then the eyes moved. Branches snapped. He heard rustling. Before the man could utter a word, the bunyip had crept to the edge of their camp. It was massive. Its body was covered in short, prickly hair like a porcupine. It had a long, thick tail. Its pale-yellow eyes were locked and unblinking.
11:15 AJ Gentile? It had a long beak, full of pointed teeth, and two large tusks. It roared and charged. But the creature tripped on something and stumbled, just long enough for the men to run for their lives. Some ran for miles. They never again went back to that place.
11:34 AJ Gentile? Months later, Henry Wilkinson was walking along the banks of Brungle Creek. The seasonal flooding had receded, and as he walked, something caught his eye. A carcass. Something huge, with a thick tail, and hair like a porcupine. A local newspaper published the story, and this caught the attention of the Sydney Museum.
11:55 Speaker 02 Uh-oh.
11:55 AJ Gentile? They asked Henry Wilkinson to send them the remains so they could study it.
11:59 Speaker 02 Yep, do it, Hank.
12:01 AJ Gentile? Wilkinson agreed and sent the creature to the Sydney Museum. The museum said the package never arrived, and it was never seen again.
12:13 Speaker 00 At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet, like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone, and including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage, HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.
12:46 AJ Gentile? Deep in Australia's wilderness, there's a creature you'll never hear coming. It doesn't stalk, it doesn't howl. High in the branches of fig trees, it sits motionless, watching and waiting.
12:59 AJ Gentile? It's called the Yara Mayahu. It's small, red, hairless. Its body is squat, kind of like a frog. Its fingers have suckers, like an octopus. Its skin is wet, wrinkled, and the color of raw meat, like an animal turned inside out. Its head looks too big for its body. Its black eyes never blink. Where a mouth should be, there's just a wide, fleshy circle. When you stop to rest beneath its tree, the Yara Mayahu drops. No sound, no warning. It attaches its suckers to your skin, pierces it, and drinks your blood. But it does it slowly. Not enough to kill you, just enough to control you.
13:42 Speaker 02 Oy, this sounds like the worst hickey ever.
13:44 AJ Gentile? Then it swallows you whole.
13:46 Speaker 02 My analysis stinks.
13:48 AJ Gentile? But it doesn't digest you. After a few hours, it regurgitates you. You're still alive, but different. You're smaller. Your skin is a little more red, a little more like the thing that took you. If it happens again, the changes continue. Victims become even smaller, even redder. This isn't just an attack for food, it's how it reproduces. In the Blue Mountains, a boy disappeared from a school field trip near a fig grove. Search teams found him the next day curled beneath a tree. His skin was red, and within days, he stopped playing and making eye contact. Within a week, he stopped speaking. In Queensland, a woman returned from a hike three days late. Her skin was blistered.
14:34 AJ Gentile? But she wasn't upset. She was quiet. Over the next few weeks, she withdrew. She stopped talking to people, stopped taking calls. Then one day, she packed her things and was never seen again. But here's what makes the Yara Mayahu different from other cryptids. The victims don't just come back changed. They come back missing time. The boy in the mountains couldn't account for six hours. The woman in Queensland lost three days.
15:02 AJ Gentile? Every fig tree in Australia could be hiding something red and hungry and completely still. It doesn't hunt, it doesn't chase. It waits. It waits for animals. It waits for people. It waits for anything that decides its tree would be a nice spot to rest and get out of the sun. And once you're relaxed, you'll feel a pinch somewhere on your body, and then, everything goes black.
15:31 Speaker 06 Honey, that flu keeping you up?
15:33 AJ Gentile? Yeah, I don't got this.
15:34 Speaker 06 You need NyQuil Intense Flu.
15:36 Speaker 07 Undo your flu symptoms with NyQuil Intense Flu. The nighttime sniffling, aching, aching fever, best leave with a flu medicine. You do got this. Uses directed, keep out of reach of children.
15:46 AJ Gentile? Australia is dangerous enough without cryptids. That continent is constantly trying to kill you. The saltwater crocodile is an apex predator that targets humans in northern Australia. The eastern brown snake is the deadliest snake on the continent. It's highly venomous, fast, and likes to live near people. The coastal taipan snake is even faster and among the most venomous snakes on Earth. The funnel web spider is aggressive, highly venomous, and famous for its painful bite. And if you do get bit by a funnel web spider, you better hope there's a hospital nearby with a decent supply of antivenom, because you're now in an emergency situation.
16:28 AJ Gentile? In the water off Australia, you've got great white sharks, you've got box jellyfish where one sting can cause cardiac arrest. The blue ringed octopus packs a neurotoxin that causes paralysis and respiratory failure. There's no known antivenom. Even Australian snails are dangerous. The cone snail has a venomous harpoon that can kill a human in minutes. Locals call it the cigarette snail because you only have time for one smoke before you die. Those animals are all real, but what about Australia's cryptids?
17:04 AJ Gentile? Well, if you follow this channel, you know that I don't like to cover cryptids, because there's never any good evidence. There's never any good photos or videos. Same goes for all the creatures we talked about today. There's no hard evidence for any of them. So, what's really happening? The yaoi sounds like a creature we see all over the world. Bigfoot in the US, the yeti in the Himalayas, Canadians have the Sasquatch.
17:26 Speaker 02 Sasquatch.
17:27 AJ Gentile? Thousands of reported sightings, many from credible people. Rangers, veterans, police officers. Some accounts are detailed, some are compelling. But just like Bigfoot stories, when you look closely, they don't really hold up. Footprints are too vague. Hair turns out to be possum, dog, or human. Dean Harrison's yaoi story is inconsistent. In some versions, he's attacked running away from a yaoi. In others, he's attacked while tracking it. And when stories change, you have to question them.
17:59 Speaker 02 Or maybe, maybe when a giant hair ape throws you into a tree, your memory gets a little fuzzy. You ever think of that, huh? It's called PBFASD. Post-Bigfoot attack stress disorder, human. Look it up.
18:13 AJ Gentile? But the bunyip is different. Unlike the yaoi, it never had one form. It changes from region to region. It just became a catch-all for any people disappearing near water. Sometimes it has feathers, sometimes it's reptilian.
18:26 Speaker 02 Ah, reptilians are shape-shifters.
18:29 AJ Gentile? Do they drag people underwater?
18:30 Speaker 02 Ah, no, they prefer to eat human cells from the moon.
18:35 AJ Gentile? But here's what bothers me about the bunyip evidence. The skull was displayed in a museum for two days. Elders identified it as a bunyip. Experts said it was a deformed calf. Either way, it vanished. So did that package of the remains of another bunyip. Look, I don't trust museums. And when museums get a hold of inconvenient evidence, that evidence tends to disappear.
19:00 Speaker 02 Yeah, you're right about that. Just ask the Smithsonian about giant human skeletons, Viking artifacts in North America, Egyptian artifacts in the Grand Canyon.
19:12 AJ Gentile? Right. Yara Mayahu is easier to explain. It's a myth that's been told to children for generations by indigenous tribes. It's a warning. Stay with the tribe. Don't wander off alone. It's caution wrapped in a horror story. Now, some people laugh at stories meant to scare children. But many fairy tales are based on fear. They're designed to frighten us, to activate our survival instincts. Hansel and Gretel don't wander too far. Little Red Riding Hood, don't talk to strangers. Dozens more fairy tales have lessons just like this.
19:45 Speaker 02 Oh, like, uh, don't trust the media.
19:47 AJ Gentile? What fairy tale is that?
19:48 Speaker 02 Oh, no, no, that's not a fairy tale. It's a true story. It just seemed like a good time to remind everyone.
19:54 AJ Gentile? These cryptids probably don't exist. But if you're alone in the outback, the danger is real. The silence that feels like it's listening is real. That shadow that moves at the edge of your sight? That's real, too. Dismiss these legends at your own risk. Because in the Australian wilderness, ignoring the lessons and the wisdom in these ancient stories might be the last mistake you ever make.
20:26 AJ Gentile? Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. My name is AJ. You know Hecklefish.
20:32 AJ Gentile? This has been the Y-Files. Get fun or learn anything, do him a favor, subscribe, comment, like, share. It's such a small thing to ask, but that stuff really helps the channel, especially these days. Yeah, rhythm. Rhythm is being weird. Like most topics we cover on the channel, today's was recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like us to cover or learn more about, go to theyfiless.com/tips. Remember, the Y-Files is also a podcast. Twice a week, I post deep dives into the stories we cover on the channel. And sometimes I post stories that aren't allowed on the channel. Anyway, it's called the Y-Files Operation Podcast, and it's available everywhere. Now, if you need more Y-Files in your life, you gotta check out our Discord. We've got 75,000, maybe 80,000 people on there. So 24/7, someone's hanging out.
21:18 AJ Gentile? They're into the same weird stuff we are. It's a great community. It's really supportive. It's a lot of fun, and it's Free to join. And if you want to know what's going on with the Y files at any given time, you can check out our production calendar. It's the Y files dot com slash cow. There we post our episode schedule, upcoming podcasts, live streams, all that stuff. Now, special thanks to our patrons who made this episode happen. They've made every episode happen. They made this whole channel possible. I could not do this without you. And if you'd like to join us, support the channel, keep us going, become part of this great community, consider becoming a member on Patreon. For as little as three bucks a month, you get access to perks like videos and podcasts earlier with no commercials, access to merch only available to members,
22:00 AJ Gentile? plus at least two private live streams every week just for you. And you get to meet the whole Y files team. Everyone's got their camera on. You can turn your camera on, jump up on stage, ask a question, suggest a topic, talk about anything you like. It's a great way to get to know us as people. I think it's the best perk there is. Another great way to support the channel is grab something from the Y file store.
22:20 Speaker 02 Grab a Haggardly T-shirt, one of these Festival Coffee Mugs. It's perfect to put your fist in or whatever appendage you've got, depending on what kind of cryptid you happen to be sporting that day. Oh, hoodie, get something my face on it. Or get one of these weird spinning YouTube dolls. It's not creepy at all. Oh, one of these squeezy animal Haggardly doll toy, Haggardly toys.
22:44 AJ Gentile? But if you're gonna buy merch, make sure you become a member on YouTube. Every month, YouTube members get 10% off everything in the Y file store. That's everything. So if you're gonna spend 40 bucks on T-shirts, become a YouTube member for three bucks, it pays for itself. And if you want to cancel after one month, that's totally fine. The membership is there to save you money, not make me money. In fact, that money goes to my great team.
23:06 Speaker 02 Yeah, don't tell anyone about the secret code.
23:08 AJ Gentile? Those are the plugs, and that's gonna do it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, know that you are appreciated. You got it, huh?
23:33 Speaker 07 I played Bolivia's scenario fifty-one. A secret code inside the bible said I was. I love my UFOs and paranormal fun as well as music. Songs singing like I should. But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth. My friends, and it never ends. No, it never ends.
24:10 Speaker 07 I fear the crackhead and got stuck inside mail's hole with MKUltra. I'm being only too aware. Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone? On a film set, I was a shadow before them. The Rockwell aliens just fought the smiling man, I'm told. And his name was Cole. And I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish. Head to fish on Thursday nights with AJ. And the whiff of love, it's all through the night.
24:51 Speaker 07 All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So the whiff of love, it's all through the night.
25:16 Speaker 07 The Mothman sightings and the solar storms still come. To a god that the secret city underground. Mysterious number stations, planet circle two. Praticed stark eight and what the dark watchers found.
25:35 Speaker 07 In a simulation, don't you worry though. The black nights had a lot of toll on me so. I can't believe I'm dancing with a fish. Head to fish on Thursday nights with AJ2. And one more time with me all through the night.
25:57 Speaker 07 All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So one more time with me all through the night. Head to fish on Thursday nights with AJ2. And one more time with me all through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So one more time with me all through the night.
26:36 Speaker 07 Girlie loves to dance. Girlie loves to dance on the dance floor. Because she is a camel. And camels love to dance when the feeling is right on wasting time.
27:10 Speaker 00 At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium. Which makes it easier to save too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana's a Medicare Advantage, HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal. Network freedom and flexibility, that's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals. No kidding.
27:54 Speaker 00 Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.
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