Wongi Forest Yowies sighting Qld 2020

Strange Yowie encounter at an abandoned farmhouse in Wongi Forest QLD November 2020

Joseph Zarafa had been driving on a dirt road on the edge of the Wongi State Forest in the Doongul district Queensland Australia at dusk when he pulled over to see why his engine was overheating. What happened next "incredibly spooked him" into fleeing the area. The following is Joseph's account as he presented it to us after our initial interview.

I was driving on a dirt road on the edge of the Wongi State Forest to a friend's house at Gungaloon, very late in the day, when I noticed my car temperature gauge had gone right up into the red. I pulled over and stopped straight away to see why the engine was overheating.

Wongi State Forest Walks are popular and yowie encounters have been documented over many years by bushwalkers and farmers.

Realising I needed to find some water I decided to take the short walk back to the causeway I had just driven over to fill some water bottles. On the last trip down to the creek I had just stood up and was looking along the creek when I noticed a small glowing ball of light hovering over the creek about 60ft or so away. It was just at dusk and I could still see plenty of detail in the surrounding bush. I first thought it was someone coming along the creek wearing one of those helmut torches as the creek wasn’t full and a person could walk along inside the bank of the creek. Something I had done myself on many Wongi state forest walks.  As I watched I could see it was just a bluey purple glowing orb hovering and stationary. I really started to look hard and the strange thing was, that although it was glowing it didn’t seem to light up the surrounding ground and bush or reflect in the water as brightly as it should have for its brightness. I must have stared at this for a good minute or two, trying to see what it really was, and then it moved very smoothly to the left and disappeared behind the trees lining the creek and I couldn’t see it anymore. I thought there must be a Wongi camping area over there with some campers walking around. At this point, I went back up to the ute with my thermos of water and thought about the strange light. Back at the ute, I decided to wait another few minutes for the engine to really cool down before I started it again.

Doongul Creek where Joseph watched a strange orb of light hover over the creek. The creek was much drier than when this photo was taken during our site investigation.

I had lit up a smoke and was leaning on a fence post of the cattle paddock I had pulled up at. Looking out into the paddock towards an old, abandoned farmhouse in the distance I could see something moving in the direction of the house which I first thought was a cow and I didn’t pay much attention. I looked away from the house and then glanced back to see, what I thought was a cow, standing straight up on 2 legs. I immediately thought, who is that, because what I was seeing now was someone standing up like a person and big. The light was getting pretty dim but as I concentrated on the standing figure, I couldn’t make out any clothes, just a dark colour and the arms and legs. My first impression was this person must have dark overalls on but his head was the same dark colour.  I was a bit startled at this stage and wondered what the person was doing crawling over the ground on all 4’s in the first place. I kept staring and then noticed the figure turn around when I caught some movement off to my left. Now, I could see a similar shaped dark figure but much bigger and moving on 2 legs in a fairly slow motion towards the first figure I saw. This second figure looked as tall as someone standing with another person on their shoulders but I got a good sense of a very big torso and the other feature I noticed which really freaked me out was very long arms. Absolutely spooked now but I still didn’t have any idea what I was seeing just that my senses were telling me something wasn’t right. As I continued to watch, the larger figure got almost to the smaller one and then stopped suddenly. I could see its body turn in my direction. I thought whatever I was looking at was now looking in my direction and could probably see me even in the failing light. Do I run to the car or stay still? I was asking myself as a little panic was taking hold. 

Site of Yowie sightings at an abandoned farmhouse on the edge of Wongi State Forest in Doongul district QLD.

View from where Joseph watched two Yowies near an abandoned farmhouse.

I came to the realization I wasn’t looking at a couple of humans at all but both the figures seemed to now be staring in my direction. I was saying to myself “they can't see me, I'm behind a fence post “ but I then realized there was a slight breeze blowing from my position into the paddock. Whatever they were could smell me I thought. I instinctively glanced back at the car at this point which was about 30ft away and when I looked back towards the old house I just glimpsed the very large figure walk out of view behind the old house. My mind was racing now and I stared intently expecting these two strange figures to reappear on the opposite side of the house. I watched and watched and I didn’t see any further movement and I couldn’t hear a thing. It was getting too dark by this stage and I started to think maybe I missed seeing the two figures re-emerge or maybe they were just standing out of view, or maybe they both crawled back towards the bush beside the creek where they came from. This was way too much for me and feeling very unsafe I turned and sprinted back to my ute, started the engine and hoped like hell my radiator hose repair would hold. I fled at speed along the dirt road as I certainly didn’t want to get stuck out in the forest in darkness having just been incredibly spooked by something really strange.

I managed to make it safely to my destination and told my friends about this really strange incident. I was amazed to hear one of my friends talk about a similar sighting that was told to him. Apparently on the same road, very early one morning and not far from where I had pulled up, a couple of people stopped when they saw two very large dark brown hairy creatures go across the road. The creatures were about 70 metres ahead of them and disappeared into the bush. I’d heard about Yowies over the tears but never given it a second thought. I’m sure what I looked at was two yowies now I’ve had time to talk to people and do a bit of research myself. I have no idea what the glowing light was. 

A fascinating encounter told to us by Joseph! Incidentally we also have reports from an area not far from the Wongi Waterholes where in one report the tranquil waters of one of the streams bacame the sighting location of two large creatures crossing from one side to the other and apparently communicating with each other with what the witness describes as clicking and popping sounds as they moved through the bush.

Don't forget If You See Something, Say Something and let us know about your encounter whether it be a direct Yowie sighting, sounds or footprints. You can email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to arrange a phone hook up to explain your encounter or we can talk through email. We respect everyone's privacy and will never publish names or a witness report without authorization from the person or people involved.