Yowies and the Marsupial Hominoid Hypothesis – Neil Frost’s Fatfoot: Encounters With A Dooligahl

Let’s look at a remarkable, cryptozoology-themed book, published in 2023…

Caption: front cover of Frost (2023). The striking colour cover is by David Falconer and features a reconstruction of the face inspired by a night-time photo featured within the book.

Fatfoot: Encounters With A Dooligahl extensively recounts researcher Neil Frost’s thoughts and experiences pertaining to the supposed humanoid cryptids – yowies – of Australia’s south-east, the eponymous Fatfoot being a nickname that Frost has given to one of the individuals that, he thinks, live in his study area (Frost 2023). Frost writes with erudition and displays a level of science literacy and understanding of natural history often lacking in cryptozoological writings. If you’re well read on yowie speculation and lore (Joyner 1977, 1990, 2003, 2009, Healy & Cropper 1994, 2006, Gilroy 2001, Cropper 1996, Smith 1996, Gilroy & Gilroy 2006, Naish 2017), Frost’s research and conclusions might be familiar, for they’re summarised in one of the few books devoted to this subject: Tony Healy and Paul Cropper’s 2006 The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot (Healy & Cropper 2006). The key word there is summarised, for this new work sure ain’t no summary.

Caption: there aren’t many books that cover the yowie phenomenon, but here are a few. Some books on the subject are much sought after, most notably Graham Joyner’s 1977 The Hairy Man of South Eastern Australia. Image: Darren Naish.

Indeed, the text you’re reading now is not a long, proper review of the sort the book deserves, partly because I haven’t finished reading it. I figure that the least I can do is bring attention to its existence (buy it here). Let me say right off the bat that – for those interested in the relevant subjects (Australian cryptozoology, unusual hypotheses pertaining to novel megafauna, and investigations of cryptids traditionally regarded as mystery hominids) – Fatfoot is both a must-read and a unique, very special must-have.

Caption: a few yowie encounters – I’m talking here of the phenomenon in general, not the specific section associated with Neil Frost – have resulted in illustrations that supposedly depict the creature that was observed. As you can see, they appear to show hominids. Here are two such drawings featured in Healy & Cropper (2006). That on the left depicts the creature seen by Katrina Tucker in Acacia Hill, Northern Territory, in August 1997; the one on the right was drawn by Melba Cullen in 2001, albeit from recollection of an event that occurred in 1930!

Two other points about this book deserve initial comment. One is that this is a monster of a book, 715 pages long and 5 cm thick. The second point is that one early chapter, around 40 pages long, is a diary-like ‘log’ that discusses adventures on a day-to-day basis. I confess to finding this one chapter such a slog that it proved a total obstacle to my reading. It should have been substantially condensed or even stripped out.

Caption:Fatfoot is a fat book. Remarkably, I’ve just discovered that my copy has increased in size while I’ve owned it, either because my use of the book has roughed up the pages a little, or because of humidity. It was 48 mm thick but is now 50 mm. Image: Darren Naish.

The primary hypothesis that forms the core of this book is as follows: yowies are real and have been encountered by Frost and his associates in the forested landscape of the Blue Mountains over a span of more than five decades. Frost suggests use of the indigenous term Dooligahl for them. The animals are large, heavy, forest-dwelling, bipedal mammals with highly sensitive night vision, flexible and dextrous forelimbs, and clawed hands (Frost 2023). They are predatory and kill lambs, ducks and other animals, use tools, are highly adept when it comes to the scaling of cliffs and mountainsides, and make loud roars commensurate with a massive thoracic cavity.

These attributes are based on a high number of observations and encounters described within this book, the oldest of which date to 1966. They involve the creatures visiting campsites at night, walking around houses and peering into windows, and a concerted effort by Frost, his collaborators and local police to photograph, document and identify them. Indigenous elders were consulted and provided information consistent with what Frost and other experiencers believe true of the creatures.

Caption: at left, Neil Frost (as of a few decades ago) holding a case of a partial track believed to be that of a yowie. At right, a Blue Mountains scene showing the sort of landscape associated with the events discussed here. Both images are taken from here at The Fortean.

As I’ve said before of Neil Frost’s thoughts on yowies – this was in my 2010 review of Healy & Cropper (2006) – it’s all very strange stuff. A dismissive, sceptical approach would be to argue that all relevant accounts involve wild-living people, and perhaps misidentified wild pigs, owls, possums or other known animals. Those latter suggestions would have to be invoked to explain the sightings of red-eyed animals seen among trees, some of which have resulted in photos that are included within the book (Frost 2023) (frustratingly, none of these images are findable online). A critical stance, and this includes my own, would also have it that Frost and his friends and colleagues are over-reaching in their interpretation of experiences, falsely amalgamating diverse events because they have ‘yowies on the brain’. As ever, I hope I’m wrong.

Frost’s contention is that these creatures do not only exist, but are, further, not hominids as most authors have supposed, but only superficially hominid-like. They are, in fact, gigantic macropods – kangaroos – of a new sort. The idea that yowies might be marsupials isn’t novel (Joyner 2003, 2009) – those authors who’ve taken the phenomenon seriously within a zoological paradigm have occasionally suggested that yowies might be diprotodontoids of some sort (Greenwell 1994) – but the idea that they might be humanoid kangaroos is new to the literature so far as I know. Needless to say, a bold and daring claim. I will resist the urge to mention Tank Girl. Oops, too late.

Caption: the concept of the marsupial yowie is not novel to this book, and in fact a few artists who specialise on speculative animals and cryptozoology have imagined the yowie as a sthenurine kangaroo before. This infographic depicting the yowie as a big striding kangaroo is by Fabio Alejandro.

The final chapters go as far as comparing the identikit image of the Dooligahl that Frost has built up to various kinds of kangaroos living and fossil, and if you’re aware of research positing that the large sthenurine kangaroos were bipedal walkers or striders, rather than hoppers… well, yes, Frost is aware of this too.

Caption: Frost’s giant macropods are striders and runners, and don’t use the paired-limb, ricochetal gait of most kangaroos. But here’s your reminder that this isn’t as hard a rule as we generally think: tree kangaroos and the extinct sthenurines moved their hindlimbs alternately, and even specialised ricochetal species like this Red kangaroo Osphranter rufus move the limbs in conventional fashion during swimming. This photo is from Wilson (1974).

The book’s cover states that “three marsupial enigmas” are covered, for Dooligahl isn’t the only cryptid that Frost discusses. He proposes that two similar animals, related to the Dooligahl but taxonomically distinct, exist as well: the Junjudee and the Quinkan.

While I have more to say, that’s where I’ll end for now. As I’ve said in the past, I’m genuinely nonplussed about the relevant accounts. Like most of us, I struggle to accept the idea that a massive, scientifically unrecognised mammal – let alone three such species – await discovery in modern Australia. Furthermore, the data compiled by Frost is anecdotal and suggestive, but never convincing (Healy & Cropper 2006, Frost 2023). But I remain open to the idea that there’s a valid and perplexing zoological mystery here, and I’m impressed with Frost’s efforts to document and catalogue everything that’s happened.

Caption: another artistic image that depicts a yowie as a marsupial, though in this case as a diprotodontoid rather than a kangaroo. I won’t deny that the concept of the marsupial yowie is great fun and has involved some great creature-building. Image: AThrillosopher (taken from here).

In short, the weirdness and complexity of this case, the undeniable creepiness of the accounts, and the novel creature-building inherent to Frost ‘marsupial hominoid’ hypothesis make this a fascinating work, despite its flaws. Specialist researchers should definitely get hold of it, and those interested in building a cryptozoological library will want it too. It is certainly a unique work.

Fatfoot: Encounters With A Dooligahl is well edited, organised and designed, illustrated throughout with maps, photos and drawings, includes footnotes, and has a good index. Its weight and size requires that it’s not cheap, and I do expect this, unfortunately, to limit sales.

One final point: a second yowie-themed volume appeared in 2023, namely Tony Healy and Paul Cropper’s The Yowie File: Encounters With Australian Ape-Men (Healy & Cropper 2023). I’ll write about that one too, in due time.

Frost, N. 2023. Fatfoot: Encounters With A Dooligahl. Coachwhip Publications. ISBN 978-1-61646-575-9, softback, illustrations, pp. 714. Here from the publishers. £43.95 / $44.95 ($29.95 for black and white version available only in the US).

For other Tetrapod Zoology articles on this subject and related ones, see…

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Refs - -

Cropper, P. 1996. Two yowie reports. The Cryptozoology Review 1 (2), 25-28.

Frost, N. 2023. Fatfoot: Encounters With A Dooligahl. Coachwhip Publications.

Gilroy, R. 2001. Giants From the Dreamtime: the Yowie in Myth and Reality. URU Publications, Katoomba.

Gilroy, R. & Gilroy, H. 2006. Out of the Dreamtime: the Search for Australasia's Unknown Animals. URU Publications, Katoomba.

Greenwell, J. R. 1994. The whatsit of Oz. BBC Wildlife 12 (2), 53.

Healy, T. & Cropper, P. 1994. Out of the Shadows: Mystery Animals of Australia. Ironbark, Chippendale, Australia.

Healy, T. & Cropper, P. 2006. The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot. Strange Nation, Sydney.

Healy, T. & Cropper, P. 2023. The Yowie File: Encounters With Australian Ape-Men. Fortean Publishing, Sydney.

Joyner, G. 1977. The Hairy Man of South Eastern Australia. Graham Joyner, Canberra.

Joyner, G. C. 1990. Scientific discovery and the place of the yahoo in Australian zoological history. Cryptozoology 9, 41-51.

Joyner, G. 2003. Scientific reaction to evidence for the yahoo or 'Australian ape', 1882-1912. Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 89, 162-178.

Joyner, G. 2009. Monster, Myth or Lost Marsupial? The Search for the Australian Gorilla in the Jungles of History, Science and Language. Hayes UK & Thomas, Canberra.

Naish, D. 2017. Hunting Monsters. Arcturus Books, London.

Smith, M. 1996. Bunyips & Bigfoots: In Search of Australia’s Mystery Animals. Millennium Books, Alexandria, New South Wales.

Wilson, G. R. 1974. How kangaroos swim. Search 5, 11-12.