Hi friends! Happy Friday. Did ya'll have a good week? We're setting into the new place okay and we now have a wee fur baby Benji with us too, he's so cute. You can check out a post about him "here" if you haven't already seen it. Anyway, for this week's Freaky Friday Files, I thought we could explore some of Australia's Urban Legends because why not? Also, Australians will go out of their way to convince you that drop bears are real and that they rode to school on kangaroos (even though koalas probably don't have enough energy to become crazy enough to turn into a drop bear and a kangaroo would f*ck you up if you got on it's back, but hey, that's Australia for ya).
In today's blog post, we will go over the following Urban Legends
The Drop Bear
Ahh, the good ol' drop bear. I'm ashamed to admit that I nearly fell for this one, and I'm not someone who is genuinely naive - I will question everything, especially because I know what it's like to be gaslit by someone. Anyway, when I was first settling into my very first apartment in Melbourne, one of my friends back in New Zealand messaged me to say "watch out for drop bears" and I was like what, since when did Australia get bears? Am I missing something? It was quite late at night too so I was very confused. I immediately googled it and was like oh that's a hoax, but anyone from Australia will convince you that a drop bear is real. So let's get into the urban legend, shall we?
As the drop bear is an urban legend or myth so to speak, we don't really know when or where it originated, but according to Australian Geographic, it was first published in a newspaper on the 31st of July,1982 under the 21st birthday section from someone called Clint with a message to another person called Tam. The message reads: "TAM — Beware of drop bears in the future, for sure, totally love Clint." However, there have been many foundations for the myth of the drop bear from 50 years prior.
The drop bear is a relative of the koala, known as a k*ller koala who will drop down from trees unsuspectingly and attack you. It is a bit bigger than an actual koala - around the size of a leopard and also has orange fur that is coarse (think of it as the koala's cousin). The drop bear can be found in closed canopy forest areas as well as open woodlands but never near human civilisation. Australia's Museum classifies drop bears as Thylarctos plummetus.
It's said that many bushwalkers or army troops have been attacked by drop bears and some deterrents are as follows:
Vegemite spread on one's face or behind the ears
Forks in the hair
Toothpaste behind the ears
However, there's no convincing evidence that such deterrents actually work. Have you tried any of these out in the bush?
There were many stories about dangerous koala-like animal attacks from the war eras from 1920s, but why did the drop bear become such a big deal in popular culture once published in the newspaper? Well, we can probably thank the Paul Hogan show where Paul Hogan parodied Indiana Jones with Kootamundra Hoges. You can watch a clip below.
Convinced yet? Hehe.
A lot of articles suggest that this is something that all Australians know about and can get on board with. They also like to tease tourists about it. ABC Australia has a really funny article about scaring tourists "here". Also, if you wanna read a really funny satirical article about how tourists are more likely to fall prey to drop bear attacks, check it out "here".
So next time you hear about someone coming to visit Australia for a holiday, make sure you warn them about the inevitable drop bear attacks and tell them to smother vegemite all over their face. It'll be funny.
The Devil's Pool
I'm not sure if this technically counts as an Urban Legend as people have had trouble here but it's pretty creepy nonetheless. The Devil's Pool is located in Barbinda, Queensland, Australia. It's a large natural pool amongst the Barbinda Boulders and the creek bed is made up of large granite boulders.
The story goes that a Yindindji woman's spirit (Oolana) lures young men to their deaths at the Devil's Pool. This woman passed away by s*ic*de as she was separated from her forbidden lover - a man called Dyga who was from another tribe. Oolana was promised to an elder man of her own tribe, but she met Dyga, the two fell in love, and they ran away from their respective tribes to begin their love affair. Unfortunately, Dyga was captured, but Oolana got away and leaped to her demise at Devil's Pool.
According to Wikipedia, 21 people have drowned in or near the pools between 1959 and 2023. There is a "No-Go Zone" but many people still go into this zone, and unfortunately, are never to be seen again (figuratively, they usually find their bodies). If this local legend has taught you anything, it's don't swim where signs are telling you not to swim. Duh!
I wonder if anyone has gone ghost-hunting here. Hmmm?
The Yowie
When I think of a Yowie, I think of the little chocolate Yowie that's similar to a kinder surprise. I don't immediately think of Australia's version of Bigfoot (there are multiple names for different regions of Australia). But the Yowie is described as a hairy-ape-like creature that walks on two legs (so bipedal), can be between 2.1m and 3.6m in height, and has feet SO much larger than humans. However, footprints described by witnesses vary in size and amount of toes even more than reports of Bigfoot have. Also, according to Wikipedia, some eye-witness reports of the Yowie say they are shy and timid and others say they are violent and aggressive. I always thought consistency was key hey.
The origin of the word "Yowie" is not abundantly clear. However, in the book Kámilarói, and other Australian languages (1875) by William Ridley, Ridley claims that a "Yō-wī" is a spirit that roams the earth at night.
It is said that the very first sighting of a Yowie took place in 1795.
What do ya'll think? Fact or fiction? I'm not so convinced.
The Crown Casino Morgue
Ah, one close to home! I'm not a big fan of Crown, it's big, has lots of people, and I feel like I'd have to be very drunk to go in there at night. I haven't explored much around Crown mainly because it scares me. Crown is a massive multiplex space that has a casino, so many bars and clubs, lots of entertainment, and many hotels. You can learn more "here".
So there's the story that Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia has underground tunnels that lead to a morgue underneath the Casino. According to this "source", the bathrooms are always occupied when you need to use them and this is because it's a way to get bodies out after they have unsubscribed from life. Apparently, the mortality rate is so high, that the people of Crown had to find a way to hide this from view.
I'm not sure if I'm really buying this one. A "Reddit thread" discusses how bodies wouldn't be moved until after authorities have come through to collect evidence and take photos. So wouldn't this just be tampering with evidence? And wouldn't we hear about these with journalists? Furthermore, wouldn't journalists go in just to find out the gossip? Yeah, this one is hard to buy. The tunnels might be real though - but probably for a different purpose. I also read somewhere that there's a morgue down the road so it'd be a bit weird to have a secret second one under a casino.
Wakehurst Parkway
In doing my research for this week's Freaky Friday Files, I stumbled across this gem! And by far, this is my most favourite legend (mainly because it's about the paranormal and we all know I love a good ghost story).
According to 9 News Australia, Wakehurst Parkway in Sydney is allegedly Australia's most haunted road! How's that for spooky huh? Wakehurst Parkway is located 26 kilometres from Sydney, NSW, and is near Sydney's Northern Beaches. The road spans for about 14.5 kilometres. For years, this road has been linked to extreme feelings of uneasiness, eerie feelings, and just an overall creepy vibe to it. But why?
There have been many reported sightings of a womanly figure when driving down this road, either on the road, or in the back of people's vehicles. This woman is known as Kelly. Witnesses have reported that Kelly appears late at night and disappears when vehicles swerve or to check back to see if they weren't hallucinating. Kelly has apparently been described as a woman who looks like she is wearing a nun outfit (I'm already getting Conjuring vibes oh no). However, with a bit of research, we now know that the outfit Kelly is wearing is an old-timely nurse uniform. This has been deducted from eye-witness accounts of what Kelly is wearing and that the road is near the Quarantine Station where many travellers arrived in Sydney from the years 1830 to 1984 - where the Quarantine Station was used to help people stop spreading diseases. Funny how history repeats itself?
This road has also suffered many horrible car accidents as well as been a dumping ground for many of Sydney's murder victims (so sad). And many people say the most haunted part of the road is where Wakehurst Parkway meets Warringah Road. A lot of the accidents that occur around here are said to be caused by Kelly with many people saying she will cause an accident unless you tell her to go away. If you're interested in a real eye witness account, a cab driver wrote his own blog post "here" about seeing Kelly for the first time ever. Reading it just sent shivers down my spine. Bianci Biasi - an Australian director and producer also made a film about the road. Check out the IMDB "here".
I kinda wanna go down this road now, is that weird?
Anyway, hope ya'll enjoyed this week's Freaky Friday Files and I will see you again next week!
Stay safe!
Much love,
Ash xx
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