We uncover a little known piece of Australian history and in doing so rekindle a long running argument between an amateur and professional scientist.

Batemans Bay holds a significant place in Australian yowie history.

This will be new information for many locals, but a dig through the archives unearths a rich history around this mythical Bigfoot-type creature and the South East of New South Wales.

Aboriginal communities are said to have known about and named the yowie prior to Cook and Phillip dropping anchor. It is believed that white man contact with the yowie was first documented in a formal sense on December 9 1882 in The Australian Town and Country Journal.

Amateur naturalist Henry James McCooey wrote of his encounter with a strange creature in bushland between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla.

His words from 132 years ago conjure a jaw-dropping image.

He writes:

"A few days ago I saw one of these strange animals in an unfrequented locality on the coast between Bateman's Bay and Ulladulla. My attention was attracted to it by the cries of a number of small birds which were pursuing and darting at it. When I first beheld the animal it was standing on its hind legs, partly upright, looking up at the birds above it in the bushes, blinking its eyes and distorting its visage and making a low chattering kind of noise. Being above the animal on a slight elevation and distant from it less than a chain, I had ample opportunity of noting its size and general appearance.

"I should think that if it were standing perfectly upright it would be nearly 5ft high. It was tailless and covered with very long black hair, which was of a dirty red or snuff-colour about the throat and breast. Its eyes, which were small and restless, were partly hidden by matted hair that covered its head. The length of the fore legs or arms seemed to be strikingly out of proportion with the rest of its body, but in all other respects its build seemed to be fairly proportional. It would probably weigh about 8st. On the whole it was a most uncouth and repulsive looking creature, evidently possessed of prodigious strength, and one which I should not care to come to close quarters with. Having sufficiently satisfied my curiosity, I throw a stone at the animal, whereupon it immediately rushed off, followed by the birds, and disappeared in a ravine which was close at hand."

What a sight!

Myf Thompson, volunteer curator at the Old Court House Museum in Batemans Bay, says it's a piece of the town's history that is news to her and isn't widely known.

Upon learning of this local yowie link, Myf tossed her plans for the day out the window and researched further. The National Libraries bank of digitized newspapers along with Wikipedia and various yowie websites combined to add to the story.

Myf uncovered a stand-off between McCooey and the curator of the Australian Museum in Sydney at the time, Edward Pierson Ramsay.

Records suggest that Mr Ramsay questioned the existence of such a creature which in those days of the colony was also described as an 'Australian ape'.

Looking at those early documents, Myf believes that McCooey and his claims were poo-pooed by academics like Ramsay because he was an amateur.

We only have one side of the back and forth between the two but clearly it's a passionate debate.

Again in The Australian Town and Country Journal, McCooey writes:

"The mere fact of no apes [are] found in the Sydney Museum does not justify us in rushing to the conclusion that there are none in the colony, for it is extremely improbable that any ape will be foolhardy enough to present itself at the museum to undergo the somewhat delicate operation of stuffing; and beyond the fact that there are, none to be found in the Sydney Museum there is not one scintilla of evidence to prove that they are not to be found in the colony, while there is abundance of evidence to show that they are."

Imagine Ramsay's reaction at reading that.

McCooey goes on trying to prove his case:

"I do not claim to be the first who has seen this animal, for I can put my finger on half a dozen men at Bateman's Bay who have seen the same, or at any rate an animal of a similar description; but I think I am the first to come forward in the columns of a newspaper and give publicity to the fact of having seen it.

"I may mention that a search party was organised at Bateman's Bay some months ago to surround the locality [and] the supposed ape... and shoot or capture it, but the idea was abandoned in consequence of the likelihood of gun accidents; and I may further state that the skeleton of an ape, 4ft in length, may be seen at any time in a cave 14 miles from Bateman's Bay, in the direction of Ulladulla."

It appears that in December of 1882, Ramsay offered McCooey 100 pounds to bring in his yowie dead or alive. McCooey believed it was a challenge he could meet but, as far as we can tell, the 100 pounds wasn't claimed.

Eleven months later on October 20 1883 the discourse is still bubbling between the two men.

McCooey, writing from Mandurama between Bathurst and Cowra on October 15 1883, says:

"...the position taken by the Curator of the Museum is absolutely untenable... there are indigenous apes in this colony...they have been frequently seen in Budawong mountains, in Jingera mountains, and in the Abercrombie mountains, at Bateman's Bay, at Mount Macdonald, and on the Guy Fawkes-road between Armidale and Grafton...apes were known to the aborigines of this colony, and were dreaded by them, long before a museum was founded in Australia, or a white man crossed the Murray; and that one was actually captured and killed near Braidwood within the memory of persons still living."

Referring to her understanding of the research, Myf Thompson feels Ramsay questioned McCooey's motivations, suggesting he was more interested in claiming the money, and that it was the amateur naturalist who suggested the cash reward not him. Ramsay's impression is perhaps built on talk at the time of McCooey's criminal record which points to claims of fraud.

Ramsay also seemed to suggest that the Australian landscape couldn't sustain a creature such as McCooey's.

Speculation continues to this day about the existence of a yowie in local bush land.

Callers to ABC South East point to sightings and gossip between 1960 and the early 80s around the Budawangs and at the top of Clyde Mountain at the head of the Clyde River, adding to McCooey's case. However, like Ramsay 130 years ago, we wait for firm evidence.

What isn't in doubt is Batemans Bay's connection with this unique Australian story, perhaps rediscovering it in 2014 will bring more talk.

*The Old Court House Museum is run by the Clyde River and Batemans Bay Historical Society and is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday between 10am and 3pm and on the second Sunday of each month between 10am and 1pm in Museum Place Batemans Bay.