

Could other mysterious 'hairy men' still lurk near Braidwood ? Image Credit: PD - AYArktos

A strange hairy beast made headlines after it was felled by an Australian cordial manufacturer in 1893.

The peculiar incident occurred when Arthur Marrin, who had been on a routine delivery run with his dog, encountered a frightening creature which lunged at him from the undergrowth.Reporting on the story at the time, thewrote:"Being unarmed, having only the whip in his hand, which would have made very little impression upon such an antagonist, he dropped the whip and picked up a stone which lay close to him, which he threw at the beast, striking it on the temple, bringing it to the ground.""He then ran up to it and finished it with the butt end of the whip."While no conclusive explanation for Marrin's encounter has ever been found, some people have speculated that the creature could have been the legendary Yowie (Australia's answer to the Yeti).Marrin's grandson Lawrie St Hill on the other hand has his doubts."It is not, not, not a yowie," he said. "I think it was something similar to a tree kangaroo. It wasn't anything like a human being because the articles talk about a face very much like a polar bear - I emphasise that it is not a yowie."Efforts to exhume the creature's bones, which were buried in front of the cordial factory, have come up empty time and time again due to confusion over exactly where the burial site actually is.As things stand, it is unlikely that the mystery of the Braidwood 'hairy man' will ever truly be solved.