Hunt for Yowies in soggy SE Qld | Offbeat | Weird News, Odd and Freaky Stories in Northern Rivers

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HOT on the heels of last week's wild weather in southeast Queensland comes a hunter of mythological beasts - Tim the Yowie Man.

Tim - who uses no surname and can be almost as elusive as his quarry - says there is a direct correlation between significant rain events and sightings of the "fabled" yowie.

"The soaked soil and muddy bogs created by the heavy rain are more conducive to animals, including yowies, leaving their footprints," Tim said.

He said last week's rain could make "a large hairy bipedal hominoid creature" uncomfortable - the description alone should do that - and force it from deep jungle canyons into the open.

So Tim has rushed from that other capital of strange mysteries - Canberra - to Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland, a village he describes as the yowie capital of Australia for its many sightings.

So far he's seen nothing - but that hasn't put him off.

"I'm quietly confident of finding some sort of evidence such as hair or footprints of the mystery beast," he said.

"If I'm really lucky I may even get to see one."

Dean Harrison of Australian Yowie Research says he has just returned from Springbrook, bearing photographs of footprints he believes are of a female yowie and her young trailing along behind.

"They seem to be quite passive around that area compared to other areas that we've been to," Mr Harrison said.

He said tales of yowies near Springbrook date back to before European settlement.

Mr Harrison said on his latest expedition he was rugby tackled by a yowie at 3am near Gympie.

"This one knocked me flying backwards. I landed in a rock pool," he said.

Australian Yowie Research has been nominated for a Bent Spoon Award on the website of Australian Skeptics, a group that investigates paranormal and pseudo scientific claims.