Rex Gilroy - Australian Story - ABC Interviews & Articles
Rex Gilroy appearing on Australian Story an ABC series on Australian people
REX GILROY - CRYPTOZOOLOGIST
I'm a cryptozoologist. In fact, I'm the father of cryptozoology in this country, like I am the father of yowie research.
Cryptozoology is the study of animals either unknown to science, or species long thought extinct that might still be with us. I don't talk the same language, I suppose, as most people, I don't know, but I've spent a lifetime trying to educate myself.
Oh, I've got something like 50,000 insects and spiders now. The insects are in glass cases. I've hundreds of beetles, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, cicadas, you name it. All pinned out, all set out with their Latin names. I am not a collector. I never was. I always wanted to learn about the specimen.
I have seen a yowie, so-called, Homo erectus. I've done a sketch of basically what I saw. He just seems to be at peace with nature. He was just going about his own business. Whether he'd seen me, I don't know. But I saw him, and he just kept on going until he was out of sight from the scrub, and I haven't forgotten that.