Pilliga Scrub
1978
Visit any Australian trucker’s forum and search for “Pilliga”, or “Piliga”. You’ll soon be rewarded with stories of “min-min” lights (an old aboriginal legend), vicious unseen creatures, ruined vehicles and sightings of the Pilliga Princess.
A common sight reported by truck drivers is that of small lights travelling at high speed through the trees, keeping pace with the trucks. Sometimes at ground level, others rising high above the trees. Others talk of localised wind storms, like mini hurricanes that shake and rock trucks and other vehicles, while coloured lights dance and sparkle in the air.
Image of a ruined vehicle in the Pilliga. Note the signage on the
door: Coonabarabran Contracting. Image ©local-legends.net
One story I heard many years ago was that of a truck driver who stopped for a couple of hours sleep on the roadside, right in the middle of the Pilliga. During the night, he was woken by a terrific banging and screeching of twisted metal. His truck was rocking violently and terrified, he cowered in the cabin without a wink of sleep until dawn. When he finally emerged in daylight, he was struck with the sight of the trailer tarpaulin shredded and strewn for a hundred metres up the road. The metal ribs of the trailer cage were twisted and bent beyond repair.
From hankstruckpictures.com (trucker’s forum)
“On a 120 km stretch of the Newell Hwy between Coonabarabran and Narrabri is the Pilliga State Forest… It’s a beautiful drive during the day but at night, some of the toughest men fear to travel along this stretch of highway unless they know they wouldn’t have to stop, even down to hearing about drivers blowing out a tyre and driving it flat until they reach the other side.”
On a late night-early morning Australian radio programme called ‘Overnights‘ (2am – 6am), they held a few special nights dedicated to stories from the Pilliga region. Listeners could call the station and tell their Pilliga stories on the air. On that night, the radio station had two of their people in the Pilliga Scrub reporting live by satellite phone. At one point, the connection dropped and the signal wasn’t restored for some time. When it finally returned, the reporters were OK and the cut signal was unexplained.
During the programme, one caller who identified himself as “Bongo” told a harrowing story of the night he endured in the Pilliga way back in 1978. The ordeal he endured that night affected him in such a terrible way that, to this day, he remains in psychiatric care.
The recording of Bongo’s call is freely available from the radio station’s website, so I’ve put it on the Flash timeline with a play button.
You absolutely must NOT listen to this unless it’s late and night and you have turned off your lights. Good luck!
Here is the map of Bongo’s journey that night. Running low on fuel, I imagine he intended to fuel up in Boggabri, or one of the other small villages outside Narrabri.
I have one other particularly intriguing story about min-min lights in the Pilliga that I’d like to post in the Stories section eventually.
(ps. if you find it difficult to understand Bongo, you can listen with subtitles here)
i have many pics of a little light , the thing is there are animals there as well they are only a bit scared of it. if u want a look at these photos. you can find them on flickr.. then put in ( thylacine pad) in search window. many times these lights have followed me or my brother, this was 10 yrs ago the light was about 20 feet away on these occassion if u went towards it , it moved away. its only now after using trail cams i have got photos of a light very similar to the one of 10 yrs ago . the photo of the light is at the end of about 80 photo i put up. also i have a avi of something the flew behind me at night didnt see it until i watch the avi nects day. i would love to know what it is , i was thinking of sending some photos to csiro , but i think they will only laugh.
pairs of hairy legs hanging up? wtf!
that was pretty scary!!! but i couldn’t really understand bongo without subtitles…….
Wow. Psycho or not its hard for someone to have that kind of a breakdown over something they made up. Whatever Bongo saw scared him and it even gave me the chills. Looks like I’ll be sleeping with the light on.
Poor Bongo – I’ve listened to this a few times and my heart just goes out to him. There are similar well documented lights in Marfa Texas, although I don’t recall twisted metal or physical attacks with the lights. In any case, I’ll be avoiding the Pilliga and whatever lurks there.
I agree with kay, it sounds like superstition combined with animal attacks percieved through someone with a mental instability. Regaurdless i still feel sorry for the guy, whatever he thought he saw scared him shitless.
….Been a while since I’ve visited the blog, but (and this is no joke), the second after I finished listening to this, my TV turned on. By itself.
I must have accidentally put on a timer for it or something but it’s still pretty random timing overall…
its possible that some creature did do this to Bongo. i heard there are these creatures that are roaming the wildrness in australia called the “Yowie”. their how u say big foot like. all i can say is that there is alot of things in this world that cant be explained and when some ppl dont understand the stories that are being told by someone they assume they where high or psychotic (and i think that’s rediculous).
shit man, this guy’s really fucked up.
I’ll listen this once it’s day and the lights are turned on, I’m not a big fan of horror…
Haha i only listened to like half. I stopped at like half way. and I went back and read this and it said dont listen unless its night and your lights are turned off, and its day time and now im freaked out. nice.
Hold up. hes in pshyco care because of the incident?
…Ever occured to you guys that its the other way round?? Hes a psycho in care whos condition is making up crazy stories
Interesting read!! I really like the audio clip with that. Thanks for the captioning!
Holy crap! this was amazing are there anymore things like these? I really wonder what it looked like?