“Devil Dogs” of the Dreamtime

Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2003

Aborigines of the Northern Territory refer to these ‘panthers’ as “devil dogs” of the Dreamtime, confusing them with the legendary giant dingo, to be investigated anon. They are depicted in ancient rock art of the tribespeople of the Alice Springs-MacDonnell Ranges area, whereabouts during 1973 there were a number of sightings reports of these animals.

Mt Brassey Area North of the Haarts Range 1990

Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2003

Nineteen year old Len McArthur saw a horrifying sight while bushwalking in the Mt Brassey area north of the Haarts Range one day in April 1990. On a rise above a dry creek bed he watched from behind bushes as a “black-haired, cat-like monster”, over 2m from head to tail, dragged a dead calf in its powerful jaws up the creek bed and over rocks and then disappeared among large boulders. “I was too frightened after seeing this animal to go any further. If it saw me I thought it would attack and kill me,” he said later.

Kakadu National Park - Arnhem Land - Katherine 1988

Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2003

‘Big cats’ are said to roam the Kakadu National Park and the central region of Arnhem Land. At Katherine one July day in 1988, a group of tourists - men, women and children - were sightseeing on the nearby Katherine River, when they spotted three black-furred cat-like creatures emerging from riverfront scrub about 100 yards away, to drink at the waters edge.

The two larger animals [a male and female], and a smaller cub the size of a house cat, at first appeared oblivious to the humans, but once they detected their scent they dashed off up the river bank and into the scrub. “I watched the creatures through my binoculars for about two minutes and I’m sure they were not feral cats. They were not panthers either, but something else - but what, I do not know”, said one member of the group, Bill Cameron, to a reporter later.

“Yarran Range Monster” 1904

Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2003

The “Yarran Range Monster” is a reality to locals - Aborigines and Europeans alike - and has been for a good many years. This range lies north of the Barkly Tableland and spans a number of creeks and rivers.

Like so much else of the ‘Territory’ it is wild, remote, inhospitable country - and it is in such remote wilds that the ‘monsters’ are said to lurk, periodically emerging to prey upon the stock of lonely cattle stations. The ‘monsters’ are variously described as ‘big cats’, ‘panthers’ and even ‘lions’, and black-furred, powerful animals often claimed to be able to bring down a horse.

In 1904 a settler was said to have been attacked and dragged off from his camp by one of these carnivores. Searchers later found his dismembered remains wedged among boulders on a hillside.

• NSW Agriculture Report on information available on the reported large black cat in the Blue Mountains. Prepared by: Bill Atkinson, Agricultural Protection Officer * Click Here *