Rex & Heather Gilroy - Research of the Australian (Marsupial) Panther - Sighting Reports

Rex Gilroy hopes to inspire other future researchers to follow his example and dare to question long-established dogmas of our prehistory and, like him, reveal evidence for long-hidden mysteries about which the scientific establishment would prefer we knew nothing.
Excerpts from the 1995 & 2003 Updated version of Mysterious Australia - PART THREE - Cryptozoological Mysteries -Chapter 9 - Do Panthers Roam the Australian Bush?

Excerpts from the 2006 Book Out Of The Dreamtime - The Search For Australasia's Unknown Animals. Part Three – Chapter Nine – The “Australian Panther” – Big Cats of the Bushland.

Rex & Heather Gilroy

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Rex and Heather Gilroy-Australia's Top 'Unexplained' Mysteries Research Team. Photos & Text copyright (c) Rex & Gilroy Heather 2010
• Research of Rex & Heather Gilroy - Sighting Reports - More Stories Up May 2010

Great Western Tiers 1928

by Rex Gilroy
Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2010

In 1928, in the Great Western Tiers southwest of Launceston, a group of roadworkers were terrified in their camp one night by the incessant howling and screaming sounds of two or three unseen creatures. The men were convinced the area was inhabited by “Jungle cats” and refused to stay there another night!

Large Black 'panther' 1961

by Rex Gilroy
Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2010

Craig Black, a young fossicker, was digging in a creek in Ben Lomond National Park one day in 1961 when he realised he was being watched by a large black 'panther' further up the creek on the opposite bank. The animal emerged, then dashed across the shallow creek. It was apparently a female. "I am positive I saw that it was carrying a pouched cub," he said later to a ranger.

The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair 1970

by Rex Gilroy
Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2010

The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair region has long been the scene of ‘panther’ sightings stretching back to last century. In 1970, the region was alive with sightings reports of animals that left paw-prints up to five inches (12.6 cm) in width. At Mount Olympus, for example, campers discovered massive tracks embedded in mud near their camp, and, at the southern end of the lake, bushwalkers were horrified to discover a dismembered cow, torn apart only a day or two before by a creature whose large paw-prints were still visible in the soil about the site.

Snowy Range West of Hobart January 1972

by Rex Gilroy
Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2010

Tom Forester, a camper, was with two mates exploring the Snowy Range west of Hobart one weekend in January 1972. On this particular Sunday morning they all spotted a large, black-furred catlike animal observing them from the edge of dense scrub nearby their camp. They had no sooner got to their feet than the creature turned to vanish quickly into the trees. The men later found large paw-prints embedded in soil near their camp, suggesting the animal had been there the previous night.

Later that afternoon Tom went to get water from a creek. As he crouched on the creek's edge beneath a tall boulder, he saw a dark shadow reflected in the water. Before he could turn to look up, he was thrown aside as the dark shape leapt upon him with a screech, then bounded across the creek into bushland. A shocked, badly scratched Tom staggered back to camp. Soon afterward his startled friends went in search of the mystery animal but it had left the area.

Lake Merrimu near Bacchus Marsh January 1976

by Rex Gilroy
Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2010

On the morning of 29th January 1976 at Lake Merrimu near Bacchus Marsh west of Melbourne, a farmer and his family claimed to have seen a "six-foot-length, two-foot-tall, black-furred catlike monster" as it moved across their property dragging a dead calf in its powerful jaws. They stood dumbfounded for a moment before the farmer raced into the house to grab a rifle. The animal and its 'kill' had by now vanished into scrub, but the man and his teenage son gave chase. The strange beast, however, eluded them in the dense bushland.

Mt Wright Area April 1989

by Rex Gilroy
Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2010

In April 1989 a group of a dozen people saw a black-furred panther-like animal, about two metres in length from head to tail and standing up to 0.6 of a metre on all fours, as it moved along the shore of Lake Gordon in the Mt Wright area, north of the Snowy Range

Marlborough Highway 1990

An animal of this size and description was claimed seen bounding across the Marlborough Highway one afternoon in February 1990.

Split Rock, West of Great Lake 1960

Ten years earlier, one eyewitness claimed to have seen no less than three of these large 'panthers' roaming together near Split Rock, west of Great Lake. This report resulted in one farmer from the Mount Arthur district east of Launceston relating how, one day in 1960, he had watched powerlessly as a "black catlike monster", a good seven feet (2.3 metres) from head to tail, bounded out of scrub onto his property to attack and carry off a large calf.

• Research of Rex & Heather Gilroy
• Reports - Sightings From the 1995 Book Mysterious Australia - New * Click Here Now * New
• Original Newspaper Accounts * Click Here *
• The Best Sightings * Click Here *
• Theories - The Case For a Marsupial Cat * Click Here *
• Timeline of Sightings * Click Here *
• Expeditions Australia Wide * Click Here *
• Drawings * Click Here *
• Plaster Casts * Click Here *
• Compilation of Descriptions of Eyewitnesses * Click Here *
• Radio Interviews * Click Here *
• Television Interviews * Click Here *
• Newspaper Interviews * Click Here *
• Reports - Sightings From Out Of The Dreamtime - The Search For Australasia's Unknown Animals * Click Here *
• Message Board - Report a Sighting Australia Wide * Click Here *
State By State Sighting Reports
• Panther Research New South Wales * Click Here *
• Panther Research Victoria * Click Here *
• Panther Research Queensland * Click Here *
• Panther Research Northern Territory * Click Here *
• Panther Research Western Australia * Click Here *
• Panther Research South Australia * Click Here *
• Panther Research A.C.T (Canberra) * Click Here *
• Panther Research Tasmania * Click Here *
Reports on Panther Activity by Government Departments

• 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 *

• Legislative Assembly - Thursday 22 May 2003 * Click Here *
• Australian Zoos * Click Here *
Internet Reports
• Message Boards * Click Here *
• Newspaper Reports * Click Here *
• Blog Reports * Click Here *
Photographs/Video/Video Stills/Drawings
• Large Cats * Click Here *
• Feral Cats * Click Here *
• Private Zoos * Click Here *
• You-Tube * Click Here *
When Animals Attack
• Attacks involving lions or tigers in Australia since 1980 * Click Here *
Contact Rex & Heather Gilroy
• New Email: randhgilroy44@bigpond.com

Rex & Heather Gilroy - Research of the Australian (Marsupial) Panther -Sighting Reports

Kangaroo Valley: If, as I maintain, we are dealing with a still unknown species of giant marsupial cat related to Thylacoleo, then we can cancel out the 'panther' feral cat theory. Undoubtedly, feral cats make up a large percentage of Kangaroo Valley 'panther' reports, but a comparison of physical descriptions and plaster casts of 'panther' paw-prints certainly distinguishes this animal from any feral cat.
Rex & Heather Gilroy
Rex and Heather Gilroy-Australia's Top 'Unexplained' Mysteries Research Team.
Photos & Text From mysterious Australia copyright (c) Rex & Gilroy Heather 2010
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