Has the Hills' big cat been found?

A PARTIALLY decomposed body of the mysterious “panther” has been found on a South Maroota property, reigniting speculation on the existence of a big cat roaming Hills bushland.


On November 28, Geoff Nowland’s three American staffies brought the dead panther to him, prompting him to call his mate Peter Spiteri to come over and have a look.

"When I looked at it, I could not tell what it was and it freaked me out a bit,” Mr Spiteri said .

“It definitely did not look like any dog or feral cat I have ever seen, especially with the fangs and teeth it has on it.”

Mr Spiteri said a week before the dogs found the dead panther, Mr Nowland’s puppy was mauled so badly it nearly had one of its legs amputated.

“The vet was very concerned and did not know what could have attacked the puppy so badly to cause it such severe injuries,” he said.

“I know there have been a lot of sightings of this panther out here, but it is pretty freaky to see it up close.”

The pair have buried the dead panther on Mr Nowland’s property because of the stink and to stop the dogs from getting at it.

Friend of the pair and Maraylya rally car driver Bruce Garland was the first to alert the Hills Shire Times to the images of the panther just before it was buried.

“There have been sightings of this panther out here for years and the other day it was sighted on the golf course at Riverside Oaks,” Mr Garland said.

“I think this panther was found on this property because it was either sick or it was protecting its own little ones.

“There definitely has to be more than one roaming around.”

Panther expert Mike Williams, who was involved in the famous 2005 dead panther shooting incident in Gippsland by a Victorian hunter, has lent his expertise to the Times to examine, measure and take samples from our dead animal.

Mr Williams and his partner Rebecca Lang launched their book Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers earlier this year.

Late yesterday, Mr Williams was digging up the animal’s body at the property to take measurements and samples.

“This would have been a very stocky muscular animal,” he said upon finding the two week old carcass.

“I would say it is a “big fearless cat” and in “big” I mean it is not your typical domestic animal, it has been crossed or mutated in some way.

“This is exciting and we definitly have something very interesting here.

“It could have done a lot of damage to the Australian wildlife.

“It would have been three to four times bigger then what we found, two weeks ago when it was buried.”


VANESSA BRADBURY

Do big cats exist in the Hills?

MIKE Williams doesn’t believe Australian big cats exist. He knows they do.

Williams and his partner Rebecca Lang have just published their book Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers and in it they not only ask such questions as: what are they? and where did they come from?.

They also seek answers in a revealing look into one of Australia’s greatest mysteries.

One of the stories featured in the book is that of Kenthurst’s Luke Walker’s encounter in March, 2003.

His experience will forever be etched in his mind and that of Hills residents, as the cat “the size of a labrador” leapt at him in the dark and left him with deep cuts to his arm.

Williams, a writer and photographer, said he was a sceptic about the big cats until he was asked to video a conference Lang, a journalist, was holding about the mysterious feline species in 2001.

“At the conference I saw a picture taken of a lioness around 1986/87 caught by police at Broken Hill,” he said.

“From then on I knew these cats existed.

“The whole subject is fascinating.

“It is very hard to hunt down a ‘big cat’ in Australia because they are smart animals, there is not much open bushland and we don’t have trained hounds. Especially in the back of Grose Vale, you can’t see more than 100m in front of you at times.”

Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers book took the pair eight years of research and interviews to complete and during that time their experiences and discoveries have been featured in various documentaries including the Discovery Channel Animal X.

Their work has also appeared in many magazines including Australian Shooter, Big Cat Yearbook 2007, the Centre for Fortean Zoology Yearbook 2009 and The Fortean Times Paranormal Handbook 2009.

You can pick-up a copy through their website at http://www.australianbigcats.com.au

by VANESSA BRADBURY
Hills Shire Times