Black panther sightings continue talk in local circles

On June 21 or 22, 2016, he and his cousin were driving the Captains Flat Road, towards Braidwood on NSW’s south coast.

They were in the midst of the Tallaganda State Forest when about a 100 metres ahead of them, the saw an enormous cat crossing the road.

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They stopped to take a photo, before gradually pulling closer. 

They inched forward, but after 10 metres, the cat darted into the bush.

Shane brought the incident to the attention of the Braidwood Times, after reading a story on the website of a recent similar sighting on the Illawarra escarpment. 

“I’m not saying it’s a panther, it could just be an extremely large cat,” Shane said.

But, it certainly was no ordinary cat. The animal was enormous, weighing in his estimation approximately 35 kilograms.

“It was huge, I’ve never seen a feral cat that big. It would have been 3-4 times bigger than the biggest cat I’ve ever seen,” Shane said.

Rumours of wild “panthers” in the Australian bush have abounded for over 100 years.

The Illawarra escarpment has been a particular hotspot, with several sightings in recent years, so much so that a local councillor offered a $5,000 reward for anyone who could capture one unharmed. The most recent sighting took place near Emu Plains in April.

In 2014, a Goulburn couple saw a large cat-like figure from their kitchen window. A month later, two women walking their dogs in North Goulburn also claimed to have seen a similar animal.

While it’s not impossible panthers exist wild in Australia, it is very unlikely given the absence of material proof.

Reports of “panther” sightings are generally made in good faith, but are not reliable proof such animals exist.

That was the conclusion of 2013 study, ‘Large free-ranging felines in New South Wales: a review’. 

“There is no conclusive evidence that large cats exist in the wild in NSW,” said author John Parkes.

“The sightings and other evidence presented, mostly from the Hawkesbury region, are at best prima facie evidence.”

Burra local Garry Gowen, formerly of Braidwood, recalls getting the suprise of his life seeing a similar animal in Namadgi National Park a few years back.

Driving along the open road one Sunday, Garry saw something by the side of the road about a kilometre away. He assumed it was a feral dog, and kept driving.

When he got closer to the animal, he realised there was no way it was a dog.

“It was a cat, some sort of cat, a big one,” he said.

“It’d be two metres probably, including the tail.”

When he came home, he still did not believe it. He reported it to ACT Wildlife, and was astounded to be told sightings were regularly reported in neighbouring Pearce’s Creek.

And while there is no absolute proof of big cats living in the Australian bushland, Garry is absolutely confident they do.

“There’s not many pictures, but a lot of people have seen such an animal,” he said. “I don’t expect to see one on a regular basis, but they’re most certainly out there, there’s no doubt about that.”

Reports of panthers are not regular, but do happen, says Namadgi Park Manager Brett MacNamara.

However, in his 30 years with National Parks he has yet to see anything like a panther in the park.

What he has seen however, is growing numbers of extremely large feral cats.

Reaching up to five kilograms, the feral cats are much larger than most people realise, says Mr MacNamara.

Parks are noticing more and more big cats across their area, he says. They are either domestic escapees, or their offspring, and are having a detrimental effect on native wildlife, such as lyrebirds and small mammals.

“Cats are the ultimate predator, the ultimate hunting machine,” he said.

“It’s a massive problem for us right across that conservation estate.

Mr MacNamara tends to believe that these are what most panther-spotters have seen.

Panthers quietly padding bushland paths, however, is an idea he sees the romance in.

“It almost goes back if you think about it to early colonial days, where there was always this sense of something out there lurking,” he said.

”It’s almost one of those things where it becomes part of the folklore of the mountains.

“There’s something mysterious about the possibility of a big cat or panther being around the mountains.”

Braidwood Times