Giant Monitor Research

Giant Reptilian Monsters in the Australian Bush

Photo copyright © Rex Gilroy 2007

The plaster cast made by Rex & Heather Gilroy, from a giant monitor lizard footprint, one of a number found by a Moruya New South Wales farmer in the winter of 1979.

Winter of 1979

During the winter of 1979, a 'huge goanna' [as the locals were describing it], mottled greyish skin-coloured and at least 6m in length, was reported seen around the Moruya area, on the New South Wales south coast. A farmer 'John' who found fresh tracks of the monster, embedded in the soil of his recently ploughed field, phoned me and at my request covered them while Heather and I drove down there from Katoomba the next day.

John covered all but one with coatings of grass, the other track he covered with a large bucket. Our hopes of photographing and casting a large number of giant monitor tracks were, unfortunately, largely dashed by heavy rain which fell before our arrival, obliverating all but the specimen beneath the bucket. I was able to prepare a good plaster cast of this track, a five-toed impression measuring 30 cm in length from middle claw to back of pad, by 31 cm wide from outstretched left to right claws.

The track was impressed 7 cm into the soil Sightings of 3 to 6 metre length giant goannas continue to be reported from Moruya and other nearby south coastal New South Wales districts.