Large, black-furred cat-like animal. Large paw prints embedded in soil near their camp. Thrown aside, dark shape leapt upon him with a screech. Bounded across the creek into bushland. Shocked, badly scratched staggered back to camp.
A group of a dozen people. Black-furred panther-like animal. Two metres in length from head to tail. Standing up to 0.6 of a metre on all fours
“Black cat-like monster”, a good seven feet [2.3m] from head to tail, bounded out of scrub Attack and carry off a large calf.
Young Fossicker. Being watched by a large black ‘panther’ from among bushes. Animal emerged, then dashed across the shallow creek. It was apparently a female. “carrying a pouched cub,”.
Farmer and his wife. spotted a “seven-foot-length, giant, panther-like animal” [2.13m], dashed across their back paddock. Leapt effortlessly over a six foot [1.83m] fence before disappearing into trees.
Two motorcyclists. Confronted by a “seven foot length [2.13m] head-to-tail, black-furred, panther-like creature”, on a bush track.
Reports of fresh tracks of the “Moe Monster” found on properties about the district. A long ‘trackway’ of 15.3cm length paw prints were found on a muddy bush track close to the town.
A massive black monster. Caught in the glare of the headlights, walking across the highway some distance ahead of us. 20 feet away. The animal, it snarled directly at us, then dashed off the road into the darkness across open ground.
The animal looked like a giant panther - big head, large body and long tail - and at least 7ft [2.13m] from head to tail, and about 3ft [92cm] in height on all fours. Its legs were powerful-looking and it had big paws.”
Walking across a paddock towards a stand of tall gums when, to my horror, a monstrous black ‘thing’ emerged from the tree-cover not 50ft [15.24m] ahead of me, and bounded in big long strides across the property. Bdy length of at least six feet [1.83m], with a two feet [61cm] long tail. Stood about two feet six inches [76cm] off the ground. Shiny black fur and big legs. Looked like a big jungle cat of the type found in Asia but for its big, dog-like head.
I panicked and ran for the farmhouse as the animal jumped a roadside fence in a big leap and scrambled across the road into scrub.”
Dingo-shooting. Spotted in the distance a large black animal walking across a dry creek bed. Rraised his telescopic sight-fitted rifle. Could have shot the animal, but chose not to. “The animal was unique to me and was doing no harm. I would say it was up to 1.83m from head to tail, and stood up to 61cm high on all fours. It looked something like a cross between a big panther and a dog of some kind”, he said.
A dozen sightings reports, as well as several discoveries of tracks of these animals were reported to the author from widely-scattered areas of the Kimberley. Samples of their excrement recovered by landowners sent to university scientists in Perth received no response.
A boundary rider. Had seen these animals on three occasions in the Fitzroy area. “In the first incident, I noticed I was being watched from about 30 feet away by a black, cat-like animal standing among bushes. It appeared curious and was about the size of an Alsatian Dog. It then moved off. In the second incident I came upon a black cat or panther-like beast in the act of devouring a calf it had just killed. I It was about five to six feet from head to tail. My third encounter I found a number of large, sloppy tracks in the mud of a waterhole. I got off the horse and had a look at them. They were about five inches in width and length, even allowing for distortion in the mud, and I estimated they were only minutes old. The tracks led off up a dry creek bed and I followed them ‘til they disappeared into thick bushland’.
It was soon after this I saw ahead of me, perched some 25 feet [7.62m] from the ground, a large, perhaps six foot long, panther-like animal, its red tongue hanging out as it panted, watching me from a tree limb. My horse took fright and I decided to leave the place. The animal made no effort to move and was still there on the limb when I rode away.”
Nineteen year old saw a horrifying sight while bushwalking. 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.
A group of tourists - men, women and children 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. 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.
A stockman riding in bushland was thrown from his horse when he was surprised by a giant-sized, black-furred, cat-like monster. Claimed was the “size of a cow”. Only a few hasty shots from his revolver saved him from attack, and the animal fled into the scrub.
A unit of soldiers patrolling the jungle near Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria coast surprised a large black cat-like animal engaged in tearing up a full-sized bull it had just killed. The men grabbed for their rifles, the animal left its ‘kill’ and dashed across the foliage toward the men. A lucky shot brought it down. Left the body where it lay. Despite a search some weeks later, they failed to relocate it.
A ‘panther’ was reported terrorising the Atherton district of far north Queensland. It left huge paw prints in farmyard soil and on creek banks, killed poultry and calves, and made its presence known by emitting loud, ear-piercing cat-like screams and howls from the forest depths on the edge of lonely farms late at night.
A farmer and his family were sitting in their lounge room listening to the radio. In the moonlight he spotted a large dark shape moving past the window. He looked out and saw, to his surprise and shock, an enormous dog-cat like animal walking into the backyard. Grabbing his rifle, he alerted his wife. In the torchlight they saw an enormous, black-furred creature with glaring silver-white eyes looking toward them from barely 20ft [6.1m] away! They were terrified, but the farmer fired at the animal, hitting it twice. It dashed off screeching into the darkness.The next day a neighbour found the animal lying dead in the scrub near his home. The two men buried it, thinking to recover the skeleton later, but for one reason or another they never did.
An entire family got a good look at one of these animals. Two boys and their parents were standing among trees on the edge of a large paddock, when they spotted a large black animal moving through tall grass.
They watched as the creature began loping across the paddock, then stopped and looked in their direction. It appeared to be 2m in length from head to tail. By this time, the father had dashed to the nearby family car to get his binoculars. “The animal had a cat-like, yet dog-like body appearance about it, with pricked ears. Its large head looked dog-like, but the sleek black fur that covered the animal’s body made it look similar to a panther. It had a long tail which did not appear to wag. We were about 360m from the animal. It then dashed off across the paddock, heading for a dry creek bed, and vanished quickly,” the father told me later.
A farmer went to see what was making his cattle uneasy in a back pasture. As he approached a group of cows, he saw a “monstrous black-furred dog-yet-cat like beast” emerge from behind a tall rock. He afterwards described it as “standing fully three and a half feet [1.7m] on all fours, and with a body six feet [1.83m] long, and a tail at least three-to-four foot [ie up to 1.22m] in length”. “It stood there snarling, 20 feet from me, its face displaying a wrinkled, leathery-looking appearance with yellowish eyes. I had no gun and ran for my life back to the house. By the time I returned armed, it was gone. I saw it in the distance, bounding up a rise into a stand of timber. It never returned”, he told me later.
