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.

This writer frequently receives such tales from widely scattered and remote regions of Australia, and many of these reports concern the often loud, weird, screeching sounds made by these animals.

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!

In 1940 outside Strathgordon, west of Lake Gordon in the wild bush country of southwestern Tasmania, a farmer and his wife spotted a "seven-foot-length giant panther-like animal as it dashed across their back paddock and leapt effortlessly over a six-foot-tall fence before disappearing into trees.

Let us now turn to Victoria and the other mainland states for further proof that a giant marsupial catlike species still survives in the Australian bush.

We turn now to Victoria

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 [1.83m] length, two foot [61cm] tall, black-furred cat-like 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.

East of Melbourne, near Hastings in 1977, a farmer, Mr Todd Anderson, lost three pigs in the space of a week, to a mysterious animal that visited his property at night. Each time it carried off a pig, the creature left behind enormous claw and pad marks in the farmyard soil.

In fact, the “Hastings Monster” has been known for generations to the locals. East of Hastings, across country in the Warragul-Moe districts, this ‘monster’ continues to make its presence known.

In 1990, two motorcyclists claim to have been confronted by a “seven foot length [2.13m] head-to-tail, black-furred, panther-like creature”, on a bush tack half way between Warragul and Drouin.

In 1999, there were several sightings of a sleek, black-furred, panther-like animal, or animals, in the Moe district. Late one night in March that year, a motorist, John Clark, had to apply the brakes when a large ‘panther’ appeared ahead of his vehicle in the headlights, standing on a lonely bush road. It was dazzled by the headlights glare momentarily, before dashing off the road into the darkness.

During 2000 there were reports of fresh tracks of the “Moe Monster” found on properties about the district.

Back in September 1978 a long ‘trackway’ of 15.3cm length paw prints were found on a muddy bush track close to the town. Eleven years later these animals were still being seen thereabouts, for in November 1989, a 1.6m long ‘panther’ was claimed seen crossing a paddock late one afternoon.

In June 1991, I received a report that several pigs and two calves had been killed by a mysterious animal in the vicinity of Yarragon. A farmer, a Mr Davis, discovered his missing animals in a heap in bushland, about two kilometres from his home. All had been mutilated and eaten and all had fang marks behind their heads - a characteristic of ‘panther’ kills.

My research into the elusive "Australian Panther" often digs up old but interesting stories, such as a case from 1940 outside Melbourne in the Whittlesea district. Locals had found a number of large paw-prints, and discovered that numerous poultry had been taken by an enormous catlike beast which persisted in terrorising the community and raiding farms in the area for some weeks