I was involved in an in-depth conversation earlier this evening with my American wife explaining to her the tragedy and the mystique of the Thylacine, and what a holy grail its rediscovery represents to so many people in Australia. I fervently hope that I will still be around when concrete proof of its existence finally comes to the fore.

Interestingly enough, there are similar parallels to a bird that was long thought extinct in NZ (Is it the Moa? It’s been a few years since I was there!). The extinct creature decided with some disdain to prove the nay Sayers wrong a few decades ago by re-emerging in the incredible wilderness of the south island’s west coast region. Interestingly enough, the discovery prompted the NZ government to designate the region as a protected zone, and I have little doubt that much of the Tasmanian wilderness would receive similar consideration if it were proved that the Tasmanian tiger roamed throughout the region. The Tasmanian government and its logging partners may not give a damn, but given the creature’s almost mystical hold on the Australian psyche, and our guilt over it’s disappearance, I cannot imagine that the Federal government and the Australian people wouldn’t insist on every form of protection being applied to its habitat if we were blessed with its official re-emergence.

Do I believe it still exists? Yes. To me it seems there have been far too many credible sightings, some even by park rangers, that can’t all be categorically dismissed. And a personal experience of my own some years ago also showed me how quickly authorities are ready to dismiss legitimate sightings – unless you have a PhD, you’re either blind, a moron, or a publicity hound.

14 years ago I was working as an assistant to a geophysicist during a large survey 30 or so miles out of Broken Hill when we began sighting a very strange creature almost on a daily basis, usually in the mornings as we’d arrive to begin our work. The first day we spooked it as we drove by a sheep carcass, which it seemed it was feeding on. We sighted it again a couple of days later from a distance, and finally on the third occasion I was fortunate enough to get an excellent view of it. All of these sightings occurred in a small valley we were crossing during this period of the survey, and on this final occassion I happened to be some distance from the others in the party, setting up some wires, when the others accidentally spooked the creature from a spot nearby where it had apparently been hiding – not realizing where I was it came tearing straight at me through the salt bush and blue bush and only veered away at the last minute when it sighted me. At worst, it couldn’t have been any more than 10 meters from me as it went tearing past, so I got a great view of it front on and in profile, and I tell you, it was one of the oddest creatures I’ve ever seen! We had all agreed that it was too large for a feral cat, and too odd in shape as well, and that was certainly true in a number of respects. It’s body was a bit chunkier, the legs shorter, the tail had nothing like the length of a cat’s and hung straight out, and the snout protruded out quite markedly from a head that seemed proportionally smaller than that of a cat. But what made the creature quite distinctive was the dark body with stripes on the sides, not too dissimilar in fact to the pattern of a Thylacine.

To say I was astonished would be an understatement. I wondered through my work day trying to figure out what the hell I had just sighted, and next day I went round to the local National Parks office to ask about it. The guy on duty looked at me as if I was some sort of crank who had just reported a Martian, but at least gave me a book to leaf through to see if I could recognize the species. The only thing I found that approximately resembled the creature were pictures of marsupial cats, with the obvious difference that the creature I sighted had dark stripes, not white spots. Rather excited about the whole thing I tried officially reporting it to the ranger, who showed absolutely no interest in the matter, as you might expect. Given that we were on a survey I was even able to give the guy the exact co-ordinates where the creature had been sighted, thinking this at least might inspire him to go out and take a look, but nothing ever happened. Can you believe that? This odd creature obviously seemed to reside in the valley we had found it in and the co-ordinates I gave specified exactly how to find it, yet they couldn't give a damn!

Only in recent years did I ever come across tales of the ‘Queensland tiger’ and reports of ‘panthers’ – I’ve even seen reports that claim the Queensland tigers sighted are actually the last remnants of the mainland Thylacine! All I know for certain is that the creature I saw was nowhere near that size, but what the hell it was I don’t know nor do I think I’ll ever find out.

Getting back to the Tasmanian tiger, if it were up to me and I had Kerry Packer-like funds I’d practically mount a military scale search using every resource possible – heat-sensors, night-vision equipment, motion detectors hooked to infra-red cameras, all in the capable hands of a large team scattered strategically around suspected ‘hot-zones’ 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I have read and heard of some incredible claims in years gone by of the astonishing tracking skills of aborigines, and if the skills are still there amongst tribal aborigines I think their expertise would be invaluable for scouring riverbeds and pools for signs of the animal. And to take it all one step further, I’d even invite people with claimed sightings to come forward and take polygraph tests – not to humiliate people or prove them liars, but to verify the sightings and sort the legitimate ones from the rest to help focus resources in the most hopeful regions.

I don’t know why the Australian government doesn’t even consider funding something like this, especially when one considers the significance of the discovery to the country as a whole – even to the world as well.

Sorry I’ve rambled on a bit, as you can see, it’s a subject close to my heart.

The site’s great by the way – I’m sure my wife will find it interesting when I show it to her tomorrow.

Tim

Thanks for your thoughtful and VERY CREDIBLE response. What you saw sounds very much like a Tas tiger. The fact that it was smaller than the height usually designated could mean that it was a young one. There have been a number of possible sightings reported from the 'mainland'. This is not surprising as the animal was once widespread throughout Australia. Supposedly, it was driven south to Tasmania by the dingo. Tasmania was then connected to the mainland but was later disconnected by rising sea levels.Here it was supposed to be isolated.

The intractability which you experienced when you reported your sighting reflects the disinterest and even scorn we have experienced.

Yes, the methods in proving its existence which you suggest are good. Unfortunately the $$$ those would require do not seem to exist here. Meanwhile, the bulldozers roll on and the habitat is lost. It's heartbreaking!

I am amazed to read your account of a sighting of Tiger some 30 miles from Broken Hill. In November of 1997, about 30 - 60km south of Broken Hill at 7.30am on the Silver City Hwy I too saw what can only be decribed as a Tassie Tiger, much to the 'joy' of all who I have told.

I was driving south about 20 min into a 9 hr drive home to Melbourne when a 'thing' with the strangest walk/run burst from the scrub straight across the road, in front of me & a White landcruiser ute travelling the other way. My mother in the passenger seat (who grew up in B/Hill) could only splutter "what is that?!" while I was speechless at what I saw. I slowed the car to a walk desperatly trying to follow its progress through the scrub. I then looked in the rearview mirrow to see the Landcruiser doing the same, confirming to me that what ever I saw was wierd!. To this day I wish I had have got out to speak to the driver of the 'cruiser, but my head was just spinning! After about 5 min I took off again south desperatly trying to get my head around what I had just seen 20 min south of Broken Hill!!

What did I see:
* It was the size of medium to large dog
* It moved like NOTHING else I had ever seen before.
*It had strong powerful hind legs
*smaller front legs
*A long stiff tail that pointed straight out. Far longer than any dogs tail & kinda looked like a kangaroo's tail.
* Its head was weird shaped with a long jaw/snout.
*Its colouring was a deep outback red. Anyone who has seen the earth around Broken Hill it was that colour.
* Im not sure I saw stripes across its back, but its colouring across the top of its rear 1/4 was darker than the rest.
*It's body was longer & out of proportion than all other animals.

What I am certain is it wasn't is a Dog, Cat, Fox, Kangaroo.

My best guess is that it could have been a Tassie Tiger, but I was 1200 km north of Tassie & they'd been extint for 60 years!............. or maybe they aint.