Big cat, Macclesfield, Vic, 1960's -70's

[Redneck]

When I was a child we lived on a dairying and pig farm at Macclesfield Vic, we left the area in 1969 but continued to visit friends in the area most Saturday afternoons for most of the 1970’s.
Through the 1960’s and ‘70’s the area was reputed to have a large black cat, which in those times was referred to as a “black panther”
In 1976 whilst out hunting rabbits with a mate and my father, we observed a sleek black animal in the tussocks along a creekline, we were up on some high ground looking down, all we could see was a portion of the animals body, estimated at knee height to an adult. No head or tail was visible.
We stopped and watched it for a while and debated what it could be, us kids (10 or 11 years old) reckoned straight away it was “The Panther”. Dad initially thought it was a new born calf that the mother had stashed in the tussocks while she fed. We watched it for a few minutes at a distance of about 120 metres, and talked about whether to go closer, but dad had changed his mind about it being a calf and wasn’t sure what it was so wouldn’t let us.
Then all of a sudden it just disappeared. It was quite odd in that one moment three of us were watching it, then it just vanished and none of us saw where it moved to.
I asked dad recently if he recalled this incident, but at 86 years of age he doesn’t remember it. He did tell me that all the farmers up there just accepted the fact that there was a “black panther” in the area and had been for quite a few years. From this you can see why my user name is Redneck, I know it was 1976 as for xmas in 1976 I got a brand new rifle. At the time I was carrying dad’s old .22 while my mate carried my single shot .22.

The district school recently had a centenary celebration and a mate flew over from WA for it, when we caught up it had been 20 years since we were last all together, we talked about people and things in the area and I brought up about the “black panther” We all remembered articles in the local paper during those years and the fact that it was just accepted in the district. Two stories I hadn’t heard came up in conversation.

My mate from WA told us that he was down at the bottom of Coopers Road where it ends and the area is bush and swamp when something growled at him from the scrub, he said it wasn’t a dog or anything he’d heard before, really low and deep that made his hair stand on end.

My older brother was party to all this talk and told us about something that happened to him on the farm which I’d never heard before. He was not far from dads pig pens near a small patch of scrub when he heard something large moving in the scrub, the farm dog, a mixed breed cattle dog, suddenly bolted toward home, the noise turned out to be a roo which came racing out of the scrub into the open paddocks where he was standing. He said his first thought was “stupid dog, scared by a roo” but he then thought “the dog wouldn’t be scared of a roo, so what spooked it? and what would scare the roo enough make it run out into open where a person was standing.” So at that point he joined the dog in a bolt for home.

So, nothing conclusive but some incidents that just don’t fit in with what is normally encountered or expected from people who are used to the bush. Of course the non-believers would say we were kids influenced by stories of a “black panther” in the area.

I think I still have a newspaper cutting about this big cat in an old scrapbook at dad’s, next time I’m in Melbourne I’ll see if its still there and scan it.

[Shazzoir]

Hey Redneck,
Thank you for posting such an interesting couple of posts lately, I'm glad you decided to de-lurk.

It's funny how memories stay with you, and how big an impact seeing something odd can have on your life's outlook.

I would love to see any clippings you can come up with about the black beasties in your old home territory.

Oh, and welcome to AYR!

Kind regards,
Shazzoir

[Dion]

Hey redneck

Great story

welcome to the forums

[Lasso]

Thanks redneck and welcome!!!!

Lasso