Ongoing pursuit to find the Tasmanian tiger

COL Bailey has spent almost 50 years trying to prove the Tasmanian tiger still exists — and he’s hoping he’ll still be here when it’s finally found.

Thylacine author and "hunter" Col Bailey, who is convinced the Tassie tiger is not extinct because he believes he has had two sightings over the years. Picture: Kim Eiszele

COL Bailey is “100 per cent sure” that the thylacine — better known as the Tasmanian tiger — still runs wild on the Apple Isle. The retired landscape gardener from Hobart has spent almost 50 years on the trail of the carnivorous marsupial, despite the wider belief it has been extinct for 80 odd years.

“I’ve made proving otherwise my lifetime pursuit,” he says.

Along the way, Col has documented the history and mystery of the Tassie tiger in several books. His latest, Lure of the Thylacine, is a collection of short stories of sightings and encounters told to him years ago by old trappers and bushmen.

A Tasmanian tiger pictured at the Hobart Zoo, date unknown. Picture: Kim Eiszele

“A lot of these old fellas are extinct themselves now,” says Col, 79. “So they would have these stories to the grave if I hadn’t have got them out of them.”

Although he no longer manages to get outdoors much, CommBank’s Australian of the Day spent decades trekking through some of Tasmania’s most rugged bush to follow his passion to prove the thylacine survives.

In all those years, though, he only ever saw a thylacine twice — the last time in 1995 in a valley south-west of Hobart. “I couldn’t take you to one today but I’ve got a pretty fair idea where they are,” says Col. “Although it’s not a thing I want to broadcast.”

Col knows “naysayers” will never accept his views and the only way he’d be able to prove thylacine’s existence would be to present a carcass of a recently killed animal. “Because if I ever saw one, I’d never attempt to catch it,” he says. “I think the poor things been hounded from pillar to post for so long we should let it run free to do what it wants to do.”

Until that happens Col’s got another book to write. “It’s called Mystery of the Thylacine,” he says.

“But when I sit down to write I wish I could go back 30 years knowing what I know now. Time’s running out for me and I’m very sad I’m not going to be around when all this breaks and a tiger is found. But then maybe I will: maybe it will happen sooner than I think.”

Here’s hoping.

CommBank has partnered with News Corp Australia to champion the Australian of the Day initiative which celebrates people in our neighbourhoods and communities who really make a difference to how we live and who we are. You can read all their stories at australianoftheday.com.au, where you can also nominate someone you know.