Gold Coast Flashback: Meet Trevor, the Coast’s aqua-deer

FROM the weird and wacky files of the Gold Coast Bulletin, we bring you Trevor, the aqua-deer of Wavebreak Island.

Trevor the deer on the sandbanks south of Wave Break Island in the Broadwater.

THERE have been plenty of famous or near-mythical animals on the Gold Coast over the years, from the boa constrictor at The Spit to the yowie at Merrimac.

But one which came to be loved by the Gold Coast was Trevor the aquadeer which lived on Wavebreak Island in the mid-2000s.

The deer was first spotted in 2004 frolicking on the man-made island and swimming in the Broadwater.

Trevor the deer on the sandbanks south of Wave Break Island in the Broadwater.

Until June 2006, there had been no definitive photographs of the creature captured, with locals saying they had occasionally spotted antlers or hoof prints in the sand.

It was believed the deer had escaped from a deer farm or been abandoned on the island, or found its way from the Gold Coast Hinterland where a herd of the animals lives.

The deer was spotted at The Spit were it was photographed before it swam back to its island home.

Dave and Jan Gardner captured pictures of the elusive animal from their catamaran, which was moored south of Wavebreak Island.

They said the deer would come out regularly at dusk and frolic on the sand for about 10-15 minutes, before heading back to the bush.

“At first everyone thought we had been having too many drinks seeing this deer wandering around,’’ she told the Gold Coast Bulletin in 2006.

Trevor the deer.

“Then other people saw it”

Bundall man Ray Johnson also saw Trevor and told media he `couldn’t believe it’ when he spotted the deer at The Spit after his husky Jasper chased the animal out of bushes.

He said he watched the deer jump into the water and swim towards Wavebreak.

“It was going (running) really fast,’’ he said.

“It didn’t have big antlers or anything and was probably the size of a small horse — a pony.

“Nobody could believe it.

He said his husky had chased the deer down the beach, where it jumped into the water and swam to Wavebreak Island.

Trevor the deer.

The dog swam after it.

“The funny thing is a guy on the jetski, when he saw it, said `there is a wolf chasing a deer’,’’ he said.

Trevor was soon joined in late 2006 by a female deer which was dubbed Karla by locals and the pair were seen swimming in the Broadwater.

Sadly, Trevor’s life came to an end in July 2007 when he led police and wildlife officers on a two-hour chase from Burleigh Heads to the Isle of Capri

The July 19, 2007 chase, which began when the beast left Burleigh Heads beach about 8am, ended when it was shot dead by a wildlife officer on rocks near the back yard of a Rapallo Avenue home at 9.45am.

In late 2008 Karla was again spotted in the Broadwater but there have been no sightings since.