Panther doco on Discovery Channel follows hunt for Australian big cat
A group of diehard big cat believers is out to prove the great Aussie myth in a new documentary. But for one of the hunters, it all started when he says he saw a black panther in the Yarra Valley in the 1970s.
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The enduring mystery of big cats roaming Australia — in particular the Yarra Ranges — is hitting televisions screens with a team of dedicated believers out to prove to the nation the myth is true.
Veteran researchers Simon Townsend and John Turner, and their younger counterpart former Australia Zoo big cat keeper Vaughn King star in the documentary The Hunt: In Search of Australia’s Big Cats premiering on Foxtel’s Discovery Channel on May 5.
Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader has been reporting on big cat sightings across the Yarra Ranges and Knox for more than a decade.
The trio’s quest takes them to remote Otways bushland in Victoria, the Hunter Valley in NSW and the south west of Western Australia.
While many people believe the big cat mystery stems back to when US soldiers were posted to Aussie shores during World War II and allegedly brought the predators in as troop mascots, which they later released into the wild.
However, Mr Townsend said it was not likely as by the time World War II came around the government had stricter import controls in place.
He said predators like panthers were often a status symbol for those people who had hit riches overnight during the Gold Rush era.
“The Chinese had all sorts of animals around their diggings as security,” Mr Townsend said.
He said during those days people could buy a range of things at the wharf.
“We’re close to East Asia and were able to get black melanistic leopards … and there were not great records kept,” he said.
“They auctioned a Bengal tiger in the old British Hotel in Geelong.”
Mr Townsend has spent the past 40 years looking for evidence of the illusive beasts and controversially wants a specimen on a slab.
“My first formal approach to having a look was in 1973 … I was privy to investigating a report with a group and went where we were told something had happened — a confrontation between workers and an animal,” he said.
He said workers had been clearing the scrub around a pipeline in Warburton when a big cat came out and frightened them.
“We went and had a look and this thing came out — it was a melanistic leopard (black panther),” he said.
Mr Townsend said he had worked at the Melbourne Zoo and helped look after the big cats, learning their characteristics.
He started investigating privately and eventually set up Big Cats Victoria website.
“A Fisheries and Wildlife officer collected a scat (animal poo) in the Otways, which by DNA analysis contained hairs from a melanistic leopard,” Mr Townsend said.