cisco said...
There was something on the telly about panthers on the loose in rural Victoria.
Anybody know anything about that??
There's always reports about panthers, but no 'real' proof. The story goes...early last century, a panther got loose in regional Vic. from a travelling circus, and was never found. It was either pregs, or bred with feral cats to produce a line of big 'black cats that are seen often, but never caught on hi-res cameras!

A friend (farmer) had his chooks stolen over a few nights and decided to hold a 'stakeout'.
The first night, he spotted the offender, and from what he described to us, it was a black cat slinking along, that stood about 1m high with a long tail, about 1.2m long! (panther?) As he was reaching for his gun...the old power lead (typical farmer patch-up job) pulled out of the spotlight & by the time he got another light, it had gone.
So the next night he made sure his spotty was good, had gun handy & the 'panther' walked up to the chook-yard, about 20m from where he was setup...he waited for the prime shot (fame just seconds away!), and squeezed the trigger...gun jammed! He's had this gun for over 20yrs, and this is the first time it ever did it! Turned him a bit superstitious, and he never saw the cat again.
That is the nearest to a 'first-hand' account I've ever heard, but there's been sightings in the Grampians, Gippsland, Mallee...etc.