Looking back: the persistent myths of Grampians puma | WMT 150 years

The Grampians puma is one of the longest-running stories in the Mail-Times, with countless sightings and articles dating back to the early 1970s.

Sightings of pumas, big cats and even lions throughout the Grampians have come from as far north as Mackenzie Creek to Hamilton in the south.

The theories behind how the exotic animal might have arrived in the Grampians have also varied.

Despite decades of puma sightings, no conclusive proof has emerged that a big cat exists or has existed in the Grampians area.

In 2012, the state government investigated the big cat sightings, but the study found that large cats were unlikely to live in Victoria because of a lack of evidence.

However, with countless sightings, some people refuse to give up.

Independent amateur big cat researchers spend thousands of dollars installing infrared body heat cameras across the region looking for exclusive, irrefutable evidence of the mythical beast.

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An article in the Mail-Times in 1989 cited an 1877 report which raised whether wealthy young squatters had released lions in the mountains to kill ostriches and deer introduced by Longerenong Station founder Samuel Wilson.

On December 7, 1989, People magazine offered a $20,000 bonus for the first person to deliver a genuine puma - dead or alive - to its doorstep.

"What's behind all the alleged pumas prowling the Aussie bush? Is it vivid imaginations or is the genuine article out there?" the magazine asked.

The Ballarat Star reported on Saturday, June 21, 1924, that a Puma had escaped the Perry Brothers' Circus in St Arnaud.

"Having shown (Perry's Brother's Circus) at St. Arnaud last night, the circus was proceeding to Dunolly, and when the train was about a mile from St. Arnaud the side of one of the cages fell away, releasing a Jaguar and a Puma." The Ballarat Star read.

The whereabouts of the two animals were discovered. However, if big cats could escape once, it could have happened again.

The most well-known theory is that the big cat sightings that many people report today could be descendants of abandoned American soldier mascots from World War II.

The belief is that during the Second World War, when American soldiers were based in Australia, the troops could sneak in a wide range of animals to have as their mascots.

The legend of the panther has been so prominent in Australian folklore that in the late 1970s, Deakin University professor Dr John Henry launched a study in the Grampians to find out the truth.

Dr Henry concluded that "there is sufficient evidence from a number of intersecting sources to affirm beyond reasonable doubt the presence of a big-cat population in Western Victoria."

"This population of big-cats most probably dates from March 1942 and had, as its original location, the Grampians Mountain Ranges."

During World War Two, the most common theory involved American military servicemen who supposedly brought Pumas to Australia as their mascot.

However, more is needed to explain the sightings of the big cats pre-WWII.

The Mail-Times ran the picture on the front page of the September 18, 1964, edition, claiming: 'Here it is! Ozenkadnook Tiger photographed'.

"The photograph is the first ever taken of the Goroke 'monster', for years the talk of district farmers and naturalists," the article stated.

Melbourne woman Rilla Martin took a photograph in thick scrub almost 18 kilometres west of Goroke.

Author Mike Williams researches mysterious Australian animals and has investigated the fabled tiger.

He would like to believe the photo is real.

"If it's a fake, I'm not saying it is, but if it is, it's very well done," he said.

"If it is real, it would be extraordinary from a zoological perspective."

Ms Martin said she would go to her grave insisting the creature was real.

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