THE EMMAVILLE PANTHER


According to the Inverell Times 1902, Harry Leader and his brother were camped on Horse Stealers Gully a few miles east of Keera. One night they heard a blood curdling roar and for a brief moment they saw an animal in the fire light.

One of the brothers shot it. They then sent the slain animal to Sydney for tanning. The tanner informed them that it was a panther.

The first sighting in the Emmaville District was by Mr Don Clifford in 1958. He was walking along a path in the Gulf area looking for his horse which had strayed when he came across a long black creature, sitting on the path. He doesn't claim it was a panther but says that it was cat-like and would have been at least 6 foot long and was jet black.

In the same year, politician, Stan Wyatt, saw a big black animal like a panther near Tenterfield. Others who have sighted the animal include Rev Canon W. J. Pritchard of Guyra and Doctor R. S. Patterson of Glen Innes.

Mrs A. M. Potter and her son, Peter, have seen it twice. The first time was near Bunzulla, a few miles outside Tenterfield in 1963 and in February 1968. Mrs Potter looked out her window at 6am and saw the panther walking quietly out of a creek 200 yards from the house. She called her son, Peter and wife, Cathy, and watched the cat through binoculars for some few minutes. Peter described the animal as a large black cat about 5ft long and about 18 inches to 2ft high.

It was about this time it was reported as many as 40 sheep were killed over one weekend and many other animals were reported to have been killed and claw marks were found on what remained of the carcases.


So come and spend a week at the home of the black panther. Who knows, you might be lucky enough to see the big cat.