Nexus - 0208 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Point, NSW, wrote that 36 years before, he had been prospect- s having from light to dark —_ing on the main dividing range west of Katoomba. On climbing dand a long, shaggy mane. 2 small hill one day, which was covered with granite boulders, their powerful jaws. he found himself confronted with what he took to be a full- Lion" by early settlers, they sfown female lion emerging from the mouth of a cave. »mmunities scattered across As soon as it disappeared, Mr. Wilson climbed to the mouth animbla valleys, extending of the cave and entered it to see if there were any more of the the vast Jenolan/Kanangra _ creatures there. He then followed the tracks of the strange ani- mal into a rocky scrub and tree-covered area but failed to find : still the subject of campfire ny further trace of it. y nights, for there are many About two years following this experience, he said another 1imed encounters with the animal resembling a lion was seen by four men and some : | large cat-like pad marks in Schoolchildren as it emerged from the bush and crossed an open space leading to a pond, where it proceeded to drink before it 2m long ‘lion-like' animal, Ce again returned to the bush. This incident at Sodwalls, was 1979 on a lonely bushland —_‘0t the only such experience among the locals. land above Cairns prompted Mr. Wilson recalled how around Sodwalls, children used to be kept at home from school whenever the animal was reported in the vicinity. . In those times it was general- ly agreed among bushwalking circles that there existed a small pack of these animals, and that their lair was situated some- where between Breakfast Creek, - Mouin Creek, and Cox's River. Prior to 1934, this region was described on maps as the Wild Dog Mountains and there are a number of reports of these big shaggy-haired creatures having been encountered thereabouts. During February 1959, a rail- ing on all fours. They were invariably described as having from light to dark brown fur, with a large cat-like head and a long, shaggy mane. Large shearing teeth protruded from their powerful jaws. Nick-named the "Blue Mountains Lion" by early settlers, they were the terror of lonely farming communities scattered across the Burragorang, Megalong and Kanimbla valleys, extending north to Lithgow and west beyond the vast Jenolan/Kanangra region. Stories of these mystery ‘lions' are still the subject of campfire tales on dark Blue Mountains valley nights, for there are many people who, even today, have claimed encounters with the beasts. Many more still have found large cat-like pad marks in the ground. News reports of an approximate 2m long 'lion-like’ animal, scen by a party of loggers in mid-1979 on a lonely bushland track high up on the Atherton Tableland above Cairns prompted a number of Blue Mountains residents to come forward with stories of their own. During 1988, such an animal was sighted by campers near Hampton, west of Katoomba, the location of some bad cattle mutilations on remote proper- ties. Until a decline in the number of reported sightings on the lower Blue Mountains after 1955, the first half of the 1950's was a very active period for these animals. Campers and bushwalkers made frequent reports of encounters, and there were many cattle mutilations, over an area extending from the Kings Tableland of Wentworth Falls, eastward down to the Lapstone escarpment. It was a time of considerable panic among the locals. During 1953, a group of army officers and men undertook a cross-country march from Ingleburn Army Camp to Katoomba, during which they kept a lookout for a ‘lion-like’ beast which about that time had been reported as scen prowling at night through bushland between the towns of Warragamba and Katoomba. During February 1959, a rail- way workman, Mr. Alec Donaldson, was working on electricity lines in deep scrub in the vicinity of Clarence on the western side of the Blue Mountains near Lithgow. Rain the night before had made the ground damp, and on the soft mud of a track, Mr. Donaldson came upon several fresh pad marks of some huge cat-like beast, measuring a good 15cm in width. Needless to say, Alec Donaldson decided not to stay very long after his discovery and could never be persuaded to return there ever again. Old-timers of the Clarence district say such large tracks have been seen thereabouts in the dense forest land for generations, These ‘lion’ footprints have been photographed and casts exist of some of them. They compare with other found by me in a cave at Medlow Bath west of Katoomba in 1978. These tracks were a few days old when found but I was able to produce one plaster cast of the best surviving print. It measures 17cm in width by 15cm in length, and is different to a plaster cast of the notorious ‘Australian Panther’, found that year in the Cambewarra Range district in southern New South Wales. But what exactly are these "Blue Mountain Lions"? I would suggest that these 'monster-cats' are a population of some as yet unknown species of giant marsupial cat that has survived since the close of the last ice-age over 12,000 years Loggers working near Mount Harris, 15 miles from Katoomba informed the soldicrs that the beast was covered with long shaggy hair and that it was about the size of a lion. They had named it the Erskine Gap Monster. Large paw prints were found in the Mount Harris - Erskine Gap region. (They still are found today!) In October 1955, Blue Mountains residents spent consider- able man-hours ‘lion-hunting’. Large parties of locals together with police searched extensive areas of bushland between Wentworth Falls and the Blaxland-Glenbrook area, in search of a large shaggy-haired lion-like animal which had been causing concern. 26*NEXUS JUNE-JULY 1992 In the Sydney press in 1953, a Mr, W.B. Wilson of Cremorne