Nexus - 0208 - New Times Magazine-pages

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ago. ing. Instead they came across large tracks which they followed This intriguing possibility must be given favourable consider- for about 500 yards in the direction of Mouin Creek, where they ation in the light of palaeontological discoveries in recent years, _ petered out. of fossil remains of more than one, hitherto unknown species of Another bushwalking party in April 1945, descending the ancient marsupial carnivore. The tinct _ Korrowal Buttress of Mount Solitary, must have been aston- Marsupial Lion (Thylcoleo} : — { ished as they watched through carnifex) which roamed the binoculars four of these lion- Australia in Ice-age times. * like Warrigals loping across Be this as it may, there is Cedar Valley. Cattle roam half certainly more than enough ' wild around the scrubland south room for them to hide in the - of the Jamieson Valley farm, and vast Blue Mountains range: also around the remoter outlying « emerging from time to time regions of the Megalong Valley, onto outlying farms and towns just as they have done for many Such an animal was reported years past. On two occasions in seen in 1972 in the Mulgoa dis- : 1949, three months apart, Mr. L. trict south of Penrith, near the- A. Adams found the freshly Blue Mountains eastern escarp- ' killed and mutilated bodies of ment, killing sheep, and on calves on the Cox's River near another occasion an enormous _ Konangaroo Clearing. big-toothed, lion-like beast was - A number of these wild cattle said to have approached three ~ were found killed and mutilated young shooters in the same area in 1977. They fired at the crea- in the Jameison and Megalong Valleys that year by campers, ture but it escaped into dense scrub. and for some months most bushwalking groups avoided this Sightings of these lion-like animals persist to this day around —_ rea until the killing and sightings died off. the Blue Mountains, especially in the Megalong Valley below Even in recent times, many people in the Mouin Creek area Blackheath, into the adjoining Cedar Valley/Jameison Valley have heard weird howling and wailing noises believed made by south of Katoomba, into Kedumba Valley to the south of Mount _ these animals. The same sounds have been reported on and off Solitary, around the backwaters of the Warragamba Dam and __ over the past 14 years in the areas around the lower Blue the southern side of the Burragorang Valley, now largely flood- | Mountains, near Springwood, indicating perhaps some of these ed by the Warragamba Dam backwaters. animals have survived east of the Warragamba Dam backwa- Actually, the decline in ‘lion' reports on the lower Blue _‘et8. During 1970 there were a number of reported sightings of Mountains after the mid-1950's w “Warrigals” in the Kings was probably due to the gradual ty Tableland area south of flooding of Burragorang \ Wentworth Falls. Valley, following construction Lion-like animals still persist of the Warragamba dam, which in the Mulgoa district. Not long would have restricted the after one of these monster cats movements thereabouts of was seen killing sheep on a these creatures. This has how- ; property in the early 1970's, a ever, led to an increase in sight- § farmer shot what may have been ings around the western side of a young, tomcat-sized animal of the backwaters into the Jenolan the ‘lion’ description. He pre- Range/Cedar and Megalong sented the dead animal to scien- Valleys. tists at Sydney University. Yet, In August 1970, I explored despite the totally different body the Red Dog Ridge area behind structure and protruding teeth of Mount Solitary with range the animal, these ‘experts’ Brian Hastings for evidence o brushed it aside as merely “a ‘Yion' activity. The Ridge is another landmark which acquired deformed domestic cat"! Such "scientific" explanations as this its name from the frequency of Warrigal sightings in the past. do not hold water. For example: in October 1937, a group of bushwalkers found Back in 1972, two teenagers, Ron Briggs and Rod Coffee, on White Dog Ridge the decaying body of a huge animal about Were riding pushbikes out on Lawson View Road, Wentworth 1.2m in length which had apparently fallen over a cliff known Falls, when a huge shaggy-haired ‘mountain lion’, at least 1.6m as Kelpie Rocks. Ten days after this find was reported, Mr. im! Jength, and standing approx 1m high, bounded across the Eric B. Gilmel of Ashbury, NSW, set out with three other bush- walkers in an effort to photograph the remains, but found noth- Continued on page 64 Back in 1972, two teenagers, Ron Briggs and Rod Coffee, were riding pushbikes out on Lawson View Road, Wentworth Falls, when a huge shaggy-haired ‘mountain lion’, at least 1.6m in length, and standing approx Im high, bounded across the NEXUS¢27 JUNE-JULY 1992 Continued on page 64