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believe that there is some kind of mutilated, half-eaten remains of cows dinosaur-type reptile inhabiting the and bulls in its wake over a wide area, Northern Territory jungles and __ stretching between the border country scrublands. and Burketown. Searchers on "I found the Aborigines terrified of horseback found huge reptilian tracks these animals. Some tribesmen of some bipedal-walking beast. They showed me ancient rock paintings followed the tracks with their cattle depicting the monsters, which they dogs through some rough jungle called Burrunjor. They describe terrain until they entered swampland, Burrunjor as a Tyrannosaurus-like beyond which was more dense scrub. reptile. There is one region of jungle It was at this point that the cattle in Arnhem Land beyond which no_ dogs became uneasy and ran off. The horse will go willingly—nor will most horses were also uneasy and obviously Aborigines. Horrific sounds are heard did not want to cross the swamp. by night and day, and the crashing of Most of the cattlemen decided that foliage in the jungle as the monsters their animals knew best, but two men move about. Some Aborigines and __ set off on foot with their carbines. Europeans have come across The story goes that they soon came enormous tracks in the soil, more than across further tracks in an open area enough to keep most people out of the beyond the swamp. While his mate region," Ritchie told me in 1982. searched about, the other man briefly spotted the dark form of an enormous Tracking and measuring creature, perhaps 30 feet (9.14 metres) footprints in height, further off in dense timber. In the coastal border country The men left the scene in haste. between the Northern Territory and Johnny Mathews, a part-Aboriginal Queensland and west of Burketown, tracker, claimed to have seen a 25- there is another region where, like foot-tall (7.62-metres-tall) bipedal Arnhem Land, no Aborigines, horses reptilian monster moving through the or cattle dogs will go—for there, too, scrub near Lagoon Creek, on the Gulf Burrunjor is said to roam. coast, one day in 1961. Back in 1950, cattlemen lost stock "Hardly anyone outside my own to some mysterious beast that left the people believes my story, but I know what I saw," he said to me in 1970. In June 1999, huge bipedal reptile- like tracks were found in sandy soil southwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory by Aborigines shooting wild boar. Similar, huge, claw tracks—a set of two dozen or so three-clawed footprints—were found in a dry creek bed north of Mount Isa, Queensland. Some residents of the Normanton, Queensland, district on the Gulf of Carpentaria believe Burrunjor lives deep in the mountains far to the northeast of there, occasionally emerging into the more open country to carry off stock. They say these creatures roam at night hereabouts, and the thumping of their powerful legs has been heard by campers. One day in May 1980, Max Field, a dingo shooter, was following freshly made tracks through scrub in the Kanuma district near Walker River, about halfway between Karumba on the Gulf coast and Normanton, when he came across a number of indistinct, giant-sized, three-clawed tracks of a bipedal animal in grass, extending across open hard ground and a dry sandy creek bed and then on into dense scrubland. Max forgot about the dingo and began looking for more of these footprints. Max, a part-Aboriginal, knew that only one animal could have been responsible, and after counting at least 50 footprints he then left, but returned later with two mates. They measured a couple of the footprints, which were two feet 7% inches (80 centimetres) in length by two feet five inches (73.6 cm) in width across the outstretched claws. The footprints were indistinct or did not register in the hard stony ground. The indistinct impressions left in the dry creek sand were at least three inches (7.62 cm) deep. The centre toe was at least 14% inches (37 cm) in length, and the outer toes measured 10 inches (25.5 cm) in length. All were Tracking and measuring footprints In the coastal border country between the Northern Territory and Queensland and west of Burketown, there is another region where, like Arnhem Land, no Aborigines, horses or cattle dogs will go—for there, too, Burrunjor is said to roam. Back in 1950, cattlemen lost stock to some mysterious beast that left the EXTRATERRESTRIAL EYE -TEST 64 ¢ NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2008 — JANUARY 2009