THE mystery of Goulburn’s Black Panther has once again resurfaced.
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The ever-elusive feline was spotted two weeks ago by two women out walking their dogs on Common St in North Goulburn, just a stone’s throw away from where Jeff and Ruth Gulson sighted a similar creature weeks ago.
Karen Mills and Melissa Rodger couldn’t believe their eyes when, on the afternoon on November 4 just before sunset, they realised what was right in front of them.
It was Melissa who saw the creature first.
“It was just sitting on the edge of the gutter and it looked like a huge big cat,” she recalled.
“It was so strange. It just didn’t move, it was like it was frozen. Everything was frozen – there was a big kangaroo in the paddock just standing there very still, staring at it. It was like they were in a trance, it was very bizarre, like time was frozen.
“It wasn’t until I opened and closed my car door that it sort of flinched, looked at me and then before I knew it, it disappeared.
“It would have been there for five minute but it didn’t even acknowledge us.”
Karen, who was on the phone at the time, said prior to the experience she was sceptical of all the reports of big bush-cats in the region.
“You just can’t believe it; I mean how can that even be? I never would have believed it if I didn’t see it myself,” she said.
“It was close to as big as my German shepherd, way too big to be just a normal cat.”
The pair, too gripped by the unbelievable nature of their sighting, was unable to take a photo of the creature before it fled.
“Normally we take photos of everything but I just couldn’t believe was I was seeing,” Karen explained.
“I didn’t even think to get my camera, I was too busy trying to see if Karen had seen what I had seen or whether it was just me,” Melissa said.
More sightings
FOLLOWING the Gulson’s initial report of a panther sighting on October 1, a number of other witnesses have presented themselves to media across the region.
Just weeks ago, Austinmer resident Manii Versoza, on a regular walk on the Sublime Point track on Thursday morning, said a jet black animal ‘‘the size of a labrador’’ with a ‘‘long, swooping cat tail’’ rushed out of the bush and crossed the track around a metre in front of him.
‘‘Any closer and he would have jumped on me,’’ Mr Versoza, a retired sergeant and officer in charge of the Illawarra police rescue squad, told the Illawara Mercury.
‘Panthers’ have also been spotted in areas surrounding Lithgow, Bathurst, Windellema and Wentworth Falls.
Writing in the Windellama newsletter in May, 2008, Dean Alessi stated that he and his family were driving home one night when they saw “something” cross the road in front of them between McGaw’s Road and Hillcrest.
“It fitted the description of a puma or panther,” Mr Alessi wrote.
“It was around a metre tall and about one and a half metres long. It walked smoothly looking directly at us as it went across the road.”
A month later the newsletter reported more sightings including one on Silverstream Rd, another in the Shoalhaven Gorge and a third near the school where the first cat was reported.