An Austinmer man reckons he has solved the mystery of the black panther said to be dwelling in the bush near the base of the Sublime Point walking track.
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After a close encounter with a large black feline on the track on Tuesday, Rob Brown said the creature is real, but not a panther. It is a large feral cat.
His wife and he were walking the Gibson track on Tuesday morning and stopped to photograph a sign where someone had scrawled "black panther seen 26.4.20" - two days previous.
"I saw a massive black cat - or at least the end of a massive black cat," Mr Brown said.
"We bumped into a lady on the Gibson walking track, and she was carrying a massive stick. She said someone had put a sign up to say they've spotted the panther ... a couple of days ago.
It sounded like someone chucking 20L of water into a palm tree.
- Rob Brown
"Someone had written it in chalk. My wife and I were having a laugh. Took the photo, put the phone in my pocket, I walked four steps and it must have been up in a tree, because it's jumped out of the tree into these big palms at my eye height. I saw its back legs and its tail as it ran into the scrub. It scarpered for about five steps and then it didn't move.
"I wasn't frightened - I instantly went 'let's go and have a look' ... and then I thought 'maybe we shouldn't'. So we scarpered down the track."
He said it was about 80-90cm long, with a 60cm tail, and 40-50cm legs.
"It sounded like someone chucking 20L of water into a palm tree. Its tail was bushy-ish, not like fluffy cat fluffy, but not thin like dog fur. Black as the ace of spades. Totally black. No other colour on it. I can certainly see why people think it was a panther. Its tail ... would have been nearly two feet long. It's big.
"I would put my money on it being a big feral cat, not a panther.
"What would be interesting would be if someone could try and catch it."
There have been numerous claimed sightings of a panther in the bush near that track but the mystery may now have been solved by an up-close and personal view.
In October 2014 a retired police sergeant saw a similar creature on the Sublime Point track. In January 2015 two jogging sisters were shocked after a similar sighting at the same spot.
In April 2017 an Austinmer father and son said they saw it on Buttenshaw Dr. It was enough for big cat enthusiast Vaughan King to label the track a big cat "hotspot".