Search for Big Cat Continues

Search for Big Cat Continues
Danny Lannen
TWO truck drivers were gobsmacked when a mystery big black cat gave them an arrogant stare beside the Hamilton Highway near Inverleigh yesterday.
One of the drivers had to brake to avoid hitting the animal as it crossed the highway in front of him in clear light at 6.50am.
It paused beside the road.
``The way it stopped and looked at us really got me,'' he said.
``It was like `ha ha, you didn't get me'.''
He said the animal was the size of a labrador and had a distinctive long looping tail.
``It definitely wasn't a dog and it definitely wasn't a roo,'' the driver said.
``This was something a bit strange, I've seen them on TV and don't believe in all of that cr-p but now I've seen something with my own eyes and I don't know what it was.
``I'm not drunk and I'm not drugged, I told the police officer that half a dozen times.''
A truck driver travelling behind him also saw the animal before it ran off across paddocks.
The drivers filled the next 20 minutes talking to each other via radio with measures of disbelief.
The sighting, in open farmland near the Shelford turnoff, 4km west of Inverleigh, triggered a police inspection of the site and will grow the mystique of big cats in the Inverleigh district.
Researcher Simon Townsend estimated it was the first reported sighting in the district for four years.
``There have been sightings along the Barwon River at times, not many but on occasion, also further west near Wingeel and around Lake Murdeduke in the past 10 years,'' Mr Townsend said.
``There have been a couple of serious reports by farming people, solid types who take a lot to rattle but some have been rattled, and there can be stock killings which are hard to explain.''
Senior Constable Tony den Hartog of Inverleigh police inspected roadsides, dam banks and paddock perimeters in the area.
He did not find any paw prints and said landowners had not reported missing or savaged stock. ``But we'd like to hear if anyone has had stock killed and it doesn't look like a fox, has done it,'' Sen-Constable den Hartog said.
``Basically these things would kill like a wild dog.''
Mr Townsend urged people to report other sightings to him on 0427 101 223.
Geelong Advertiser: 17th July 2007