TANIA POOLE: Tales from the Antipodes

So I’ve heard many people mention to me that they have seen things. Big Cats are an extremely common sight here in Central Victoria. Thylacines are more fascinating, but then Yowies and Bunyips are even more exciting! People who have spoken to me are local people yet cover an area from Horsham to Gippsland. I’m yet to speak to some more people I have on my list, so they will come when they come. Josie is a new friend of mine, and she told me about this sighting at a Yule feast, so I decided to make her the first interviewed.

Interview with Josie Harris

Tania: Where do you live?

Josie: I live in Ballarat now, but my family is from Amphitheatre, which is on the way to Avoca. It’s the start of the Great Divide.

T: So is that the Pyrenees area?

J: Yeah, the mountains look the same as the Pyrenees in France. A lot of it is original growth. It wasn’t cut back when it was settled.

T: How long has your family been up there?

J: Grandpa’s farm was selected by our family, so they’ve been there since settlement.

T: How big is the land?

J: 10,000 acres – it’s quite big.

T: What, sheep?

J: Yep, sheep, since the start

T: So, what have you seen up there?

J: It was when I was about 13. I used to ride horses a lot with my cousins. I’ve got 58 cousins – it’s a huge family – so some of my cousins and I were riding along a dirt road that becomes bitumen later on when you go into Amphitheatre, into the actual town. Just before we got to the bitumen this big cat jumped across the road, and scared the crap out of the horses and we got bucked off.

T: What did it look like?

J: First we thought it was a dog, but it was definitely a cat, 'cause it had a big curved tail, kind of like a dusty brown and the top was darker, don’t know if it was black or brown. It came out from behind a tree and ran across the road into the bush.

T: Do you think it was a feral or definitely a big cat?

J: It was definitely a big cat, as it was the size of one.

T: 'Cause of the tail? The tail and the shoulders are quite distinct.

J: Yeah, and it had a flat head, like a big cat – the flat forehead. You could definitely tell it was not a dog.

T: What time of day was this?

J: Afternoon; we’d just had lunch.

T: What year?

J: I was 13 so it must have been 1995

T: Was it in summer?

J: Yeah, summer holidays. And I’ve heard stuff from other relatives as well; a lot of people have been up in the hills, shooting and stuff, my mum swears, and mum isn’t into this....

T: Bit of a sceptic?

J: Yeah, but she reckons one day she was up in the hills shooting with dad, they just heard this massive roar kind of sound coming from the other hills cause you can often yell from one hill to the other and it echoes clearly.

T: Acoustics is good. Called Amphitheatre for a reason.

J: Yeah, it's all rocky – bush with rocky outcrops. There is no one living on the farm now, but we still own it.

T: What else have your relatives seen?

J: One of my cousins thinks he saw one over in Dunnolly – sort of near Amphitheatre, near Maldon. He was at a party and something was scaring the cows outside and they went out and they reckon they saw one. And on WIN (channel 9) news a few years ago there were footprints – they found big cat footprints in the area.

T: Do you or your family have any theories about where they might come from?

J: There are a few stories – one is that some people brought some back after the Second World War or something – had them as mascots and they got away or let them go. Then there’s the theory that a guy at Miners Rest had a circus – when he retired they were pets, but got away – they’re the stories I heard.

T: What else is out there? Have you heard of anything else?

J: [Laughs] my sister thinks she saw a Bunyip. I don’t know if I believe her or not.

T: What did she see? What was it?

J: We don’t know. Mum reckons it might have been a sheep standing on its hind legs eating the trees. My sister was down at the creek one day, and she came running back and said that she saw it.

T: How old was she?

J: She was 12 – she is 18 now.

T: Did she describe it?

J: She said it was big and hairy and it was trying to hide in the trees, but she saw it and it ran off.
T: Did it run like a sheep?

J: On two legs.

T: On two legs?

J: Yeah. She thinks.

T: She thinks? Wasn’t a Yowie possibly?

J: No idea.

T: Was it brown, or was it like a sheep – a pale brown colour?

J: She said it was brown and black and furry. She said it was more furry that woolly; that’s why she’ll never to this day agree that it was a sheep. Coz she reckons it was furry. Not woolly.

T: Do you think it was like a Yowie? Like a Bigfoot?

J: Could have been. They’ve been seen sort of near there.

T: Where?

J: Just rumours – further up north, in more forest areas, near Bendigo and Swan Hill.

T: Was that on the property as well – where the cats are?

J: Yep, they live in that area.

T: Yowies?

J: Big cats.

T: You think they live in the hills?

J: The rabbit virus never really took hold – lots of rabbits up there - that’s probably what they eat. I’ll never forget that cat though. It scared the hell out of me and the horses. And the one we saw on the footage on WIN news 5 or 6 years ago looked like the same.

T: You haven’t heard of any Thylacines in the area?

J: Only further south, near the Otways.

T: And the Grampians.

J: That’s certainly a hotspot.

T: Thanks Jo!

Of course after hearing about her sister’s sighting, I thought this interview was far from over. But then I’ve not yet met her sister, except for a short phone conversation and an email but she has not replied to my request – so I am not sure whether she wants to be interviewed about it, or whether it really was just made up by her. Josie seems rather dubious about her sister’s story, so I am not sure what to believe.

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 785AD the Venerable Bede died. Bede wrote one of the earliest and most quoted books on early British and English history, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. There is nothing particularly unusual or strange about that, but the guy certainly deserves a mention for being the first chap to really research the history of Britain; without his efforts many of the accounts and documents he used in his study could have been lost forever by the present day and our understanding of history would be poorer because of it. The same can be said of Forteana and cryptozoology: if nobody goes out and collects witness statements or even folklore about strange happenings or unusual animals, when the original witness dies who is going to know their story? Even if that story is an embellishment of the facts or an outright tall tale it is often still worth hearing.

And now, the news:

Blue tits set up home in ashtray
Bigfoot Evidence in Minnesota
Psychic joins search for missing cat in Lincolnshire
Get your trunks out!
Surf's pup!
Down on the farm
Mammoth 'heating gas'

Bet they created a mammoth stench….

(I’m running out of puns if I have to resort to fart jokes…)

REGAN LEE SENT THIS: Oregon Sasquatch Symposium

Oregon Sasquatch Symposium


Saturday, June 19 at 9:00 amSunday, June 20 at 5:00 pmEugene, Oregon -- Lane Community College Campus


Autumn Williams will be the keynote speaker. See here for Autumn's excellent blog post about the symposium, her thoughts on witnesses and BF and her new book... (in fact, her whole site is the best in the field, I think, for it contains data, research, as well as an open minded approach to various Bigfoot theories...)Toby Johnson is the one behind all this, and it seems like he's doing a fantastic job!


Visit the Symposium site for more info.See you there!

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: SOME EXTRAORDINARY CHINESE REPTILES

Today I am going to take a look at some extraordinary legends relating to Chinese reptiles, from G.vLanning`s book Wildlife in China (1911).* Chapter LV `Reptiles`.

Lanning commences with the Chinese alligator:

'Books on natural history need not to be very old to be innocent of all knowledge of the Chinese alligator, the existence of which was not even suspected in Europe till within recent times. During my residence in Shanghal there have been three occasions, if I remember rightly, when alligators have been found in the river or on its banks. The biggest measured but 8ft. In one instance some six or eight were said to have been brought here by a Siamese barque, [I wonder if anyone has studied the similarities between these Chinese alligators and ones once found in Siam, i.e Thailand?-R] the captain of which thought to dispose of them to the Chinese. Failing in this he turned them adrift in the river…One was caught in the Old Dock, and another, which had so far forgotten himself as to be found in the very early morning in Broadway, was also taken. The species seems to be entirely of the fish eating kind.' (1)

'With regard to snakes, the Chinese not merely assert,but firmly stick to the assertion, that there are certain kinds of snakes with feet, a survival here of a similar old belief in Europe that, before the little episode in the Garden, before the little episode in the Garden, before “Man`s first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe,” the serpent stood upright. [Interestingly, about the time this book was published a “snake with legs” was reportedly found in Kowloon, Hong Kong, according to an English language newspaper-R] I used to combat the feet idea as quite nonsensical. But many years ago as the result of a little incident at the Hills, I ceased to wonder and contradict. I was in search of rare ferns one day on the hillside, when I saw moving swiftly through the undergrowth what I took to be a new snake. It was only about 18 inches long, with a body thickness of about the size of one`s little finger. I killed and examined it. Sure enough there were four legs, very short, but still unmistakeable. It was, of course a lizard - of what species I cannot say. But I never ridiculed the Chinese belief in legged snakes after that.' [I would have thought with Chinese records of natural history going back hundreds of years the Chinese could distinguish between a snake with legs and a lizard, surely?-R] There are several other sorts of lizards which I have come across in my wanderings, but I have only seen one more specimen of the kind just named, and that was under a foot in length.' (2)

Lanning then discourses on Chinese snakes:

'Only once have I come across a specimen of the curious snake known as the “Iron-wire snake,” one of the burrowing family. The Chinese have a belief about these that if they coil themselves round a man`s finger or the tails of animals it is impossible to remove them, that strangulation of the member results, and sloughing takes place till it drops off. “The China Medical Missionary Journal,” Vol.XV. p.303 gives the following description:” The snake is about 6 inches long, shaped much like a common earth worm, has about the same diameter, a triffle smaller perhaps, and darker in colour.” This answers precisely to the specimen I saw. That described was seen in Foochow, mine in Chekiang [east China-R]. ,on the hills at Chapoo…Southern China, of which I have no very intimate knowledge, is said to be rich in reptilian of almost all sorts. Of the reptile life of Hong Kong we have,of course, a more or less complete knowledge. There are at least seven species of snakes, one of them a python which is common but, as a rule, not of any very large size considering its kind. Occasionally, however, we hear of one large enough to cause note to be taken of it in the press. Cobras are numerous in some parts. Some years ago one was found on the verandah of Gen. Black`s house on the Peak. The cats were playing with it. Another species to be avoided is a bright-green pit viper, Trimeresurus graminens, which has the honour of belonging to the same family as the rattlesnakes. One was killed some years ago, as I find in my notes, which measured 3ft. In 1894 cobras were so plentiful that the Government paid 50 cents a head for them, a custom which would probably lead to breeding if continued, the Chinese being always ready to earn an honest penny. One of the very poisonous sea-snakes before referred to, a species of Hydrophis, is found in the waters round Hong Kong. Ashore they have also species of the iron-wire snake, classically named Typhlina, which burrows under stones and into the soil.' (3)


1 G.Lanning Wildlife in China (1911) p.222
2 Ibid pp 222-223
3 Ibid pp 224-225


Image Source: `Alligators in China: Their History,Description and Identification`. A.A.Fauvel.Shanghai 1879 p.24


* Available on abebooks at £16.45, amazon.co.uk £11.87 (not including postage.Cheapest prices.)

Devo Gates of Steel

Twist away the gates of steel
Unlock the secret voice
Give in to ancient noise
Take a chance a brand new dance
Twist away the gates of steel

Twist away, now twist and shout
The earth it moves too slow
But the earth is all we know
We pay to play the human way
Twist away the gates of steel

CFZ AUSTRALIA: Expat platypus on the sales block

Trust those Victorian to stuff things up - literally.

We stumbled across this moth-eaten example of Victorian taxidermy for sale on Ebay recently for a meagre $A1658. View the listing here.

For animal lovers and those enamoured with the macabre alike, the world of taxidermy offers some rare and unusual treasures.

Taxidermy was, and still is to some degree, considered a necessary evil by m

useums.

We've heard anecdotal reports of Australian museums regularly refreshing their exhibits when some animals get a bit ratty looking - largely due to poor storage and preservation.

And here's some taxidermy trivia: one of the founders of the taxidermy movement, if you can refer to it as such, was an American woman by the name of Martha Maxwell. Strangely, for someone obsessed with skinning and stuffing animals, she was actually a vegetarian!

RECORDING SESSION

So how did I spend my sunday afternoon? David B-P, Helen "of Troy" Lester, and I put the finishing touches to the music for the closing credits of the Emily and the Big Cats movie. Bloody hell, Helen can't half sing! I had no idea that my favourite diva was that good.

Most of the rest of the film is on hiatus (I am sure I have splled that wrong) until Emily finishes her GCSEs, but there are only a few scenes left to film....

ROBERT SCHNECK WROTE...

Poor Biggles.

Please send him my regards and a pat on the head from across the Atlantic. And maybe a biscuit.

Robert

Dear Robert,

Don't say we never do anything people ask

love

Jon and Corinna (and Biggles)