1933-1934

A party armed with heavy rifles will make a thorough search tomorrow in an endeavour to clear up the mystery of the strange animal which has been lurking in the rugged bush country near Briagolong, Gippsland, and has been alarming settlers for some time.
Unlike the mystery "lioness" seen at Mount Best, near Toora, the Briagolong mystery beast has not been caught sight of, but numerous sets of its tracks have been seen. Footprints which were 3 1/2 ft apart from front to hind paws were each 6in long and 4in wide. They resembled the footprints of a cat.
After comparing the footprints with those illustrated in a book on animals a local resident is of the opinion that the beast is a puma. Recently a large number of sheep were found dead in peculiar circumstances on various properties in the district. The only marks of violence were two holes punctured in the sheep's throats, from which the blood appeared to have been sucked.

MELBOURNE, November 26.
Fresh tracks af the mystery animal which were found yesterday much closer to Briagolong than those discovered previously have prompted the hope that the party of district residents which set out into the hills yesterday may trail the animal to its hiding place.
These tracks were found less than three miles from the town, and their proximity has increased the alarm of residents. They were identical with those discovered five miles north-west of the town, and are about six inches long by four inches wide.

Last Thursday our Briagolong correspondent related that what was supposed to be a strange wild animal was alarming residents of the district.
     Armed with heavy rifles a party of Briagolong district residents made a thorough search yesterday through rugged bush country five miles from Briagolong, for the mysterious animal, which has been alarming resilents for some time.
     Led by Mr. Rod Estoppey, the forest ranger of the district, the party included First-Constable Wright and the secretary of the Briagolong rifle club (Mr. H. Landy) and about ten others.
     The party assembled at the Delta bridge on the George's Creek road over Freestone Creek, at 10 a.m. With a large pack of dogs they made through the rugged bush country to a point five miles north-west of Briagolong, from which numerous sets of the animal's tracks have been traced.
     Mr. Estoppey, who examined the tracks near this place last Sunday, said that the footprints, which were three and a half feet apart, were each six inches long and four inches wide. They resembled the footprints of a cat, each paw mark having the imprint of four front toes with a smaller toe-mark at the side.
     After comparing the footprints w:th those illustrated in an animal book, Mr. Estoppey is of the opinion that the beast is a puma.
     He said that Mr. H. Bedggood, of George's Creek, was near the same place recently with two cattle dogs. The dogs chased a rabbit into some thick scrub, but emerged a few minutes later with hair bristling. They bolted home terrified.
     Recently, he added a large number of sheep had been found dead in peculiar circumstances on various properties in the district. The only mark of violence were two holes punctured in the sheep's throats, from which the blood appeared to have been sucked.
     The whole district was alarmed, said Mr. Estoppey, and the party hoped to secure either the animal or some definite evidence of its identity in the course of the search.

MAFFRA. Thursday.
     A strange animal, which has not been seen, but the footprints of which are 6 inches long and 3½ inches wide, is causing alarm among the residents of Briagolong near George's Creek.
     Several people have heard the animal, and state that it emits a squeal. Household dogs have shown fright. The animal is heard only at night, and residents are too alarmed to open their doors to investigate the cause. Recently sheep have been killed by some animal and the method of its attack has led graziers to believe that a dingo is not responsible.
     Mr. and Mrs. W. Smith, their son Will, and Mr. Charlie Traill have heard the animal and seen the footprints. A search party was to have left Briagolong during the week end to search for the animal, but rain prevented this. A party may go out next week end. In the meantime, residents are going about armed.

Residents of Briagolong gathered together and went searching for the wild animal that is supposed to be roaming the bush country around George's Creek. Tracks of the animal were found, but no bushman caught a glimpse of the animal. It is freely commented upon that there is some thing strange roaming the hills on account of the animals stampeding at the least noise in those parts. All concerned will be pleased when the creature is brought down by the huntsman.

The residents of George's Creek received another scare last week end when the roaming wild animal startled the bush out of its stillness by weird sounds. A party bathing in the creek at the time did not wait to dress for a "sprint," but just grabbed and ran for home. And, believe it or not, there must have been a smile on the face of the "tiger" at the stampede out of the creek.

Armed men at Briagolong, north of Stratford in Gippsland, have been search ing for a strange animal which was seen by two girls while they were bathing in a creek. The girls saw only the head and shoulders of the animal and they described it as being tawny coloured with dark stripes.
     The chief inspector of the Fisheries and Game department (Mr F. Lewis) said yesterday that he had received a report from an honorary inspector of the department in the district that footprints of the animal found on a sandy bank of the creek were 6in. in length and 4in. in width. The animal had a stride of 4ft., and tracks showed that it had jumped 9ft. to cross a gully.
     Cattle became nervous at the approach of the animal.
     Mr Lewis said that he could not reconcile these characteristics with those of any native animal. They seemed to be those of a jaguar or of a tiger which might have escaped from a circus. The evidence which he had received was reliable.

SALE Wednesday
Two reports were received to-day regarding the strange animal which was seen at Briagolong some weeks ago. The animal has again been heard of at Georges Creek, Briagolong. Some sheep belonging to Mr. T. Feeley have been badly mauled and killed. Mr. R. Estoppey is organising another hunting party, and the dense forest will be combed. The animal is described as resembling a tiger or jaguar.

MELBOURNE, Wednesday.
The story of a strange animal seen recently at Briagolong was revived during yesterday by reports of C. Robertson, of Brighton Beach, that he and his two sons saw a large dog-like animal in a gravel pit near Kialmany Station.
The animal was striped like a tiger and was unlike anything that he had ever seen. It disappeared, into a tunnel in the rocks.

Reports of ghosts seen at ghostly hours and of wild animals seen in remote places are always received by people at a safe distance with incredullity and usually with amusement. Those who are nearer are less robust doubters. While the sturdy sense which they claim to possess steels them against fear they have another and livelier sense that bids them beware. No motorist on the roads in East Gippsland where a strange wild animal is reported to be wandering will select that place to tell a funny story to his travelling companions. If he did so, in that cheery encouragement which has led people to whistle while passing a graveyard he would find that he had an unattentive audience and that he was not a wholly attentive narrator. Gippsland is not yet to be classed
with Loch Ness in Scotland as an historic field for monsters, but it has its legends of droves of bullocks that
stampede in particular places for no apparent reason. Australia is sadly in need of the abnormal. Even a pretender to the throne once occupied by the Tantanoola tiger should not be butchered before the New Year holiday.

MELBOURNE, Thursday.
A strange animal which appeared in the Toora district, Gippsland, recently, was seen again near Gunyah during the week. The animal is said to resemble a lioness and has been seen by several residents.

Another strange animal has turned up at Valencia Low Level Bridge. Mr. Charlie Brett and his nephew were passing the spot at 6 a.m. on Thursday of last weelk when a peculiar type of beast about three times as large as a cat with stripes disappeared into the scrub in the bed of the Avon.

YARRAM, Monday.
Under the impression that strange footsteps discovered at North Devon were those of the "mystery" animal reported to be at large in Gippsland, residents armed with guns formed a party and traced the marks for a considerable distance along the Tarra Valley road. It was discovered that the marks were caused by the district mail-man, who, owing to the floods, had left his boots in a landslide and was finishing his journey in bare feet.

Was It a Wombat Here Too? News comes from the Drouin district that the "mystery" animal which was reported at various times to look like a tiger or similar wild animal, had been captured by Constable Figgins, at Drouin. It turned out to be a large wombat, which fought desperately before capture. It is now in the Mel bourne Zoo. That accounts for the animal at the Drouin end of Gippsland, but what about the mysterious animals hunted for at Briagolong, and seen entering the Sale gravel pits? Were they, too, wombats?

MELBOURNE, Saturday.
     Gippsland's mystery animal has been captured. It is not a lion, dingo, or panther. It is not a large as a calf, or 3ft. high, or 6ft. long, as it has been described.
     It is a giant wombat about 3ft. long, with unorthodox wombat gait that leaves tracks unlike those of most of its family.
     Constable Figgins, of the wireless patrol, captured the animal. He spent much time in the bush with a companion seeking it, and the wombat has now been lodged in the Melbourne Zoo.
     Before it was captured, it fiercely attacked two Alsatian dogs.

After many weeks the mystery animal of Gippsland has been run to earth. His tracks have been diversely described as those ot a tiger, a super dingo, and a panther. A few weeks ago the inhabitants of one township thought they had him. Seeing unusual tracks on the banks of a flooded creek, they turned out to a man with every kind of weapon available. After some excellent tracking they ran down the fearsome beast, which proved to be the local postman, who had been forced to abandon his boots in the adhesive mud brought down by the flood waters. "Posty" was annoyed, and said so. It has remained for a constable of the wireless patrol, who was on a shooting expedition in the hills near Drouin yesterday, to clear up the mystery. After some trouble and a fight in which one of his dogs was severely clawed, he has brought to Melbourne and lodged in the Zoological Gardens to-day something very special in the way of wombats. Apart from his phenomenal size, this wombat has feet formed like no other wombat the curator of the Zoo has yet seen, the impression being about as large as a man's hand. According to the latest reports, he is industriously trying to eat his way through the iron fence of his enclosure.

YARRAGON, Monday.
Doubt has been expressed whether the wombat captured by Constable Figgins is identical with the Gippsland "monster." These wombats are common throughout the whole ot the Gippsland hill country, and residents say that there are many of great size. As reports of the supposed "monster" have been circulated from places in Gippsland many miles apart residents here consider that it is improbable that the wombat is the animal that has been seen. The opinion is that the wombat does not wander far from its haunts and could not possibly cover the distances at which residents of Gippsland have been said to have seen it.

Interest in wombats has been revived because a large specimen has been captured and advertised as the Gippsland monster. It has been suggested that this specimen was the cause of several reports of late regarding an unknown large animal having been seen, or having left strange footprints in various places.
     Purely Australian animals, wombats occur from Southern Queensland down the east coast, in portion of South Austnlia, on certain islands of Bass Strait, and in Tasmania. There are five kinds all closely resembling each other. They render useful service by eating large numbers of insects but sometimes cause dimage to settlers fences and crops.
     The commonest wombat, sometimes known as Mitchell's wombat, has the distinction of being the
only mammal which in the early days, was thought to be a fossil but was found to be living—it was first made known from remains found in a cave at Wellington (NSW) by Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1838.
     Although wombats being rather like small pigs in appearance, are not generally esteemed as pets, a man who kept one declares that they can be very amusing and likeable. His pet was at liberty and had burrows in the garden but it never attempted to touch the plants. It loved to be nursed like a baby and it would jump and roll with the children.

Sir—No one in Gunyah will sleep any the sounder because there is a poor harmless old wombat locked up in the Zoological Gardens. The mystery animal is not a wombat and I expect it will be seen again soon. Seeing the photograph of the wombat in "The Argus" on Saturday, I felt very sorry for the unfortunate animal. I hope steps will be taken at once to have it set at liberty in its old haunts as soon as possible. It may not live long in captivity.

Yours &c.,
PIONEER.
Mirboo North, Feb, 6.

That large Australian burrowing animal, the wombat, has become so rare that an out-size one succeeded during many months in making the residents of a Gippsland district believe that he was an escaped animal of mysterious, unidentifiable form and dangerous habits. The capture of a giant wombat three feet long has dissolved the mystery. The animal was captured alive by a mounted policeman, who turned it over to the Melbourne Zoo. Its head is a foot long; it has a low whining growl, and the largest feet — those mystery feet that made the awesome tracks — that the curator of the zoo has ever seen. The policeman and a companion caught it in the hills after a long struggle.

Gippsland is not yet at ease. True. Constable Figgins arrested an over-sized wombat; but did he, by that gallant act, lay the ghost of the Gippsland monster?

It may be a wombat, but, nevertheless,
It may be the horrible thing from Loch Ness.
It may be a serpent that swallows men whole,
Feeding on sulphur and babies and coal.
It may be a Cyclops with one evil eye.
Causing strong men to walk fearfully by.
It may be a monster, unnamed and unknown,
Raising the night with a fabulous groan.
It may be a bunyip, aroused from its lair,
With horrible langs and much dirty, lank hair.
It may be the tiger of Tantanoola,
In its eye the mad gleam of a huge, scarlet star.
It may be that wombat, but, nevertheless,
It may be more ghastly than ghouls from Loch Ness!
It may be the wombat, contented with hay.
That doses in Carlton, quite harmless, each day.
It may be that wombat, that innocent beast.
It may be; but, oh ! please remember, at least
It may be a griftin, a winged horse, or more—
It may be a lively young dinosaur;
A goblin, an ogre, a broom-riding witch.
Or the mount of a wizard much blacker than pitch.
Whatever it wasn't that Figgins laid low
The captive's a wombat, and that we all know.
But what it still lurking in Gippsland at night,
To give passing heroes a horrible fright?
It may be a wombat, but, nevertheless.
It may be far more than the curse of Loch Ness!