When I was a young teenager, around 14 or 15 I had a beautiful 15 hand chestnut Mare, aptly named Chessy. This horse was agisted with family friends on their property located on Wellington Road in Lysterfield. The property was quite large with a small house, stables and paddocks for the family horses and the agisted horses. One of my most distinct memories from this time was the stories they told about a large black panther like cat that roamed their property at night.

It was drummed into us to not stray to far from the house after dark. This ‘cat’ or panther had been seen on various occasions by them and the people on neighboring properties. It had been known in the area to attack live stock and even people. I remember the sounds out in the paddocks at night of growls and strange cry’s along side the whinny of the distressed horses. It was creepy, yet a running joke, a story that seemed to become more embellished with each telling.

I was thinking about this of late and decided to do some research into the phenomena. Black panther sized cats are reported to have been seen all over Victoria, but seem to be somewhat concentrated to in and around the Hills area.

A couple from Kallista reported seeing a Labrador sized cat in a paddock down the hill in Monbulk, while several teenagers reported seeing a large cat in Belgrave. One very detailed sighting comes from  couple driving along the Warburton Highway who saw a panther walking along the road, the animal was large enough to reach the height of the car window. A horse in a paddock in The Basin was maulded by a creature that left large claw marks down the hind quarter of the animal, wounded down to the bone. There has even been sighing’s in Kellets Road in Lysterfield and on the 1000 Steps in Ferntree Gully. One theory of how the big cats got here is that a Monbulk man who owned a miniature zoo about 30 years ago released his animals into the bush when the zoo was closed. Others say it is an exotic native predatory species yet to be fully identified. Cryptozoology is certainly fascinating.

There are hundreds of such stories, and there are even several online forums discussing the phenomenon. The debate rages on, if these sightings are just feral cats or something else, something elusive. There is no doubt that the Australian Panther like cat is becoming an enigma, one that is ever more likely to be real.

Have you seen a Black Panther? Let us know your story.

This article was sponsored by Hills Physiotherapy. They provide the premier physiotherapy, remedial massage, myotherapy and associated health services to the hills with years of experience and expertise.