Cat-apultedtostardom
Mr Walker said he was given ??the run-around?? after reporting that he was set upon by a cat-like animal the size of a labrador. ??If you go to the council, they won?t do anything,?? he said. ??I was getting the mail and was walking towards the house when I heard a feline growl. I turned around and there was a big black cat. ??Its front paws were standing up but its back paws were on the ground. ??I took a step forward and it jumped
on me.
??I put my left arm in front of my face and its front paws dug into my arm while its back paws dug into my torso. ??The cat was on me for about five seconds.
??I punched its nose and it just walked off into the bush as if nothing happened.?? Mr Walker said he was not believed when he reported the incident to Baulkham Hills Council. ??They said there is no such thing,?? he said.
??They told us to set some traps. ??We said it?s not going to get caught in the cat-trap. ??They just wanted to shove us off .?? A council spokeswoman said
officers have set traps in the past with no success.
Chris Coffey, who has compiled a database of more than 170 sightings of mysterious animals in NSW, said she had seen the Hills panther five times
but was seldom believed when she reported the sightings. ??I would say there are hundreds of people who have seen it and have not come forward because they don?t want to be classified as an idiot,?? she said.
Any sightings can be reported to Hawkesbury Council on 4560 4444,
or email hillsnews@fairfax.com.au
.
Cat-apultedtostardom
Panther film: Producer Kelvin Crumplin with director Ed Lyons.
Picture: Lisa Wiltse
By Mario Christodoulou
TALES of a family of large black cats wandering the bush in NSW has sparked a horror film called Gone Missing. It tells of six friends who encounter ??monster cats?? while on a camping trip.
Director Ed Lyons said he has been researching the subject for four years and has spoken with numerous people who claim to have seen a big black cat, and to government agencies he thinks have secret files on the animals. Mr Lyons said that when he first heard the legend he dismissed it as ??bush humour??.
??But the thought of a big cat in its own environment that could just take me out just gave me the chills,?? he said. Mr Lyons described his film as a cross between the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and an American Werewolf in Paris. It will feature a large prosthetic cat created by the team from films such as Jindabyne and Wolf Creek. Mr Lyons would not confirm that the dummy would be a conventional panther.
Filming will begin late this year in locations around Australia, including Victoria?s Grampian Mountains. ??The film will really make people think,?? Mr Lyons said. ??A lot of people have been claiming [the cat] is real and, no doubt, a certain amount of people will eventually come out of the woodwork.?? The filmmakers will interview Luke Joslin (please see adjoining story).
Ohwhatafeline:nowGalston
Close encounter: Luke Walker, who said he was attacked by the cat in 2003, says authorities should take such reports more seriously.
Main picture: Natasha Paes
BIGCATBACK
By Mario Christodoulou
THE Hills panther has been sighted for the second time in as many weeks, this time 300 metres from a house in Galston. The man who made the latest sighting has declined to be identified but said his car headlights picked up the rear of the animal protruding from brush not far from his home. On arriving home he told his wife but she at first did not believe him. ??He swears it was the size of a tiger,?? she later said. ??He?d know the difference. He didn?t believe what he had seen.??
A week earlier, Luke Joslin, of Kenthurst, said he saw a large black cat walking by the side of Pitt Town Road as he was driving home at night. Luke Walker, who was attacked by the Hills Panther in 2003, said the authorities should be taken more seriously such reports.
?It was a big, big cat? Believer: Luke Joslin says he saw a black panther near his home at Kenthurst on Thursday night.
Mr Joslin, winner of the inaugural Galston Idol show which launched his theatrical career (he has a role as one of the millionaires who don?t come out alive in the October opening of the stage show Titanic, the New Musical), is just back just back from Auckland after an 18-month tour of Australia and New Zealand with Dirty Dancing.
I was driving home down Pitt Town Road near Campbell Road last Thursday night about 11pm and there it was, 10 feet from my car on grass at the side of the road, dawdling. ??It was a metre high and at least two metres long. I thought initially it was a big dog but when I drove closer it was something else.
It was in no hurry at all. I was frustrated I didn?t have a camera with me. I?ve seen stories before and thought ?What a load of crap?. ??Not any more.
??As I drove past, it was a little bit concerned then I did a U-turn and shone the lights into its eyes. They were greenish. That did it.??The cat darted into a rural property, up the driveway and then seemed to vanish.?? Mr Joslin, a former Oakhill College student, woke his parents to tell them the news. His father, Ron, said: ??He pulled us out of bed and said excitedly, ?I?ve just seen the most amazing sight, something that will stay with me for a long while?.??
The family rang the National Parks and Wildlife Service. A spokesman said: ??We?ll put that one down as another sighting.?? Ron Joslin said: ??It?s rather creepy out here. ??I have seen this animal myself, but in the distance. It?s not a funny story. ??Too many credible people have seen it.?? In 2003, a State Government inquiry found it was ??more likely than not that a colony of big cats are roaming Sydney?s outskirts and beyond??.
A NPWS official said at the time: ??While we still haven?t got conclusive evidence that the creatures exist, compiled evidence points strongly to the fact that it does.?? In November, 2003 the then minister for regional development, David Campbell, told Parliament: ??On 20 March this year, a 17-year- old Kenthurst boy, Luke Walker, came forward with deep lacerations on his right arm from what he said was an encounter with a black panther. During the past three decades there have been some 60 separate reports of a large cat-like animal attacking livestock and people in Sydney?s west, north-west, the Blue Mountains and Lithgow.
??The animal has been described as being like a panther.??
ClaimsapantherisontheprowlinKenthurst
?ITWASABIG, BIGCAT?
By Col Allison
CONTINUED PAGE 8
HILLS actor-singer Luke Joslin claims to have seen a black panther ??a metre high and two metres long with green eyes?? near his home in Kenthurst.
??It kind of took me by surprise,?? the 27-year-old cast member of Dirty Dancing told the Hills News yesterday. ??There?s no doubt in the world it was a big, big cat. ??I knew it wasn?t a normal cat and no one?s more sceptical than me.??
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