A WILD ANIMAL

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1932, Page 8

A WILD ANIMAL

ALARM IN VICTORIA. MYSTERY OF THE RANGES. SYDNEY, March 14. At Alyrtleford, in the Mount Buffalo district of Victoria, a mystery animal powerful and shaggy, it terrorising the people, and search parties have been out for more than a week in a vain search for it. It is said to have made at least three savace attacks, and the residents say that the prints’ of its giant feet have been found, in the soft soil. No one seems to know exactly what it is like, but if all accounts are to be believed it is seven feet high, it has a. hairy head, razor-like claws, and four white tusks, runs like a clumsy deer, and lurks in the shadows . and leaps' on unsuspecting horsemen. This mysltery beast was firsp heard of about a month ago. One of the Cherry brothers, who are farmers at Running Creek, was going home <on a still, moonless night. He came to the gate and bent from the saddle of •his horse to lift "the latch. The gate opened. Then in the darkness, there was a grunt and a scuffle -and a bulky figure leapt at the horse’s head. The horse bolted, Cherry clinging to its back. Next morning he went to "the gateway and examined the ground, and sure enough he saw the footmarks of some giant beast. They might have ben made by a grizzly -bear! A couple of nights later the Cherry brothers heard a strange creature lumbering around their hut. The horses' threshed and whinnied until the strange noises ceased..

j HUNTERS SURPRISED. | The same week three men from the iiumnng (JreeK district, ueoiueu to uUui me annual anti went to the Cherryorotners tor guidance. Tney : combeu trie tiucK scrut>-tor several hours "wifcn i their guns always ready for an encounter. ‘ it w«s nearly" nuumght when ? they set out for Home in a buekooard. •'J imy uniuped through the eerie shauo\\s or numuiig ereek roaa and then, ;j „u cue id inkling or au e\e, tne tliuig ;| ithey had oeen seeking was upon them. 5 The scared horse stumbled and fell and 1 the shafts broke and the three lmnti ers ueie Huronn on to the roadway. JLney picned up their guns and fired, out in tile eomusion the animal sneak- , oil into the cover or the bush. -But (vhen - daylight came the .men found j the print or the giant feet. ■ I ANOTHER NIGHT ATTACK. Gradually the alarm died, and men scoffed at the stories that - had been circulated. Then, last Thursday night, came the experience of William Nutall, a 21-year-old drover. At nine o’clock at night he wiis Tiding'homb with his' sister, Mrs L. Maher, and Ted Clea" land. They were all jog-trotting along in the shadows when Mrs-Maher heard her brother cry out: ‘‘Ride like mad; an animal has attacked me..” Her horse took fright and bolted,for three miles. Meanwhile Nutall faced the mysterious animal which came from the shadows and made'to strike him with its paW. The claw ripped his shirt and flannel but missed his body. His horse took fright and pounded down the road. Nutall looked

once at the apparition, and then dashed -lot the wire fence dividing him from the raiway line. He sprang over the fence, the creature his heels. He raced down the railway line. The animal was springing behind

him grunting, scattering the metal with his feet. Twenty or thirty yards they raced and then Nutal saw his horse on the roadway, quivering. He turned from the railway line and cleared the dividing fence with a single spring. He heard his pursuer blunder into the fence and fall back. He told his sister that it was the billy thing that had saved hjm. He'vaulted into the saddle and rode to safety. Such is the history of the mystery animal so far. Some Myrtleford folk

have a theory that it is an old man

f kangaroo, driven from the hills by the j liushfires and wandering about smokej blinded. William Nutall does not ac- ! cept that theory end thinks be was attacked by a gorilla.