By Glenis Green
January 14, 2009 12:00am
A GIANT cat is stalking wildlife in rural Glenwood, north of Gympie, and Colin Rossow says he has the proof - a plaster paw print cast.
Mr Rossow, 67, who retired to his rural acreage in Pepper Rd 16 months ago, said there was no doubt some sort of panther-size cat was living in the area.
"I grew up in the bush and I know when big cats are around," he said. "I've heard this cat before. It's not a kangaroo or a dog ... it's a caterwauling and sometimes it sort of grunts and chuffs."
Mr Rossow said his suspicions were confirmed when he was using his excavator to move stumps after heavy rain last week and spotted big paw prints in the mud.
"There was still this one big print where a kangaroo had come around the corner fast and sort of half slipped and the cat had come around after it and leaned into the corner with its front right paw," he said.
"There was one, big, perfect print and I had some gyprock plaster in the shed so I got a cast of it."
The cast shows a lion-sized paw print, bigger than his fist, measuring 14.5cm long by 13cm wide with a deep pad and four toes with retractable cat-like claws.
He said that since the incident he had hardly seen any kangaroos grazing around his property.
Mr Rossow said he had also spoken to a neighbour who told of two girls who reported seeing a "big, black cat" in bush fringing the area.
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service has a file documenting a report from a farmer at Withcott, at the bottom of the Toowoomba Range, who saw "a very large black cat" in 2003, and other reports of big cat sightings in the Toowoomba region, particularly in 1997.
Local legend also includes sightings of a black panther-like creature in the Gayndah area, northwest of Gympie.
