The revelations are the results of a four-month investigation into the 'black panther phenomenon' which for years has plagued residents across Sydney's West, Northwest, Richmond, the Blue Mountains and Lithgow in the state of New South Wales (NSW). While National Parks and Wildlife officials are yet to implement a positive course of action, a senior source confirmed last night, Saturday, November 1, 2003, a big cat expert has been contacted with a view to future work. He said: 'While we still haven't got conclusive evidence that the creatures exist, compiled evidence points strongly to the fact that it does.'

Although big cat sightings across NSW date back more than 100 years, speculation intensified in May 2001 when a successful Freedom of Information request revealed the NSW Government had been maintaining a secret file on the creature.

While conclusive proof has failed to materialise, sightings have continued to flow in from bushwalkers, tourists and local residents, including a NSW police officer and a QANTAS pilot.

When Kenthurst, NSW teenager Luke Walker suffered deep cuts in March this year (2003) and said they were the result of a terrifying struggle with a panther-like cat, the NSW Government reopened the case. The latest report, compiled by NSW Agriculture and obtained exclusively by the Sun-Herald, included a review of sightings and extensive interviews with residents of Grose Vale, where the creature has frequently been sighted. It found the recent witnesses to big cat sightings in NSW seem credible.

Also taken into consideration was a previous report by Dr. Keith Hart, district veterinarian of the Moss Vale Rural Lands Protection Board, who, after testing scat (faeces) samples, concluded a large cat was living in the Grose Vale area. Even as the authorities were preparing to go public, a Central Coast family approached NSW Agriculture last month (October 2003) with claims that a huge black cat was 'openly roaming' their newly-purchased Mudgee weekend holiday home. Speaking to the Sun-Herald, Chris, who refused to reveal her surname through fear of would-be hunters overrunning her property, said: 'We've watched it stalk wallabies. We've seen it sitting high up in a tree. It roams around like a large family dog that thinks it owns the place.' She added: 'There is absolutely no disputing what it is. The kids are terrified, and, to be perfectly honest, so are we.'

(Editor's Comment: Yes, they've been seen in Australia, too. Maybe one of our occult-minded readers can explain why the English-speaking countries of Earth are being inundated with sightings of phantom panthers.)...