Letter from Australia #2

[Downsunder 10]

I heard a statistic quoted recently concerning the number of species becoming extinct every day. I can’t remember the actual number but it made me gasp in disbelief. I looked to the internet for clarification. Bad move. You can virtually pick any number you want from nought to three hundred as you trawl through oceans of conflicting information. Anyway, it got me thinking about the Tasmanian Tiger.

 

An old friend of mine told me an interesting story about the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine to give it it’s proper name. In 1967 the worst bushfire that Tasmania has ever experienced roared through the midlands burning its way to the outskirts of Hobart destroying 1300 homes and killing 62 people. Just after the fire burned itself out my friend was driving up the Midland Highway through a fire ravaged landscape heading north to Launceston. It was just on dark, his wife was sitting beside him in the car asleep. In the glare of his headlights he saw a Tasmanian Tiger cross the road just ahead of him. Why was this so unusual? Because the Thylacine was declared extinct in 1936 when the last one died in captivity in Hobart Zoo. Since then there have been numerous sightings and even today people are convinced the Tiger somehow still roams the wild, remote, inaccessible west coast of Tasmania.

 

The demise of the Tiger can be attributed to the ignorance and stupidity of the white settlers. Believing that the Thylacine was a threat to their newly introduced flocks of sheep, in 1830 the Van Diemans Land Company placed a bounty on the ‘vicious sheep killer’. Trappers, hunters and bushmen had a field day. It took 100 years before this shy marsupial with the beautiful striped coat was finally hunted into extinction. That same year, 1936, the powers that be, in their inestimable wisdom, declared the Thylacine a protected species.

 

Two priceless footnotes to this sorry story:

 

The sheep killers proved to be the settler’s own Kangaroo Dogs which had escaped into the bush, gone feral and attacked the sheep.

 

The Chief Agent of the Van Dieman’s Land Company at the time the bounty was imposed was none other than Edward Curr of Sheffield.

[hillsbro 32]

That's very interesting, Downsunder. I remember seeing a 1930s film of a Thylacine in Hobart Zoo and I just found it on YouTube - here is a link. It's so sad to see such a fine animal confined to a cage, and we can only hope that the Thyacine survives in the remote west. It's a little ironic that two Thylacines feature prominently on the Tasmanian Coat of Arms.

[skippy 11]

There are many doubting Thomas's in this world Downsunder, black panthers have been seen in some parts of NSW, and have even been filmed walking across the top of someone's garden in Lithgow NSW, but many believe that they don't exist. Just because we don't see things, doesn't mean that they no longer exist, Tasmania like NSW has very large national parks, and there are parts that have never been seen by humans, animals hide when they see or hear what could be an enemy, so we will never really know for sure what is living in these areas.

[Downsunder 10]

Thanks for the link Hillsbro, I cry every time I see that video. As for the coat of arms, just as ironical is the motto which translates "Fertility and Faithfulness" or "bounty and fidelity".

 

Skippy, I admire your optimism.