For ten years Gary has joined the ABC North Coast every week for his wildlife segment, "I began wildlife talkback in February 1997 when the ABC was looking for someone to identify all species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and spiders from listener descriptions."

As an Environmental Scientist, he has assisted Australian Government's in all areas of conservation and is highly regarded in the Australian Crypto world as an authority.

Gary has received the following reports during his Wildlife Talkback radio broadcasts over the last ten years or from people contacting him directly. Gary has written a little bit about the reported sightings below.

The witness was going about their normal lives, driving back and forth to work, taking children to school, or off to the shops. Most only observed the animal on a single occasion even though they may have travelled the road countless times. The sighting of a single individual is usual though two reports include a pair of animals and a female with young following her. Most of the observations were from cars though some witnesses were walking or bicycle riding.

Most of these sightings only lasted for a minute or two, as the animal crossed a road or paddock. Most observations have been at night though others have been during daylight and all were close enough, usually only a few metres away, to enable a very good description.

As is normal practise, most were not carrying cameras with them in the hope that something remarkable would occur worthy of photography. If they did happen to have a camera, the witness would at first think it was not an interesting subject to photograph until they realised how unusual it was and then found that they did not have enough time to retrieve the camera before the animal moved off. However, many witnesses have stated that they now carry cameras with them just in case they view the animal once more.

Many did not know of the existence of the thylacine and believed that it was some freak of nature, wherein someone had hybridized a dog with a kangaroo. Others recognised it as an animal that they had previously seen as a photo or drawing in a newspaper, magazine, books or on TV, but generally could not remember the name of the animal or how rare or unusual it was. However, some witnesses were very well acquainted with native plants and animals and were amazed to observe an animal that they were positive did not exist in this locality.

Some of these reported sightings may indeed be of a thylacine. However, others may well be sightings of wild dogs or mangy foxes. At least one witness has described seeing very pale coloured stripes across the back of the animal at close range, that were not, at first notice, visible. This may explain why many sightings of animals that look very much like a thylacine do not appear to have stripes across the back.

May 1964 Monday 5 am in Whian Whian state forest.
Clive gave me a very detailed description of the animal observed twice in 1 week. He worked for 5 years with Standard Saw Mills of Lismore as a logger and often saw dingos. Clive said that there were no foxes up there in the Whian Whian Range. He only saw the Thylacine twice during the same week, approximately 3 years after he began working in those ranges. He was camped at the old army hut and was driving to the logging coup on the western side of Peach Mountain lookout at 5 am on a Monday morning when he observed a thylacine cross the road 3 metres in front of his car. It had distinctive stripes across its back and rump, which sloped down to a long kangaroo-like tail. It came from the left hand side up the slope, crossed the road and then leapt up the bank. He observed it again at 5 pm on the Friday afternoon of the same week whilst driving back from work at exactly the same place. This time it was coming down the slope from the right, jumped down the bank onto the road and continued down the slope as if it regularly used the same animal track. He never saw the animal again even though he drove those same roads for another 2 years.

1970, Crabbs Creek.
Schoolteacher Mark was working on a banana farm during the school holidays and as they descended from a forested ridge top at the end of the day, the owner's German Shepard dog began growling at something sheltering within an old, partly collapsed banana-packing shed overgrown with vines. The dog rushed in to attack the animal and Mark, the farm owner and several other workers were surprised to see the dog backing out of the shed with an animal almost as large covered with brown stripes across its back and a thick, stiff, kangaroo-like tail. The strange animal had a huge jaw that opened to an extent, greater than the dog, and it gave forth with a bizarre cry unlike anything that they had heard before.

The farm owner yelled out "It's a monster, we will have to kill it" and picking up a stone, threw it at the strange animal. The stone missed its mark and the animal, looking up, saw the people and ran at great speed up the slope with a very unusual gait. The dog and the people chased the animal into a large hollow log where it crouched to stare at them. The owner remarked that they would have to kill the animal as he would not allow a monster to live on the farm. Then they all descended back through the bananas to head for home. The next day the farm owner brought up his rifle but the animal was gone and they never saw it again.

Tyagarah 1979, David saw a strange animal, which reminded him of the "Tyagarah Lion" which he had heard about over the years.

1982 at Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head, Grey's Lane, Tyagarah, Uki and Terrania Creek "Rabbit" observed 5 times a thylacine-like animal with a striped rump, always around 4 am when driving before first light on his delivery rounds.

1988, Cawongla near Kyogle on the roadside at night.
Len saw a thylacine-like animal showing distinct dark brown banding on the rump, hips, legs and along the tail. The tail was thickly furred which reminded him of a photo of a numbat. The bands were about 2 cm wide and about 6 cm apart. The front paw was lifted up near the snout. The snout and the tail were held straight and the ears were cocked up.

1989, Terania Creek Road, The Channon, running across the road at night in front of his car, Peter saw a thylacine-like animal showing distinct dark brown banding across the body. The tail was thickly furred. Following this animal were 3 smaller identical animals. This is the only report of a mother and its young.

1992 Ewingsdale, Tony saw a creature on a bright and sunny mid-morning 50 metres away that he was at a total loss to identify. It had a long thin straight tail, short sandy brown fur, a greyhound look to it and an odd gait. The animal was not concerned and it headed towards a large fig tree where friends let their chooks out most days. It disappeared behind the fig tree and did not re emerge. It never stopped and kept a constant pace. The area was open paddock with a ridge-line that the animal was moving along.

1992 Coopers Shoot Road, Bangalow, 8.30 pm Vicki said that the weirdest animal appeared in the middle of the road. She had to slam the brakes on to prevent hitting it. The animal then snarled at us showing long pointed teeth, before disappearing into long grass. The color of this animal was light in appearance and there were no stripes. She and a work mate looked at each other in total disbelief and both said together "What in god's name was that? She stated "We both knew that this was neither dog nor fox." When explaining the incident later to family and friends she could best describe it as looking something like a Tasmanian tiger. Every one laughed at her and cried in disbelief "A Tasmanian tiger in Byron Bay!"

1995, Coopers Lane, Main Arm, Hayley observed a golden-fawn individual with a striped tail.

16th November, 1997, Sunday, 7-30 a.m. at Lennox Head, between Seven Mile Beach and Lake Ainsworth, near Camp Drew. Paul and his partner observed from their car, only 1 metre away, a dog-sized animal with black stripes down its back and rump with one stripe across the base of the tail which was long and stuck straight out behind it. It was covered in short sandy fur, with a long thin head and face with upright ears and he was certain that it was not a cat, fox or dog. He phoned the national parks service, a local wildlife carer and some time later, the north coast ABC radio station while I was broadcasting my Wildlife Talkback programme.

18 November 1997, 9 am North Tumbulgum, adjacent Hogan's Rainforest Nature Reserve on the NSW / Qld border. Jan and two other family members observed on their property a striped dog-like animal with a head almost like a kangaroo and stripes continuing onto the long stiff tail. They had previously observed it on two earlier separate occasions and enquiring of the neighbours, were told that all three families on adjoining properties had observed the animal going back at least ten years but had never bothered to report it.

November 1997, Upper Durobby Creek, in the foothills of the MacPherson Ranges. Dennis, a neighbour of Jan, phoned to describe a similar animal. Of particular interest was that the animal that he saw had no stripes on the body, though it did have pale bands along the tail. It was greyhound-like, the head was like that of a kangaroo, particularly because of its kangaroo-like ears that stood straight up, the ribs were tucked up and the rump was uplifted.

The tail was thick at the base and as long as the body, was round in cross section and went to a point. It was shaped like a kangaroo's tail, but held straight out behind instead of dragging on the ground. Its fur was very short, about 15 mm long, of a greyish to light brown colour and was not at all mangy. At the base of the tail there was an orange ring about 50 mm wide and it was followed by 6 to 8 yellow rings about 40 mm wide.

His wife was the first of the family to observe the animal, 3 months before while taking their child to the bus stop down their one kilometre long driveway. Two days later their teenage son observed it and described it as being a cross between a kangaroo and a greyhound. Two weeks later Dennis finally saw it sitting on the roadside while driving down their road to pick up their child from the bus stop at 4 pm. He watched it walk off from beside his car for one hundred metres. It walked like a dog and its unusual tail did not look out of proportion with its body. He stated that it didn't look like some unusual hybrid but a species of carnivorous marsupial. His teenage son has since set up a large live animal trap in an attempt to capture it.

1997, Mt Warning, Heidi described her brother's observation of a thylacine. He and his
friend were quite close to the base of the mountain when they passed an odd looking animal. He said when they stopped it ran out onto the road behind them and froze for a moment also looking at them before dashing off into the forest. He said it looked exactly like the Tasmanian tigers he had seen pictures of in books except that it was a lot darker in colouring. He said it had stripes and a sloping back.

1997, 4am, Uki. Peter described his sighting of 1997 on the Murwillumbah Road to Uki near the intersection to Mount Warning at 4am when he observed what at first he thought was a fox on the side of the road. He immediately noticed that it had an unusual shuffling walk with the rear of the body sloping backwards and thought that it had a dislocated hip, which he had observed on an injured dog previously. He expected to catch up with the animal with ease because of its disability but was surprised that when it became aware of his cars' approach it raced off along the roadside with incredible speed. He accelerated up to it and observed that its back, rump and tail were covered with dark bands. He was sure that it definitely was not a fox or a dog, that its snout was not pointed like a fox and that it had distinctive rounded ears. It ran off into the vegetation adjacent the road.

1999, Brunswick Heads ,Jodi saw a striped animal cross the road between the fish co-op and the highway.

1999, Federal, Graham and Rosalind had a close view of a strange animal when driving between Whian Road and Bates Road near the old Dip when the headlights illuminated it. The size of a dog, it had a big distinctive head, brown fur and a stiff kangaroo-like tail. It had very obvious stripes across the back and the base of the tail which blended in with the brown fur so that the stripes would not be so visible from further away. It had a very unusual manner of walking quite unlike a dog. They decided that it could only be a Tasmanian tiger and phoned the national parks service to report the sighting and where most annoyed when they were not believed and told that they could not possibly have seen such an animal because it is extinct. Their daughter also saw it a year later and described the same animal. A friend, Eric told them that he had the same kind of animal cross the road in front of his car near Wooyung and although he applied the breaks he hit the animal. He stopped and had a look but the animal had run off unhurt.

2000, Mahers Lane, Terranora, Don saw a long thin dog-like animal with stripes across its back and the base of its long thin tail in the evening as he drove down the road from his home through farmland. It was unconcerned by his approaching car and he was able to get a close look at it. Some years later he saw it again at the same time and place and then his wife saw it in similar circumstances near their house. Nearby residents Allan and Maureen also observed the animal.

15 January 2003, 9.30 am, Stock Route Road, Billinudgel, Mailman Peter drove right up to a strange looking animal standing on an earth bank on the southern section of Stock Route Road, just behind Billinudgel. As tall as a medium-sized dog, it looked something like a whippet crossed with a kangaroo. It was covered with a fine short brown fur except for the rump and tail, which was bare skinned with individual hairs scattered evenly across it. It was completely unconcerned by the presence of his car and he closely examined it for 5 minutes before it walked off. Peter had been involved in greyhound racing for many years and so was positive that the animal was neither a dog or a fox and appeared to be a carnivorous marsupial.

2003, Wilfred Street, Billinudgel, Sue, owner of the Billinudgel Post Office, when she owned the general store next door, looked into the main street of Billinudgel one morning at 5.30 am and was surprised to see a very unusual animal standing in the middle of the road. It looked like a cross between a dog and a kangaroo. Then she found that the woman that worked in the store had recently observed two of the animals chasing and killing a swamp wallaby near her home just a few kms up the valley. A short time later a bakery representative from the Gold Coast also saw the animal and commented to Sue about it.

2003, Stock Route Road, Billinudgel, Peter, principal of Main Arm School saw what looked like a thylacine.

2003, Stock Route Road, Billinudgel , Tony and Susette saw what looked like a thylacine.

2003, Stock Route Road Billinudgel, Joan saw what looked like a thylacine.

June 2003, Rosebank. Neil saw an animal that he could not identify while driving to Rosebank from Clunes at 8.30 pm. Two km to the south-west of the Green Frog Cafe and general store he and a friend saw in the car headlights an unusual animal cross the road 6 to 12 metres in front of them. It had a feline-like face and a long body and tail, from snout to tail tip at least one and a half metre in length, covered with yellow tawny fur.

2003, Upper Main Arm, bush regenerator Mark had a close observation of a thylacine-like animal at midday and observed its striped back and stiff tail as it stood near the roadside. Being an expert on wildlife identification he was positive that it was a thylacine. It gave a strange coughing bark-like call and bounded away.

2004 Clothiers Creek Road, Cabarita, Joslyn, of Kingscliff, saw a thylacine on Clothiers Creek Road at 9.30 am as she was coming into Cabarita. It was the size of a small dingo but with an elongated, slim body and the hind quarters were more prominent. It was covered with tawny short hair with dark stripes across the back and its gait was noticeably unusual.

September 2005, 7am in the Billinudgel Nature Reserve, on the trail that runs parallel to the beach several hundred metres north of the central trail entrance into the reserve. Russel noticed 2 or 3 very sleek animals slip through the bush.

8th October 2005, at approx. 12pm on Shara Boulevard (not too far from the Highway). Russel saw what looked like the same animal and believe it may have been sitting as he only saw its head and shoulders in the grass but was struck by it having rounded ears.

October 2005, Terragon, south of Uki, heading towards Kunghur. Shirley woke very early to the sounds of her chooks going right off. She jumped out of bed and made her way down to the pen, where she saw an animal that was striped like a tiger that bounded over the long grass. It was thin and brownish and had a long thin tail.

November 2005, Coorabell , 9 pm Samantha saw a lion coloured creature with kangaroo like back legs hop into the bush on the Coorabell - Federal Road at the farm of the Woolnough family. She stated "I'm an artist and I paint native animals and the gait of this animal meant that it was a marsupial, not a dog or a cat. The colour was golden-fawn, 60 cm in height and the ears were rounded. It was the movement of it's pelvis and it's shyness and way it dropped it's head and pushed it's pelvis up and hopped into the bush that alerted me to the fact that this was a 'different' animal to any I'd seen before. It looked straight at me before moving away. It didn't run. I paint thylacines frequently and last year we had a gallery in Fletcher St Byron Bay with a thylacine on a rock with the word 'Imagine' inscribed on the rock. So many people, local and others, came in to describe their sightings. One of the most significant was from Maureen from Byron Post Office whose husband had spotted one while posting letters in The Pocket. She even came in with the drawing he'd done after seeing the creature. Another from a woman called Gail who worked at Durrumbul preschool and who had seen one crawl from beneath the preschool building and walk in a hopping way. She saw it for quite a while.

2005 Traegegle, Rhys observed a golden-fawn thylacine-like animal.

2005, New Brighton, Gary and Sharmaine observed a thylacine-like animal with a striped rump.

2005, South Golden Beach, Kolora Way Lyndel observed a thylacine-like animal without stripes.

7th January 2006, Saturday, 8.30 am, Drake. Greg worked at the Tenterfield Bowling Club on Friday night and he headed home at 7.45am Saturday morning. Whilst travelling east along the Bruxner Highway through the lighter wooded area, coming off the range, about ten minutes west of Drake he had a close view of a strange animal that looked like a thylacine without stripes. He reported "I can say that what I saw did not look like anything I have witnessed before. I have also heard a report about six months ago from an elderly family friend. The elderly chap's sighting was about ten years ago in the same area, closer to dawn, about 6am."

16 January 2006, Monday, 3.30 am, Anderson's Hill, Mullumbimby. Mick and Fabiola where returning home along Gulgun Road adjacent Everrit's Creek crossing, 400m north of the Mullumbimby intersection and the Uncle Tom's Pies service station, when they observed a strange animal coming towards them along the eastern side of the road. It reminded them of a Fossa or a civet and definitely was not a fox, dog or cat.

Fabi was driving and so Mick was able to examine the animal closely and observed that it was 60 to 70 cm high and 1.3m long, the length of the body quite long when compared to its height. It had a very long thin tail that drooped down then lifted up towards the end. It had a large head with golden eyes and widely separated rounded ears. It was covered with short golden-fawn fur with black shadowy marks on the fur tips across the rump. Mick noticed that it had a distinct waddle of the back legs at it walked and from only 2 metres away he watched it turn away from him and saw that it had a white band at the end of the tail with a black tip. It then ran off under a barb wire fence to disappear into the regrowth vegetation.

26th January 2006, Shara Boulevard, North Ocean Shores - at around 6am (Australia Day) Russel was driving from Ocean Shores to Brunswick Heads. There was very little traffic on the roads. Towards the end of Shara Boulevard he noticed an animal walking head-on toward him, along the side of the road. He noticed the ears were rounded and that it stood about 1/2m high, its mouth was open. As he slowed down he observed it closely at an angle and was extremely surprised by the length of the tail which curved down and back up from the ground.

There were no visible markings on the body, although he thought the rump was perhaps darker than the rest of the animal, which had a tan colouring. He passed it and stopped the car but it had disappeared into the bush by the time he looked back. He also reported that a friend, Jan, told him that many years ago she had watched for ten minutes illuminated in the headlights, a pair of striped thylacines licking and preening each other on the roadside in the Snowy Mountains, in southern NSW.

8th February 2006, Thursday morning around 5-30 -6.00 am, Mullumbimby. "My 23 year old daughter Shanti saw what she believed to be a thylacine. We live on the eastern side of Mullumbimby town near the sugar cane fields at Morrison Avenue Mullumbimby. It was early morning around 5-30 -6.00 am when she heard a commotion outside the house as if a dog was fighting with our cats. She went outside to investigate and rushed inside to tell me what she saw. She said she saw a "mutant" dog. It was small in size, light golden coloured with a very long snout and rounded ears, a long pointy tail, and stripes on its back.

It was making a strange gutteral yapping noise as it tried to attack our cats. It then chased one of them across the neighbour's garden. My daughter became frightened, as she said she thought it was a feral dog, and yet it did not look like any dog she had ever seen. She then saw it run as fast as it could down the street towards the cane fields. She said that its gait was awkward looking, and looked like it was loping because its front legs were shorter than its back legs, and it looked quite ungainly as it ran.

My other children and I heard the strange noise, but did not go out to investigate. The neighbour heard the commotion as well. My daughter did not know about thylacines before the sighting. It was only when my other daughter said that her description of the creature sounded like a thylacine that she was able to definitely identify it from pictures that she found on the internet. She was able to get a good and clear look at it because it was so close.

15 February 2006, Hastings Point, Rose described a strange dog-like animal that she saw while driving to work in the morning. It was grey with dark grey mottlings on its rump, it had distinctive large round ears and was quite unlike a dog or fox. In December 2006 at 9.30 am she again saw the same animal with three young cubs chasing and playing together on the road.

19 February 2006 at 5.30 am, North Ocean Shores. John and Pat had set off from their home at New Brighton for the Pottsville Market, where they would set up a pottery and jewellery stall, and had only reached the small bridge north of Redgate Road at North Ocean Shores travelling at 50 kph when they saw 2 strange animals standing on the road. Both were of a buff colour with distinctively rounded ears, hunched backs and remarkably long thin straight tails. They were somewhat smaller than a German shepard dog, much larger than a fox and one individual was smaller and was standing in front of the larger animal. The animals watched the approaching car for a few seconds and then raced off into the bush. Pam noticed what looked like pale stripes across the back. John was adamant that they were not foxes, dogs or dingos all of which he is very familiar with after spending 20 years at Lakes Entrance in eastern Victoria.

25th February 2006, Saturday night at about 11 pm, Palm Avenue in Mullumbimby. Kali saw a strange animal running across the road. She stated "No stripes, but a distinctly wild animal, reddish brown short hair, above knee-high. It really caught my attention, and I found myself thinking about this animal for days."

25th February 2006, Saturday night, Main Arm Road, Mullumbimby. Richard sighted a thylacine-like animal on the road as he drove from Main Arm to Mullumbimby and pulled off the road to look where the creature went.

26th February 2006, Mullumbimby, Left Bank Road. Sunday morning about 6:10 am. Alisha and her mother were going to the market and when they pulled out of Yankee Creek Road and went round the bend they saw a strange animal that was too big to be a cat and that was not a dog or a fox and it had stripes across the back, rounded ears and a long stiff tail.

26th February 2006, 3.15 pm, Redgate Road, South Golden Beach. Steve and Michelle and their family were riding their bikes when they saw a strange animal in the short grass. It was 60 to 70 cm high and covered with short ginger-blond short hair with a narrow, small triangular-shaped head, a long thin neck, a long straight, thin tail that was as long as the animal. It scratched itself with its hind leg like a dog. They did not believe that it was a dog, dingo or a fox.

February 2006, Brunswick Heads, on the Pacific Highway near the Mullumbimby turnoff, Walter saw a dead thylacine-like animal, with a distinctive long straight tail and stripes along the body, lying on the roadside, a victim of a car strike. I searched the locality but found no sign of a body.

February 2006, Shara Boulevard, North Ocean Shores. Rayleen saw a thylacine-like animal crossing the road.

February 2006, Tyalgum. Donna lives at Tyalgum and saw an unusual animal that ran through their paddock on dusk, at a great speed. At first she thought that it was a wallaby but it's head was too large and it was too bulky in it's front end then it tapered off in the hind end and had a tail similar to a wallaby. Nobody in her family believed what she had seen until 3 days later when she was coming home with her daughter and about 2kms from home they saw the same animal run into the bush and her daughter described it exactly as Donna had seen it.

5th March 2006, Sunday, Left Bank Road, Mullumbimby. Elle and her family saw a strange animal in their garden quite close to the house which ran down to the creek. She saw it a couple of times during the following days. She stated that "it looked funny and very skinny and moved weird-like. I looked it up on the net and it did look like the pictures of thylacines but with no stripes. I thought it looked a silver colour but it was hard to tell because it was raining."

11th April 2006, Shara Boulevard, North Ocean Shores 12.30 am. Ron was driving west towards the highway and saw what looked like a thylacine as it walked along the northern side of the road. He stopped the car and turned off the motor and watched it from 2 metres away in the high beam of the headlights as it stared at him. It was about 1 metre high and 2 and a half metres long with high haunches at the back of the body and a long thin pointed tail almost the length of the body and which pointed down. Its snout was narrow and pointed, the eyes sloping backwards, the ears tall and rounded and it had a long neck. It had very fluid movements and its body was covered in short hair of a light fawn colour. It had 10 to 12 very pale stripes across the rear portion of the body with slightly wider stripes on the back and narrower stripes on the rump. After looking at the Ron in the car it suddenly bolted off into the bush.

2nd November 2006 at about 9 pm, Thursday, New Brighton. Rob was fishing at Casons road New Brighton when they saw an unusual animal. He stated "it had a tail like a roo, but not touching the ground. I've shot and skinned roos and foxes before so I have had experience with them up in Armidale. We observed it for about 10 minutes from between 10 to 20 meters away. It walked, going from tree to tree looking up the trees. Its eyes were pale green reflecting in our weak head torches, the moon was in the clouds, but a bit of light was coming out. The animal on the cascade beer label would be the closest thing and its ears were not as big as a roo or a fox. It was grey/brown with a lighter underside especially under the chin. Its tail was darker and it had short hair just like a roo, it had no stripes. My friend who was with me describes it as "looked like a kangaroo but it walked rather than hopped". After shaking our heads in disbelief, we were the ones who left, it hung around in the distance."

January 2008, Byron Bay. Andrew and his wife were on holidays from Victoria, staying at an apartment off Cemetery Road in Byron Bay. On a bike ride to the beach they had a good look at what both thought may have been a Tasmanian tiger "as ridiculous as that sounds" stated Andrew. "It had sandy coloured fur, a snubby muzzle and a long tail. It had the gait of a dog and certainly wasn't a feral cat. The stripes certainly were not bold. My wife works at the Werribee zoo in Melbourne and it certainly wasn't like any of the cats they have there. We then mentioned it in passing to the bus driver on the way back to the airport and he said there had been some sightings.

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