I have not seen or heard for many years now but around 1956 when I was in the outer part of Sydneyone night around 1 AM  I heard snarling that frightened the hell out of me and speaking to a neigbour the next day she showed me paw prints in her yard of which we took plaster casts and took to the museum and they said they were of a large cat like animal -- the next time I heard of this was when my Husband and a Friend walked down near the Georges River one night to fish and they heard snarling and it frightened the hell out of them and they said this followed them on the higher ground for a long way on their way home.  The other time was in about 1960s and we were going to Qld via the New England HWY -- and we saw ahead of us crossing the road a --        I would definitely say it was a black panther -- it was very large and had a very long curved up tail -- but by the time we had reached the spot where we saw it -- it was out of sight.

Another time Friends were at the Wombeyan Caves area and they saw a large panther-like Animal but they said it was a light tannish color.

PlanB, one of the theories floating around, is  that circus animals either  got loose or were  released into the bush around the 50s or 60s, which would tie in with your sightings and what your husband heard.  It  might also explain why there have not been sightings in recent years, as they could simply have died off if there were either just  one or two males or just females, or if they were old.

Interesting, thanks for that.

When my son was driving one night along the road going through Dural, NSW, it was very thick bushland then, his headlights suddenly picked up a huge cat like figure running across the road, it frightened the life out of him. He said it was Black with a long tail. He told some locals in the area and they confirmed what he saw. This was going back 19 years ago. I don't think it would be a circus animal as they don't use Black Panthers. 

Celia the one we saw crossing the HWY driving to QLD was around the Tamworth area

We saw a big black cat-like animal (panther size, definitely bigger than a house or feral cat) stalking along the Sydney Water canal behind the Mount Gilead Retirement Village (Campbelltown, NSW). It was very clear, in early morning daylight, and we stood at our window and watched it for several minutes until it wandered off into the bushes. This was just a few months ago.

After re- reading the article in my first post, it says:"

"You did have widespread exotic animal trade in the 19th century. That's easily proved. You can certainly see that in the classifieds of the day," Dr Waldron said.

"If you jump on Trove you'll see people in Sydney and Melbourne selling off leopard cubs or panther cubs.  "" 

So maybe it's safe to say, there are still people illegally purchasing baby panthers and then letting them loose when they grow to adult size.

There are too many sightings now to say they're non existent.

You are right Darcie

I ggogled this add

LINK

 Lots of evidence of military personnel bringing big cats into Australia as pets and mascots years ago on troop ships returning from Africa and Asia. Chances of any of these animals surviving the Australian bush is nothing less than fanciful. Remember Yowie,  Darwin's Bigfoot?? That turned out to be a relative of Raphael's?

We had a problem with feral cats for a while and caught the biggest cat I have ever seen.  It was jet black, tall and lean, with a narrow face and really long tail.  It was the most ferocious of the ferals we caught too, snarling, spitting, and trying to attack anything that came near.

We toyed with the idea of filming it and claiming we had Panthers in Qld too, but sanity prevailed.

Seriously though, this cat was very panther-like, albeit on a smaller scale, and seen from a distance in the right light could well have been mistaken for a big cat, especially if there was nothing nearby to gauge its actual size.