image from mogollonmonster.com
This story takes place in the middle of last century, that is in the middle of the 1950’s. The area around Cootamundra in New South Wales was well settled, mainly sheep grazing and wheat. There were many tales going round about strange creatures seen at night, especially on those near moonless nights when shadows take shape. This saga occurred in the middle of a bright sunny day without a cloud in the sky.
Father was out mustering the sheep as there was always plenty of work looking after the mob and ensuring the lambs were safe from foxes and wild dogs. He wouldn’t be seen until close to dinner time.
Mother was outside bringing in the wash which had dried quickly under the hot sun. There were, at that time just two children in the family, occupied with their games. They were playing in the shade of the verandah. The sound of lazy cicadas could be heard in the heavy air. Just another day on the farm.
image from http://www.earthgarden.com.au
Suddenly a silence descended on the place. Not a cicada or a bird could be heard. Mother felt the hairs on her neck stand straight and an icy prickling feeling ran down her spine.
Slowly she looked over her shoulder and there at the fence stood an image from a nightmare. It was the biggest dog she had ever seen. It stood four feet at the shoulder, its head coming to the top of the wire fence which surrounded the garden. It looked like a giant cross between a Great Dane and a Doberman, jet black in colour with the brightest RED EYES she had ever seen. They appeared to glow even in the sunlight, piercing her to the spot.
Quietly but with an urgency in her tone she urged the children to get back inside the house, quickly, but not to run. She made her way back to the house steadily, keeping one eye over her shoulder to keep the creature in sight. All through this the dog made not a move, not a sound, just stared with those evilly glowing eyes.
As soon as she got inside the door she grabbed the .22 calibre rifle, kept near the door within easy reach. As she spun round and opened the door she got an even bigger fright. There was no sign of the creature at the fence. About a mile and a half away there was a small mob of sheep scattering in every direction and she spied a large black shape loping along towards the trees. Moments later and several more miles away she spied a dark shape quickly loping over the rocky terrain and towards the bush.
At that time of day she could see miles in every direction. There was no doubt at what she was seeing. She looked again at the fence. Being just over five feet tall herself she could feel how large this animal had been. There wasn’t a mark on the ground, no paw prints despite the dust near the fence.
The creature never returned to the farm but they kept a weather eye out for it, just in case. There were stories of it being seen running in the distance from other farmers, lambs being taken, lambs being killed and eaten, the carcasses found later. Such was the concern at the devastation this monster was causing that Father and a mate decided to set up a trap.
So they built a sturdy cage in the middle of the paddock,
image from http://www.hauntedamericatours.com
gathered the lambs and ewes inside, themselves, guns and a shooting stand, car battery and spotlight and set out to lure the creature out. Despite being out there the entire lambing season and many thereafter they never lured the creature in. The killings continued elsewhere unabated.
Was it real? Could it have been something from deep within the Great Dividing Range where no man could get through? Was it some strange beast escaped from a circus years before? There were many questions and no answers and to this date no one has captured or killed this creature….. the Devil Dog of Cootamundra. Perhaps you’ll see it someday.
I wouldn’t call the farmers and their families of those days people who were easily scared, nor with imaginations which ran to making up stories like this. I, for one, believe that this monster dog is still roaming its vast territory and when it is ready, it will make its appearance once more.
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ― Alice Walker
Tell me, what do you think? Can such a creature exist, undisturbed and breeding in uncharted territory for decades? Will we see the emergence of beasts to terrorise the local farmers in years to come? Who really knows.
Cheers, Susan x
Related articles
- An encounter with a devil dog (retrieverman.net)
- Brown Snakes, Sheep and Stockwhips. (owlsandorchids.com)
- Photo of a rare West Virginia “devil dog,” circa 1930 (retrieverman.net)
Owls and Orchids 
Susan you have opened a wellspring here. I ‘ve heard the story of that dog when I was in the army, along with the big cats. All, I think have truth in them, the dog came up more often than not. I mean who really knows what is lurking around the great divide? In 1970 I was home on leave, my parents were living at Bellthorpe in the ranges above Woodford in Queensland. There were several farms spread out along the ridge and a post office. The property backed onto the state forest, a wilder, tangled place you’ve never seen. It had all the clinging, stinging vines and trees you could poke a stick at. It also had old mine shafts spread along through the forest tracks. I decided to go for a walk and took my trusty semi-auto .22 with me. There was a hare I was after who came out in the late afternoon. After making my way through a couple of miles of tracks and gazing down into Redback spider infested mineshafts I made my way home. The sun hadn’t gone down and I could see the track quite plainly.
You know when you’re being followed, when danger is present and something is staring at you. I stopped and turned and what I thought was a dog stood about 20 metres away. Hmm, I thought this isn’t good. Stumpy ears up it stared at me, the eyes were a strange red/yellow mix. Unslinging my rifle I cocked it and backed up the track, it came out of the long grass. It had fur on it, not hair like you would see on a dog. The head seemed flatter, it’s haunches were lower than its front legs and it was the size of a Doberman. I’m not easily alarmed, nor did I shoot at anything indiscriminately this thing put the wind up me. I kept walking backwards and it kept stalking me, it never made a sound as it came towards me. I had a twenty round magazine and emptied it at this thing, put another mag in and hit the toe. Looking back I couldn’t see a thing on the track.
Years later I was in the museum at south bank when I spied my creature on display, it was a Marsupial Lion. They have been sighted recently in the Gold Coast hinterland. The experts in this case claim all people were seeing was a Quoll. Well if it was a quoll the size of a Doberman than people should be worried.
Cheers
Laurie.
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Hey Laurie, I’m with you there. I lived at Kingaroy for years and thjere was a 10,000 acre forest reserve next door to my farm where you could hide Napoleon’s army AND Hannibal’s elephants and noone would ever know! VERY large cat-like creatures were seen in the Bunya Mountains there and near my farm at Dangore, and we saw evidence of the kills of large animals, different to wild dog kills… Not a place to go walking after dark…!
When I was a kid, we heard the stories through Dad’s shooter friends of the wild dog-like creatures down through the mountain ranges in Victoria and the destruction they caused. Whether they were escapees from a circus or not, noone will ever know, but there’s enough wild counrtry through there to hide anything you want!
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I agree Ray, there’s some wild country up there. I’m more familiar with Colinton for going out shooting deer, back in the day. Don’t have a firearm anymore. Even accounting for exaggeration some of these animals are still big, there are vast tracts of land where no one has set foot. Eerie stuff.
Laurie.
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Have you seen the YOWIE statue/carving at Kilcoy Laurie? OK, that’s a bit far fetched, but these stories are all over the world and especially where there is impenetrable bush. Whether the vision escaped from a 3rd or 4th rum bottle between friends over a campfire years ago or not, the stories are there.
As for me, I’ve been with Dad trying to protect our sheep and lambs from something unseen but definately an evil killing machine and I know that there is something far more vicious and dangerous than a fox or a regular wild dog or dingo. Each of them has a signature way of killing and lamb or sheep and you can tell them apart. But there are some that go way beyond…!
Where are you now Laurie? What part of the country? Susan and I are in Northern Rivers and there is some pretty wild country close by here too – Mt Warning and the Great Divide all the way north through Tamborine and south where it gets wild on the way through Coffs and down to Sydney…… Almost unbroken line of Yowie territory..
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Hi Ray and Susan, yeah I love that statue at Kilcoy, it used to lose its penis on a regular basis. I agree, a lot of things are seen through the bottom of a glass but other things are seen in the light of day. As a boy I lived for a while outside of Walcha, that is wild country and it had that feel about it. Sometimes you felt as if you were being watched. You have to really wonder at something that would kill so viciously, leopards and lions etc usually kill with one bite that quite often snaps the neck of its prey. When an animal is killed for the sheer pleasure of it, well it could be by something humanlike. Foxes kill for pleasure but they aren’t strong enough to inflict some of the injuries you see. My wife Lorelle and I live at Mt Mort, it’s between Rosewood and Laidley. We are directly opposite the Little Liverpool range, Mt Beau Brummel is the feature we see from our front door. You could literally move an army through the ranges and no one would be any the wiser. The aboriginal legends of the Yowie had to be based on something, perhaps an early hominid creature, something ape like. I know one thing, the truth is out there.
Laurie.
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You have a beautiful spot out there – any problems during the floods?
All things being possible and in this game, the more improbable the more possible they are, we may be able to arrange to stop off and swap stories one day. I have a feeling you and Ray may have more tall tales to share than I could ever hope for, 🙂 🙂
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Hi Susan, it’s a great place. We were flooded in, there are several creek crossings between us and Grandchester. The worst is located at the end of the road, it floods the whole valley. Swapping *tall but true of the legendary past* sorry, stories sounds great, we come down to Ballina now and then to visit Lorelle’s son and family.
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