Australian Animal Folklore Collection

The Australian Animal Folklore Collection is held in the Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre (University of Ballarat E.J. Barker Library), and can be accessed by researchers in the Centre’s supervised reading room. The collection includes objects such as plaster paw prints, images, documents, reports, and newspaper articles relating to big cat scares that have become legendary over a number of generations. Themes within the collection relate to cryptozoology; big cats and dogs in the Australian bush, such as pumas, panthers, mountain lions, thylacines (Tasmanian Tigers); and legends such as the Tantanoola Tiger, the Black Dog of Bungay, the Grampians Puma, and the Gippsland Panther. The collection was used by Dr David Waldron during his research into Australian big cat mythology and the book ‘Snarls from the Tea-tree: Big Cat Folklore’ co-authored by David Waldron and Simon Townsend. The Australian Animal Folklore collection has been supplemented with donations by other interested researchers such as David Pepper-Edwards. Aspects of the collection can be viewed online via www.victoriancollection.net.au with the search term “Australian Animal Folklore Collection”