The Beast of Buderim
by Murray Byfield
The Beast of Buderim has been reported on the Queensland Sunshine Coast since 1871. The indigenous word for the animal is the “yarri” and has been reported well before European colonisation. It has been described as a dog sized carnivorous mammal with stripes on its hind quarters, long tail, sharp front teeth and a nasty attitude.
Alternatively, others have described it as looking like a fox with mange or a combination of a kangaroo and a dog. Silver in colour with very short, mangy fur and distinct black stripes
Some Cryptozoologists suggest the beast is a relict population of Thylacoleo, a marsupial tiger (see Queensland Tiger article) that existed in Australia in the Pleistocene period, it became extinct approximately 30, 000 years ago. It is more than possible that early Indigenous Australians encountered the Thylacoleo tens of thousands of years ago.
Others point to the Beast of Buderim to be the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) , possibly even a mainland subspecies. An animal resembling the Thylacine has been reported by long term residents of the Buderim area for decades. Most sightings have occurred in the EJ Foote Memorial Sanctuary, Buderim Forest Park, along the banks of Martins Creek. Others are sceptical as the Thylacine was restricted to the island state of Tasmania in modern times. The Tasmanian Tiger was officially declared extinct in 1986.
Beast of Buderim sightings were numerous in the 1990’s, most witnesses described the Thylacine type of creature opposed to the description of the Marsupial Tiger.
A Buderim dentist, Dr Lance Mesh saw the creature on the fringe of a rainforest near his home, he described it as:
Goldy, brindly in colour, had a doggish shape and a prominent bump on its head above its eyes. Its most striking feature, however, were the black stripes across its back – I could not take my eyes off them. My headlights froze him, he arched his back and crouched before running back off into the rainforest. I couldn’t believe it. For a moment, I thought someone had painted a strange looking dog with stripes.
In July 1993, Leonie Dennis was driving with her husband along the Coolum-Yandina Road when a mysterious creature ran across the road in front of them and disappeared into the ditch.
It had dark stripes on its rump and was brindle coloured. I turned to my husband and immediately said, “That’s a bloody Tasmanian Tiger.” As soon as I got home, I drew a picture of the animal.
In more recent years the Beast of Buderim has raised its ugly head again. Sue Smith was standing in her kitchen when she looked out the window and spotted something stripy. Sue witnessed the elusive creature at 8.30am, on a Wednesday morning at her Diddillibah property. Her account and photograph appeared in the Sunshine Coast Daily in May 2014:
“I was in the kitchen when we first saw it. Then we went onto the veranda and could see it from there,” she said. “Initially, he was quite close to the road under some trees, then went back under the fence.
“It was amazing.”
She had claimed to have seen the creature weeks earlier, but in hindsight believed it to be a fox.
Is the Beast of Buderim a Marsupial Tiger, Thylacine or just a mangy Fox?
Whatever you believe it to be? Sightings continue…
