To survive as a small outback town these days requires the ability to attract passing trade. And it appears to have become customary to try and create, or at the very least promote, something unique about your town to tempt the curious to stop for a while longer than a casual glance or a fuel stop on the way to some distant destination. It may be a collection of old machines stretching for a mile by the roadside as was the case in Ilfracombe, a museum or hall of fame dedicated to some local collection, talent or character such as The Waltzing Matilda Museum in Winton or The Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach, but if it can be made yours only then all the better. And, of course, we must not forget the giant possum, galah, lobster, ram, banana, pineapple…

Nannup

All this brings us to the small and easily passed town of Nannup surrounded by forest at the junction of Highway 10 and Highway 104. Here stalks a local beast rarely sighted but encountered often enough to rouse interest and keep the story alive and in the news. Allegedly a large dog-like animal, of a type previously thought to be extinct, wanders throughout the region occasionally posing for a blurry photograph. The beast has a distinctly long snout with tiger-like stripes to the rear half of it’s body and an unusually long dark tail.

It is thought the creature is a Thylacine – a marsupial carnivore, otherwise known as a Tasmanian Tiger – though the last one believed to exist died in captivity in 1936. Not unique to Tasmania despite its name, the creature became extinct on the mainland about 3,000 years ago but the thylacine is known to have spread as far west as Western Australia and north into Papua New Guinea with fossil records dating back at least 4-million years.

So, it might just be possible in this vast land of ours that a few survivors may still exist out there.

But is this just a ruse to attract tourists? After all, Nannup is well provided with cafes and interesting country shops to stop and explore for a while – would it really need to make up such a story? Well, in the brief time that we had to stop for a coffee and stretch our legs along the high street, I was startled to catch sight of the creature lurking among bushes beside the pavement!

It is definitely not a dog. But, despite its rather plastic-looking demeanour and remarkable stillness, it does in fact look like a Tasmanian Tiger and, strangely, it appeared quite happy for me to take a photograph. All I need to do now is add a little blur in Photoshop and add it to Nannup’s collection of sightings.

If you happen to be passing through Nannup, stop for a while, enjoy a great coffee or a meal in one of the many cafes and help support the local economy. And keep your eye out, you never know, you may too encounter the Nannup Tiger.