Expeditions

The Extent of My Own Personal Involvement into Tasmanian Tiger Research and a Possible Rediscovery.

My passion and involvement in the possible rediscovery of the Thylacine was fueled in April 1998. Whilst writing a ‘semi – fictional’ adventure novel about a group of children in Tasmania trying to prove that the Thylacine was still alive, my research into ‘The Age’ and ‘Herald – Sun’ newspaper reports lead me to look into a number of reported sightings of the Thylacine in Gippsland that had been made over a 3-year period.

It was these sightings along with the enthusiasm of some of the people I met and the expectation of a possible rediscovery that forced me to put my adventure novel on hold. I decided to embark upon a more illustrious measure of trying to be the first person to obtain either a photograph or alternately video footage of the animal to conclusively prove to the world that the Thylacine does really exist and is not extinct as we have come to believe. In essence I was going to live the dream being created in my adventure novel.
Following initial discussions with other interested people, I embarked upon a plan to obtain corporate sponsorship for the rediscovery attempt. This posed a number of challenges in itself.

The Expeditions have continued for the past 12 years. During this time I along with my son’s have been elated by our sightings and our encounters with the Thylacine but at the same time we have also suffered the frustration and disappointment of not being able to obtain tangable evidence in the form of a capture or a photograph to conclusively prove that the animal continues to survive. Plenty of footprints and plaster casts along with photographs of thylacine hunting and eating patterns unfortunately do not rank as evidence to this magnificent elusive creature.The disappointments have occurred due to lack of financial sponsorship along with inadequate technological resources in the form of video surveillance gear or still cameras. Despite this the research has continued and we are surprisingy amazed each time that we view the results of our camera sites. The cameras are continously out there so we hope that eventually we will achieve our goals and objectives. I thank you for your interest in our research I hope that we can provide the world with the conclusive evidence in the not too distant future!