John Cullen said he and several friends were sitting around an outdoor fire on Sunday night when an unmistakable roar cut through the night. 

“We were sitting outside between 7pm and 8pm when we heard a really loud growling noise coming from the rocky escarpment at the rear of the house,” Mr Cullen said. 

“We heard the noises for about 20 minutes before they stopped. 

“But the growls started up again around 10 minutes later, heading towards the front paddock where the sheep had been grazing,” he said. 

Mr Cullen said he went inside to grab his rifle when the growls started moving, hoping to scare the animal off before it hurt any of the lambs.

“Unfortunately, as it was dark I was unable to tell if I hit the animal,” Mr Cullen said. 

Mr Cullen said he returned to the lambs’ paddock on Monday afternoon and made a rather stunning discovery. 

“We found dung, fur, and paw prints from the animal. There’s no doubt in my mind that the panther was here and trying to go for the lambs before we scared it away,” he said. 

Mr Cullen has put in a call to the Mudgee Veterinary Hospital and Taronga Western Plains Zoo, hoping to have the fur and dung analysed to find out just what kind of animal is prowling around the Mid-Western Region. 

While there are many skeptics out there who don’t think the panther exists, a growing number of people have sighted the panther over more than a decade around the Mid-Western region and beyond.

In January 2015, the Mudgee Guardian printed a story about a sighting of the infamous ‘Lithgow panther’ – an animal some believe is the same one that has been spotted around Mudgee. 

A sighting in 2010 by local Paul Cauchi caught the attention of the Sydney Morning Herald who ran an investigation on the subject. 

According to the article, the NSW Governemnt had become so concerned by the rising number of panther sightings in the Central West and Blue Mountains they had commissioned a series of reports on the mater and sent an expert out to catch it. 

In 2013, NSW Minister for Primary Industries at the time, Katrina Hodgkinson, ended speculation on the government’s knowledge of the sightings, stating “The NSW Government will not commit further  expenditure to this issues, and as far as I am concerned, the matter is closed.”

Panther sightings were such big news in Mudgee, that in 2007 the Mudgee Guardian’s front page on Friday, April 20 bore the headline ‘Big black cat back’. 

The story stated nine people had spotted a panther-like animal just 120 metres from their home.