TANTANOOLA TIGER HOTEL

In the front bar of this pub the local interest in dogs these days revolves around those you can bet on. And while the punters may tell a few tall tales about the fastest dog in the land, nothing can beat the true story of another mutt who stands ever so still and silent in the dining room. But what's a fearsome looking animal like this doing in a display cabinet in a southeast pub with a Tiger perched on the roof.

Well the story goes back to the 1880's when local shooters took off in search of a Bengal Tiger believed to have escaped from a travelling circus. The animal was never found and over the years the local papers were full of reports of sheep going missing prey to a mystery animal with feline characteristics.

"By 1893 reports surfaced of an unusual animal in the Tantanoola area. Some described it as the missing Tiger while others said it was a very large dog. Reports became more and more exaggerated so much so that soon Tantanoola was a town besieged by a lurking beast".

Soon hunters were out in earnest, scouring scrub country throughout the State's southeast as the story spread like wildfire and became more bizarre with each telling.

"The person who saw it first claimed he'd seen a tiger. He put two and two together and came up with six I think. But that's really how it started and then a number of searches were conducted and people were out looking. A number of sightings were made of this strange animal but then there were a number of sightings or supposed sightings were made of the Tantanoola Tiger as I said before from Robe which is a hundred kilometres in one direction to Bendigo which is four hundred kilometres in the other direction".

The hysteria spread throughout the southeast as far as the Glenelg River and to Donovan's Landing the home of Tom Donovan a true bushman who went out in search of the mystery beast.

"He shot the animal and it turned out to be an Assyrian or Russian Wolf and they believed it had come from a shipwreck off the coast".

Old Tom Donovan became a legend in the district and took the animal to country fairs, no doubt urging the Mount Gambier taxidermist to put a bit more aggression into his stuffed trophy, after all this is a tale with teeth. But despite the efforts of old Tom and his trusty Winchester 44, the loss of sheep continued for another 15 years. He might not look like the most intelligent of sheep rustlers, but Charlie Edmondson managed to elude the authorities for years.

"One of the local chaps, a chap by the name of Charlie Edmondson was arrested and charged with the theft of 78 sheep and he pleaded guilty to the theft of those sheep and when he was being sentenced the Judge said is there anything you'd like us to take into account and he said yes I'd like you to take another 4,000 of them into account, so he had been doing it for years".

Now this much maligned animal and Assyrian or Northern Russian Wolf, takes pride of place in the local pub and every so often the locals propose a toast to an amazing story one which even spawned a local football team, the Tantanoola Tigers. The Tantanoola Tiger Hotel is located on Railway Terrace at Tantanoola about 35 kilometres northwest of Mount Gambier. For more information email info@postcards.sa.com.au