Rough justice
- 19 May 2001 by Leigh Dayton
- Magazine issue 2291
Images of the thylacine are a dime a dozen in Tasmania. Its likeness graces everything from beer bottles to greetings cards. But this watercolour and pencil sketch, now owned by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, is almost as race as alleged sightings of the thylacine itself.
It was painted in 1833 by English humorist and natural history artist Edward Lear. Unlike traditional colonial works, modelled on bdaly stuffed animals, Lear's thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was seemingly painted from life. But how? Lear never visited Australia. Robert Paddle of the Australian Catholic Unviersity in Melbourne may have the answer. Piecing together data from original sources, he reckons that between 1849 and 1930, 121 live thylacines left Tasmania. But there was one earlier shipment. The Hobart Town Courier of 17 September 1831 reports that a thylacine was shipped to England. Bingo!
THE shaky film lasts only 62 seconds, perhaps ...
