Horror story — Sydney-style

Press, 18 September 1976, Page 3

Horror story — Sydney-style

PA Masterton “Town’s terror — rampaging sea monster devours pets.” This was the frontpage announcement in Sydney’s “Sunday Mirror” last week-end, when it described the visit of a clumsy sea elephant to Riversdale Beach. The awesome story that followed was reminiscent of the Hollywood boxoffice success, “Jaws,” as it described the miracle escape of a four-year-old Australian toddler from the Riversdale monster,

which the newspaper called “Tusks” and which supposedly killed four dogs. According to the Sydney scoop, the child was snatched from the path of ‘Tusks” as he lumbered towards her parents’ tent — squashing two terriers, who died after “they snapped courageously at the grunting giant.” How the other two dogs died is not revealed by the “Sunday Mirror,” apart from the front-page blurb that they were “devoured.”

Thousands of Sydneysiders may have swallowed the story, but Riversdale residents would have choked on the sea-monster saga. So would Rive r s d a I e ’ s fish-eating “Jumbo.” And while the leg-pull-ing went on in Australia, Mother Nature must have been busy with some tooth-pulling — because “Jumbo” has no tusks. The reference to the Napier Marineland’s plan to capture the “absolutely ferocious” monster is also awry, because it said a

few days ago that it was not interested. Another marineland at Orewa, near Auckland, was the wouldbe owner, but was denied permission by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.

A Riversdale Beach developer, Mr Basil Bodie, described the Sunday newspaper story as “blooming ridiculous.”

“There was no-one in tents for a start . • . and no Australians here that we know of.

“Ninety-nine per cent of that article is absolutely untrue,” he said.

The dog-devouring episode was also eyewash — there was only one dog on the beach, and it “never even barked” at the sea elephant. The “Sunday Mirror” story had also resulted in a Brisbane radio station making a telephone call to inquire about the damage done to spectators’ cars; the monster had apparently smashed into them. But in spite of all the hullabaloo, Jumbo was today quietly sunning himself near the edge of the Riversdale sandbanks. He should be worried. Perhaps he hasn’t heard about that seal-devouring giant-sized Sydney prawn, which has already chased a Japanese sea trawler into hasty anchorage at Ning Nong Bay, near Cape Palliser. Its name — “Claws.”