Did you hear that Hollywood stars Chris and Luke Hemsworth are throwing their money behind an ambitious project to bring the extinct Tasmanian tiger back to life?
The University of Melbourne aims to 'de-extinct' the thylacine, following a $5 million philanthropic donation.
The project will involve Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering and de-extinction company that uses the controversial CRISPR gene editing technology.
Colossal previously announced plans to de-extinct the woolly mammoth and restore it to the Arctic tundra.
The Australian partnership could lead to the first baby thylacine within a decade.
If the thylacine is brought back from the dead, we wouldn't be surprised if some are kept at Aussie Ark in the Barrington Tops.
Australian non-profit WildArk, which is connected to Aussie Ark, is working on the thylacine project. And the Hemsworths have previously been involved with Aussie Ark.
In 2020, Aussie Ark partnered with WildArk to release 11 Tasmanian devils in a 400-hectare wildlife sanctuary at Barrington Tops.
It was the first time the Tasmanian devil had lived in the wild on the Australian mainland in 3000 years. The Barrington Tops was chosen for the devil release because of its similarities to Tasmania.
Chris Hemsworth and his wife and actor Elsa Pataky helped release some of the animals into their new home.
When plans to bring the thylacine back to life were announced last week, Hemsworth said: "Our family remains dedicated to supporting conservationist efforts around the world and protecting Australia's biodiversity is a high priority".
"The Tassie Tiger's extinction had a devastating effect on our ecosystem and we are thrilled to support the revolutionary conservation efforts that are being made."
Thylacine Sightings
We can't let this story go without recounting some previous tales told to this column.
Researcher Rex Gilroy told us five years ago that he believed the Tasmanian tiger still exists in the Barrington and other areas like the Blue Mountains and Jenolan range.
"I've got paw prints that I've cast," he said.
Scientists say the thylacine became extinct in Tasmania in 1936 and on the Australian mainland about 2000 years ago.
After our story with Rex was published, a bloke named Christian Kropp told us he had been going deep into the Barrington Tops wilderness for years.
"Being a Maitland boy and coming from a large family of six, we were always camping."
He claimed he and his dad had seen Tasmanian tigers in the Barrington twice.
Christian, who was in his mid 30s when we spoke, said his first sighting happened in the Barrington when he was 11.
He and his dad were collecting firewood.
"It popped out on this spot where we get wood, close to a creek," he said.
He vividly recalled his dad's words: "You don't see this every day, son". He described the creature as having "black to faded stripes on its back-end and smaller than a dingo".
His dad - a "typical Australian bushy" - always believed it was a Tasmanian tiger.
Around 2015, Christian experienced a second thylacine sighting about 30 kilometres from the first sighting. He was riding his motorbike at the time. This sighting, he said, was "clear as day as well".
We've since put this story to a few national park rangers. They don't discount the possibility of such sightings and invariably say that if Tassie tigers did still exist on the mainland, the Barrington is where they'd be.
