AVON RIVER MONSTER -

For some time there were rumours of some sort of creature living in the Avon River. Some sightings were reported in January 1929 with a Mrs Whitworth saying it looked somewhat like an alligator.

The sightings took place over three nights by the Central Bridge. Descriptions ranged from a crocodile like creature, a shark or a large lizard.

Apparently the police took the sightings seriously enough to conduct a search and hopes of the local population were high as they lined the river banks to watch. Nothing was found, however, but it didn't quite end there.

On January the 16th, Inspector Johnson spotted an animal he estimated at 8 feet long and although more searches brought no results, nobody was swimming in the river despite the summer heat.

The police even took to using a boat to search the river and during one sighting an armed police constable was sent to investigate and after spotting what he thought was the monster, he fired two shots at it. Unfortunately the 'monster' turned out to be nothing more than a floating log on this occasion.

The West Australian newspaper and the Beverly Times had both reported on the 'monster' and of course other newspapers were not far behind.

The Mirror claimed the monster had the head of a crocodile or perhaps the snout of an ugly pig. The Truth was somewhat more sceptical stating that the monster was probably similar to bogies and bunyips. They followed this up with an article mentioning 'Pink striped spnorters'. They even published an imagined image of the animal showing it as something like a Chinese dragon with a horn (see below).

The Beverley Times chimed in again stating that the monster was still at large but ten days after the first reported sighting, things had started to settle down again and children were once more swimming in the river.

Many people kept an eye out over the ensuing months but no evidence was ever found to suggest what it might have been.

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