A secret government file confirms big cats are breeding in eastern Victoria.
Department of Primary Industries documents reveal at least 34 sightings of puma or panther-like cats, along with dozens of mystery stock kills in Gippsland, in the past three years.
And department officer Terry Higgins has seen the cats, but is banned from talking about them to the Sunday Herald Sun.
The department dossier was released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The file is based on a diary kept by Mr Higgins, a specialist "dogger" who takes reports of cat sightings.
Documented sightings include:
A GIANT fawn cat - described as bigger than a German shepherd dog - at Stockdale in January.
A "HUGE black puma" with three kittens the size of kelpie dogs, near Woodside Beach in May 2004.
12 LAMBS killed and gutted within three weeks near Woodside in May 2003.
A CALF devoured at Seaton in December 2004 and recorded as the work of "big cats. 100 per cent sure".
In June last year hunter Kurt Engel produced photographs he claimed showed he had shot dead a leopard or puma in rugged terrain near Sale in Gippsland, but DNA tests suggested it was a large feral cat.
The FoI material was released four years after leaked State Government documents revealed 59 big cat sightings in Gippsland in the three years to 2002.
The latest dossier notes sightings of "huge" cats at Binginwarri, Licola, Wellington River, Maffra, Woodside Beach, Glenmaggie and Seaton in Gippsland.
Mr Higgins, who is understood to have made six separate big cat sightings, told the Sunday Herald Sun he would lose his job if he spoke to the media.
"I am not allowed to discuss it, I can't say a damn thing," Mr Higgins said.
"I could do my job."
Binginwarri farmer Ron Jones said he had seen big cats on his farm about 30 times and lost 260 cattle in the past eight years to predators.
Mr Jones, 62, said the cats were about the size of a golden retriever dog.
He said his mother, 82, had had a close encounter with one of them just a few days ago.
And he had even shot one with a .22-calibre Magnum rifle - but it was not enough to fell the beast.
Big cat researcher Michael Moss said the cats were a threat to public safety. He called for a full investigation by the State Government.
Mr Moss said it was "pretty disgusting" that the Government had played a straight bat -- saying there was no evidence - at the incidence of big cats.
"This should be given very high priority," he said.
"There is a real threat to public safety."
A department spokeswoman said it was not known if big cats existed in the state.
"(The department) has no evidence to support or dismiss the theory that big cats exist in Victoria," she said.
"Periodically the Department of Primary Industries receives reports of sightings or activity attributed to big cats. The examples in the 'dogger's diary' are a record of those reported sightings."
Mr Moss said he has been conducting separate research into big cats in the Colac-Otways regions and had recorded accounts of 52 separate sighting in that area in the past three years.
