Cirrus@Austlit

Thylacines and the Anthropocene

E Richall Richardson's poem is typical of settler-colonial impressions of the thylacine in early nineteenth century lutruwita / Tasmania. Understood as a kind of southern-wolf, the thylacine inherited many of the canine's folkloric and sheep-thief associations. Carol Freeman explains that colonial images of the thylacine—in art, print, and story—grew more monstrous and violent as colonial agriculture move inland.

In reality, most agricultural losses in the new colony could be contributed to error, weather, and roving bands of European settlers and their dogs.