Why Penrith is proudly embracing the mythic panther as a survivor and protective figure

In Penrith and the lower Blue Mountains, every second person has a story about the mythical panther: a fleeting glimpse of a large creature, a suspicious paw print, an animal carcass in a tree, or simply a sense of being watched. "I find when you mention the panther, you've got two camps," Bilpin artist Regina Walter says. Featuring headlines like "Young NRL fan grows fang after tooth knockout at game" and "Woman raises cougar", Walter enjoyed the opportunity to let her imagination run wild and bring stories reflecting the danger and resilience of the panther to life. "At that time you were hard-pressed to drive down a street and not see a cardboard cut-out of a player or homemade banners with these really wild interpretations of the black panther," Chapman says. "It's almost like the panther wraps around the girl, yet she is so happy and peaceful and she feels protected," Boyd says.