Tiger on the Rocks

Australia has the worst rate of mammal extinctions on earth. The ‘Tassie Tiger’ is Australia’s most famous lost species. Like the Passenger Pigeon and Great Auk, it inspires compassion for endangered species around the world. Many people know something about Thylacines and their tragic fate in Tasmania. TIGER ON THE ROCKS takes audiences on a journey around Australia, posing questions about the Thylacine’s 25 million year old past, when it lived across the continent and showing how Australia’s largest surviving marsupial predator co-existed with Australia’s First People for many thousands of years. Unlike most ‘Tassie Tiger’ documentaries, this one isn’t searching for a missing species, it’s searching for its missing story. This is the first documentary to tell the Thylacine’s story from the perspective of Indigenous groups, as well as scientists and archaeologists. Its story resonates with issues facing environmentalists and Indigenous groups today.

We want to give people a unique way of appreciating Australia’s time-honoured natural and cultural heritage. We want to inspire audiences to want to know more about both. With a companion study guide we can provide tools for students and teachers in high schools to talk about the interconnections between nature and culture, art and science, Indigenous and non-Indigenous world-views. Study resources will reflect Indigenous knowledge of an iconic Australian animal.

This documentary moves debate beyond the disastrous legacy of colonial attitudes towards ‘exotic’ predators and resonates with issues facing environmentalists and Indigenous groups today. Audiences will see the Tasmanian Tiger with new eyes. They will come away with a greater understanding of what scientists and Indigenous groups are working to achieve and why it is so important. We also want to create study resources that will reflect Indigenous knowledge of an iconic Australian animal.

From inception to completion the project will engage with environmental and conservation networks, Aboriginal community organisations, research institutions, and rangers’ programs, national parks and natural history museums, and archaeological research groups committed to the study and preservation of Indigenous rock art.

Volunteer to help save endangered species. Donate to research campaigns. Sign up to petition politicians about environmental and indigenous issues. Spend time in the bush appreciating Australia’s rich ancient heritage. Teach students the full story about Australia’s unique Tasmanian Tiger.