Quintessential local humour

The verses tell the story, whilst the is chorus is sung from the tiger's point-of-view. Additionally, the AI image of a baby thylacine bred in a jar is done with comedic intent. Here we celebrate the tiger's transformation to a sentient life over the alternative of continued extinction. 

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The test-tube joey

During the first stages of the TIGRR program, DNA samples (containing genetic code data) was able to be extracted from a 9 week old joey taken from a pouch (around the turn of the 20th century) and preserved in solution. Hence the reference in verse 2 to the joey. 

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The Bounty-hunters

By 1830 the Van Diemen Land Co. introduced bounties on hunted thylacines. In 1888 a bounty of one pound was offered by the Tasmanian parliament. This image, from the National Museum of Australia's digital classroom collection ('Extinction of Thylacine') has the caption, 'Hunter poses with dead thylacine 1869'. Hence in verse one, the reference to, 'they hanged 'em upside down'. 

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The Tiger bar

The Mole Creek Hotel has a bistro/bar called, 'the Tassie Tiger Bar'. Visitors from afar travel to this venue located on the edge of the Great Western Tiers, the King Solomon's and Marakoops caves, near where thylacines may have been able to survive. It is in this small Tasmanian town - and in these mountains, where the mysteries and belief that the 'tiger' may still be alive is openly fostered.

 

Intentionally or not, the hotel and patrons- have made their own unique contribution to the preservation of knowledge and tiger story-telling, as this is passed on to the next generation.

 

Hence the bar features as the place  where stories of actual sightings and the future visioning of an actual finding is openly welcomed, without fear or favour.

 

And so the community gathered around the hotel, represents an epicentre of thylacine-tiger culture and story-telling in the modern era.  

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