Cape York Palorchestes

Australian cryptozoologist Gary Opit has collected various sightings of a Palorchestes or tapir-like creature around the Pascoe River area of the Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland. The creature heavily resembles a Palorchestes, a genus of marsupial related to koalas and wombats that convergently evolved tapir-like anatomy and behaviour. Palorchestes are believed to have died out 15 to 12 thousand years ago but perhaps survive into the present day in the Pascoe River area.

A man named Ray Westrap claimed to have seen two unusual animals while pig hunting on a dry riverbed near Currabeena, Queensland. suddenly, there were two strange animals charging at him. Not wanting to kill the animals, he fired in the air, causing them to squeal and run back up the creek. They were about the size of a cow, with black hair, thick legs, and prehensile, short trunks, similar to that of a tapir. 

Ray Stockham, from Portland Roads, claimed to have encountered bizarre tapir-like animals once or twice a year from 1986 to 1992. He always saw the animal right before the rainy season in the Goddard Hills area north of the Pascoe River. He would watch as the creature would eat hopbushes, using its short trunk like an arm, similar to an elephant. The animal was quadrupedal, about three feet tall, with black hair, rounded shoulders and a short, prehensile trunk.

In 2001, a man claimed to have seen a furry, black animal with a trunk near the Pascoe River. Three years later, another person saw a similar animal at the same spot. The animal was more than three feet in height and had wombat-like hindquarters.