The Tasmanian Globster of 1960: Sea Monster, Science and Myth

📍Four Mile Beach, West Coast, Tasmania

In the winter of 1960, a strange, pale mass washed ashore at Four Mile Beach, just north of the Pieman River. The West Coast is a wild, wind-lashed place at the best of times, and people who knew the area weren’t easily startled. But this was different. What lay on the sand wasn’t driftwood or kelp or the familiar remains of a whale. It was something no one could name.

The Discovery at Four Mile Beach

I first heard about the Globster a few years ago and it piqued my curiosity. A giant, unidentified sea creature washed up on Tasmania’s West Coast was exactly my cup of tea and it sent me digging through old newspapers, west coast histories, and maritime archives to chase the truth.

It was the winter of 1960 when three stockmen, Boote and Anthony of Smithton and Fenton of Temma, came across the monster on a beach on Tasmania’s wild west coast. It was on the sand, around 10 miles north of the Pieman River. They described it as being 20 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 4 foot high and covered in hair. It was described as being like a huge turtle, but without appendages. The Tasmanian authorities were notified, but access to the beach was limited and the find never received the scientific attention it might have today.

A short documentary clip from the expedition investigating the Tasmanian globster, filmed in 1962.

In early 1962, a scientist from the CSIRO was in Smithton and heard local chatter about a sea monster that had been found down the west coast of Tasmania a couple of years earlier. TMAG chartered a small plane to do a fly over of the area the creature was seen, and a couple of weeks later, two employees took recreation leave from their jobs at CSIRO to investigate the creature and take samples.

By this time, the media had become aware of the ’Tasmanian Monster’, as it became known, so it was decided that a more robust investigation of the creature should occur.

In March of 1962, a team comprising personnel from CSIRO, the Zoology department of Utas, and from TMAG travelled to the hard to reach area to view the monster. The scientists found a rancid smelling blob of tough fibrous material, that had already shrunk and begun decomposing.

The Globster Catches the World’s Attention

By the early 1960s, the world was primed for mysteries. The space race was accelerating, nuclear testing had made science both powerful and frightening, and reports of UFOs, sea serpents and unexplained phenomena regularly filled newspapers and radio broadcasts. In an era shaped by Cold War uncertainty and rapid technological change, stories like the Tasmanian Globster tapped into a widespread fascination with what might still exist beyond the limits of human knowledge. In the sky, the sea, or places science had yet to fully explain.

Correspondence held by the National Archives of Australia reveals the volume of overseas interest the Tasmanian “monster” generated, particularly from the United States. One correspondent urged for samples to be tested for radioactivity, believing there may have been a connection to the radioactive fish caught by the Japanese.

A particularly humorous internal memo at the CSIRO referred to the ‘flocks of yanks’ that arrived any time oddities were reported.

Handwritten and typed correspondence from the National Archives of Australia relating to overseas enquiries about the Tasmanian globster, 1962. — *Letters and notes held by the National Archives of Australia show the scale of international curiosity surrounding the Tasmanian globster, particularly from American researchers and enthusiasts.*

The letters reveal not just curiosity, but a distinctly Cold War era anxiety about unexplained phenomena and the desire to test, categorise and control the unknown.

The Science Behind the Mystery

Globsters were a recognised curiosity in the mid-20th century. They were typically large, pale, boneless masses washed ashore in far flung places such as Bermuda, Newfoundland, South America, and now – Tasmania.

What confused onlookers was their appearance. They looked nothing like whales or sharks. In 1960, Tasmania had no DNA testing, no portable microscopy, and little scientific access to remote beaches. However, the expedition to the monster took samples which were analysed by the CSIRO. They concluded the globster was the decomposing blubber of a large marine animal, likely a whale.

The St Augustine globster, a large decomposed whale carcass, washed ashore in Florida in 1896, showing fibrous hair-like tissue similar to the Tasmanian sea monster. — The St Augustine “globster”, photographed in Florida in 1896. Once believed to be a sea monster, it was later identified as decomposed whale tissue; a close match for the material found on Tasmania’s west coast in 1960.

Tasmania’s west coast is the perfect delivery system for such phenomena. The Southern Ocean is relentless. Its currents push carcasses toward our shore, and the wild surf breaks them apart. What washes up may look nothing like the creature it came from.

This conclusion wasn’t accepted by everyone. Tasmania’s west coast does have form. This is a place of strange tides, deep trenches, and cold currents. Rare species occasionally wash up here. That sliver of uncertainty kept the story alive.

I hate to raise the subject of the Tasmanian monster again, but some Tasmanians… apparently consider that the deflation of the monster was a blow to their national pride and are making sterling endeavours to keep it alive.

[ JH Calaby to RG Chittleborough, 3 May 1962 – National Archives of Australia]

Responses from the CSIRO indicate their frustration that the story continued to draw interest.

I am surprised to hear that anyone should be trying to keep the Tasmanian monster “alive”, those who wanted it must have extracted the last possible drop of publicity from the thing.

[RG Chittleborough to JH Calaby, 9 May 1962 – National Archives of Australia]

Since the 1990s, every globster tested scientifically has turned out to be decomposed whale tissue. More specifically, collagen-rich connective tissue that remains after scavengers, waves, and bacteria strip away everything else. What remains is not a skeleton, but the toughest material in the animal’s body; fibrous tissue that resists decay long after everything else is gone.

Looking Back

The Blobster is one of those stories that sits somewhere between fact and folklore. We know what science says about globsters today, but in 1960, standing on a remote, wind-lashed shoreline on Tasmania’s West Coast, the creature must have looked like something from another world.

And maybe that’s why this story still lingers. Not because the Blobster was something monstrous, but because Tasmania’s coastline reminds us how wild, strange, and unpredictable our island really is.

What We Know

Australia’s mid-century “blob” reports all describe the same thing: pale, rubbery, fibrous masses washed ashore with no clear bones or features.
Scientific studies worldwide later showed that almost all such finds were decomposed whale blubber. When a whale breaks apart at sea, currents and scavengers separate the blubber from the carcass and the remaining collagen fibres create the strange, tentacled appearance.
The Tasmanian globster fits this pattern. Newspaper descriptions match confirmed whale blubber cases from other coasts, even though no formal biological testing was recorded at the time.
There is no evidence of a new species. Everything described in the Tasmanian case aligns with known decomposition processes.
But the folklore survives. The first sight of something unrecognisable on a lonely shore is powerful, and the mystery becomes part of the story even after the science is understood.