Mystery of the Forgotten Beast

Mystery of the Forgotten Beast

As part of our centenary celebrations, we’ve been diving deep into the archives: looking for the kinds of stories that only exist when you’ve been around for a century.

That search uncovered this absolute gem:

This is Big Bill and if you’ve visited the museum in Perth before, you’ll remember him. He’s a bit of a local legend.

According to the article, Bill was displaced from his usual museum home by deep‑sea dinosaurs during an exhibition called Monsters of the Deep, and ended up boarding with us.

Naturally, we thought: Let’s ask the staff who were here at the time what it was like sharing an office with a bison.

When we asked around the office, much like the Monsters of The Deep Exhibition, things got… murky.

A few people vaguely remembered Bill. Many didn’t remember him at all. There was a lot of umming and ahhing over the details.

How could no one remember a two‑metre‑tall, one‑tonne bison living in our foyer? As seen in the article, he was definitely in the Forrest Centre, a place we had our offices for over 30 years.

So, we were faced with a choice. Believe the article, a primary source from our own archives, or trust our colleagues’ hazy recollections of a 35‑year‑old event. The article was convincing.  It included photos of our co-workers standing next to him and also encouraged staff to visit Bill on their lunch breaks. He had to have been there. Was this a case of collective memory loss?

We headed down to the museum to visit an old roommate, to see if we could get the truth straight from the bison’s mouth. Today, Bill resides in Boola Bardip, a state-owned asset that happens to be insured with us, so the visit doubled as a chance to catch up with a long‑time client.

Big Bill the bison in 1991 at the Forrest Centre (221 St Georges Terrace) and 2026 back home at Boola Bardip.

Back at the office, we received exciting news: a colleague definitely knew about the bison. Finally, we thought. An eyewitness! We prepared a long list of questions about Bill’s time as an office mate.

That’s when we found out the truth and solved the mystery of why no one else remembered Bill.

Yes, the bison was our temporary office resident, but we were not… The article was published in 1991 when we did own the Forrest Centre, but before we moved in. So before we arrived with our desks and equipment, the space was used a home-away-from-home for Bill.

With that mystery solved, Bill may not have technically been our office mate, but he was a tenant and gave us a great centenary story.