Tyrendarra farmer offers substantial reward for return of 'decapitated' sheep head

A police spokesperson said offenders attended a Princes Highway property between 6pm on February 13 and 11am on February 14 and "beheaded" the sheep.

"The head of the decapitated sheep remains outstanding," the spokesperson told The Standard.

Yannarie farmer and property owner Peter 'Splinter' Bryant said he was shocked by the offending.

"I left to go to work early in the morning, in the dark, and when I pulled up at the gate, two people had already rung about the sheep which was missing its head," he said.

"It is just completely gone. Someone has got to know something. It would have been at least a two-person job."

Mr Bryant said the sheep had been there for 15 years and often saw crowds pull over on the side of the road to take photos.

"I had cypress trees right up to about half way along my house and when a bloke bulldozed all the land, he left one that was probably 12 or 13-feet long and he suggested I have something calved out of it," he said.

Mr Bryant said a Melbourne man known as "chainsaw Kev" carved the sheep into the piece of wood.

"He was nearly retired but came down and spent two days carving it out, he did a magnificent job," he said.

"It's a just a bit of an attraction, everyone knows where it is and we've seen people all the way up to Cairns come down to Portland and take photos with it.

"It's shocking that people could do that."

Mr Bryant has offered a "fairly substantial" reward for the return of the sheep head.

"I can't say how much but it's in the thousands," he said.

"I know someone knows something."

Mr Bryant said he'd lived at the Tyrendarra property for nearly two decades and "never had any trouble".

"Even the police were staggered by this," he said.

Mr Bryant said he was overwhelmed by the response of the community following the offending.

"We've had a lot of people reach out," he said.

"With all of the response, we're hoping we have a bit of luck getting it back."

Anyone with information should contact Portland police or Crime Stoppers.

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