Errol still keeping mangroves at bay
HE was caught because environmental officers patrolling for illegal netting in the upper reaches of Sorenson Creek stumbled across the dead crocodile on the headland and set cameras to catch the culprit.
Police conducted a search of Errol Copley’s home at Woree and took some fishing line and a wildlife camera from the back of his ute as evidence.
He then voluntarily took them to his Deeral farm to show them the dead croc.
“Would I have told anyone?” he said.
“Well six days later when police did a search on my house, I hadn’t even told my wife.”
He entered an early guilty plea to taking a protected animal without authority and copped a $500 fine.
“The expanded definition of ‘take’ under the Nature Conservation Act means about 10 things,” he said.
“The interesting one is ‘punch’. “So if I punch a flying fox and knock it out, I go under the same ruling here because a flying fox is a vulnerable species.”
Kennedy MP Bob Katter sent him a $200 cheque to supplement the fine. He has not cashed it yet. Mr Copley will be back in court on May 18 with police seeking his penalty to be upgraded to $7000-$8000.
He does not intend to crossappeal and may represent himself, since legal fees in the District Court could end up being greater than the fine.
Police argue a precedent relied upon in Mr Copley’s previous sentence was 15 years old cies, being mangroves,” Mr Copley said. “We took over the contract.
“The next year we gave the money to the Sea Scouts and she wouldn’t accept it.
“So we said, stick it up your clacker, we’ll keep it and we’ll keep going on with it.
“I had a guy with me ... he had a son in the Sea Scouts.”
Mr Copley said mangroves would cause silt to build up and block drains on the Esplanade if left to grow wild, creating major flooding at the bottom side of Cairns in heavy rain.
“It’s getting harder as I’m getting older,” he said. “I used to be able to run out there but I’m only walking nowadays.” and “no longer reflects the prevailing views and understandings regarding conservation nor the expectations of the community”.
“There is a very real risk that other commercial operators will consider $500 a small price to pay to rid themselves of the dangers, risks and inconveniences that crocodiles pose to their businesses and/or lives,” the submission said.
Mr Copley said if anything was inadequate, it was Queensland’s system of crocodile management.
“I’m being taken back to court to defend the magistrate on her decision,” he said.
“If I intended to catch a crocodile, I would have preferred to catch it live in a pig trap.
“I just wasn’t expecting to catch a crocodile on a mackerel line. The management system is not working.
“I don’t mind trapping and relocation to farms.
“But there should be more people allowed to bobble a trap on your own land.”