HEADING SOUTH
Reptiles forced to go south
TURF wars in the Far North are forcing ousted saltwater crocodiles into southern waterways where unsuspecting residents are crossing paths with the prehistoric predators for the first time.
Go back a couple of generations, when there were fewer people and greater expanses of undeveloped habitat and tales of crocodile encounters as far south as Maryborough (about 200km north of Brisbane), were commonplace.
Since January 1 last year, 21 crocodile sightings have been reported well south of accepted crocodile territory at Gladstone’s Boyne River, as well as two in the Mary River, more than 300km south of that border and well inland.
Darwin-based crocodile expert Adam Britton, who heads crocodile research and consulting organisation Big Gecko, said patchy historical data made comparisons difficult but he was “reasonably confident” river systems in the Northern Territory were nearing the kind of numbers not seen for more than 100 years.
He believed that if Queensland was experiencing similar growth rates there would soon come a time when there was no more room in the central and northern waterways for the territorial predators and a greater number of rogue or bullied crocodiles seeking safe habitats further south was inevitable.
While, Mr Britton did not believe crocodile numbers would ever reach even close to the same concentrations seen further north, he said warmer temperatures in southern waterways could provide the right environment for “low density” populations to exist “quite happily”.
He said crocodile attacks were relatively rare but there was far greater risk if people were not aware of the dangers.
Mr Britton said the only way forward was better research on crocodile numbers and subsequent control measures, which the Queensland Government is doing with the the state’s first comprehensive scientific crocodile count from Cape York to Maryborough over three years.
The Government insists it is doing more than ever to tackle the problem, removing record numbers of crocodiles from the Cairns region, committing $5.8 million over three years to improving crocodile management and making previously casual park rangers permanent.
But Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles has reiterated that, even if the survey did support the consensus that crocodile numbers had not only recovered but were thriving, there would never be a cull on his watch.
Mr Britton said that kind of talk usually only lasted until someone was “hurt or killed”, something which was statistically rare in areas where people understood the risks, but more likely if people “don’t expect to run into a crocodile because of the lack of warnings and public information”.