Human enclosure plan

Croc advocate’s bold proposal to prevent tragedies

Creating safe enclosures for humans in known crocodile habitats could help prevent tragedies, according to Daintree crocodile advocate David White.

He attended Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon’s croc round table held in Cairns on Thursday and said the minister had categorically ruled out croc culling.

Mr White suggested human enclosures where people could enter the water safely in populous zones could be one solution.

“All of Cairns is an exclusion zone for crocodiles but there have always been crocodiles in Lake Placid, there were attacks many years ago,” Mr White (inset) said.

Mr White said Lake Placid would be an ideal spot to have a human enclosure.

He said while some “problem crocodiles” had been successfully relocated to remote

Lakefield National Park, where local publican Kevin Darmody was snatched by a croc on April 29, crocodile relocation was often unsuccessful as they determinedly returned to their habitats.

Mr White cited one study where a large crocodile was removed from Wenlock River at Weipa, tagged with a device similar to that used to track turtles, flown by helicopter to the east coast – and it swam back.

“The croc took 20 days to swim around the tip of Cape York, over 400km, back to Wenlock River,” Mr White said.

He welcomed funding of $4.175m for new initiatives to improve croc wise education.

“They’ve got funding to increase safety and they’ve ignored the hysteria, which is great,” Mr White said.

“The minister said crocodiles would not be culled, they are listening to the facts, the science, and looking at better education and signage.

“People use the signs as towel racks when they swim.”

He said money for multibeam sonar and deep learning recognition artificial intelligence computer software to repel crocodiles from populated areas was also exciting.

Katter’s Australia Party Queensland leader Robbie Katter maintained the crocodile population is “exploding” and crocs need to be culled.

“Thinning them out will absolutely make a difference.”