Fading town must stop all the crocs to pull in tourists

Remote Australian mining enclave pinning its survival on ensuring its lake is safe for sunworshippers

IN THE remote township of Jabiru in the heart of Kakadu, Australia’s largest national park, the Aboriginal owners are in a quandary.

They want to attract more tourists but are grappling with a growing problem: crocodiles.

The town, 150 miles from Darwin, was built in 1982 to service a nearby uranium mine and is due to be dismantled when mining ends in 2021.

To save the town, the Mirarr people, whose ancestors go back 65,000 years, want to turn it into a £250million tourist hub with an international airport, eco-lodges – and a “croc-free” lake to allow visitors to swim in safety.

But experts believe the cost of tackling the growing crocodile population would be far too high. John Lever, a crocodile farmer from Queensland, said to make the lake crocodile-free would require an underwater fence that would need to be regularly replaced. “Anything is doable if you throw enough money at it but I am not sure it would have a return,” he said. “I know the lake well, they are constantly pulling crocs out of it.”

Crocodile populations have soared across northern Australia following bans on hunting in the Seventies. In the Northern Territory, there were about 3,000 saltwater crocodiles when a hunting ban was imposed in 1971. Today there are thought to be 100,000.

Grahame Webb, who runs a crocodile park in Darwin, said crocodileproofing the lake would be an engineering feat requiring a 20ft fence. “Crocs can move overland – you can’t just block them off,” he said.

Attacks are occurring with greater frequency. Last year a 47-year-old man was killed while walking over a crossing at East Alligator River, Kakadu. In 2014, a 12-year-old boy died while swimming near Jabiru and a 15-yearold was bitten on both arms but survived.

Following the removal of six crocodiles from Jabiru in 2016, Garry Lindner, Kakadu’s crocodile manager, issued a public warning: “No matter how hot it is, don’t enter Jabiru Lake,” he stated. “Crocs will always see you before you see them.”

In July, the Northern Territory government revealed plans for the “safe swimming” lake at Jabiru, including images showing indigenous people and visitors happily swimming. The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr people, says it wants to restore Kakadu’s reputation as a popular tourist attraction alongside the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru.

In the late Eighties, 150,000 international visitors visited Kakadu each year but this has fallen to about 30,000.

According to a report, tourism could help to save Jabiru but it would be important to ensure the lake and town were “absolutely crocodile free”.