North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Thank you everyone for you informed and helpful comments .... It's been an intense couple of day's and I quite like Greg Cavanagh he is a bit of a stirrer . From what I can tell and the direction council assisting was pushing the inquest I think we may see some word changes in a document or two and some extra signage around the place .

There will be a lot of noise made about smaller boats but I think we will find nothing will come of it .

All the Rangers that spoke (whom were really good by the way) all kept going on about stability of boats some mentioned extra railings but the water Police representitive mentions that this would ruin the utility of boat so may not be practical . Another comment was if railings are fitted to "V" bottom boats it would add extra leverage if a beastie was to jump up, up-ending said boat perhaps putting people in the water. The Rangers interviewed were asked about their personal boats and fishing habits and 2 of the 3 said they would not own anything but a pontoon style boat like an Stabicraft, Ocean cylinder or that style of boat for fishing inland and intermeadiate waterways which I found most interesting .

Below is what I tendered to the court during my time on the stand which was infulenced by comments from FFF so I thank you all

I have no training but my eye and experience.
Crocodiles are now larger and in higher saturation levels than ever before in the Northern Top End of Australia, I am of the belief that is due to food sources. The Australian salt water crocodile would have originally survived on mainly Fish, Wallaby, birds, small mammals and each other but with the arrival of the first fleet in 1788 pigs were introduced which went feral throughout Australia . Pigs when they made it to the north of Australia flourished in the wetlands making a fantastic prey for the crocodile.
In 1824 the first Water Buffalo was introduced at Port Essington but it wasn’t until 1829 that they really got a foothold claiming the floodplains as their own, Buffalo too made great prey for the Crocodile. Unfortunately there were no count of crocodile numbers or surveys on size before these two feral animals became a food source for the crocodile as I would hazard a guess that they would have been smaller and lot less than now.
From the time the European arrived with their firearms, the croc would have been fair game but mostly just a few croc’s here and there it wouldn’t have been until the 1900’s that croc’s (in the territory at least) would have been targeted for their skins this really ramped up through the 1940’s and 1950’s until the Australian crocodile was protected in 1971.
Beside the excellent work of Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory in the trapping and re-location of crocodiles from urban areas, crocodile management has essentially been let ‘em go and if someone gets hurt we will sort that one out .
A bit more effort needs to be put into reducing feral animal numbers the horses, pigs and buffalo need a big clean-out this in my humble opinion would help control croc numbers if the large food source is another crocodile …… well just one more that does not need culling .
I am not a hunter but forward the idea that allowing recreational hunters into parks and reserves to target in particular the feral pig population where I see a very lacklustre approach by authority’s would be of some help . As I have read about in the southern states a permit can be obtained to hunt with dogs which must have tracking collars fitted and then dispatching the beast with a sticker or knife, thus eliminating the need for the hunter to have a firearm in a park/reserve. As the dog has a tracking collar on surely no dogs would be lost into the park/reserve as who wants to lose and expensive tracking collar/dog ?
Horses and buffalo on the other hand will need area closures and professional hunters to reduce the numbers perhaps for pet meat ?
The food source is key in my opinion… make them eat traditional tucker and I’m sure the remainder will sort it self out .
With a food source gone there may be a higher threat to humans, so I strongly believe that a cull is warranted
I would like to see a bounty or trophy hunt take place where guides are authorised to take so many from each river system (tag system), this can only be done by an accredited tour guide whom would be trained to record info to be supplied to researchers. I hear you say only the big croc’s would be culled, for this I am at a bit of a loss, I would hope that the tour operator would be schooled not to take only the biggest reptiles but too share the love and take the animals from 3 meters and up as we need to keep a couple of the “boss croc’s” all for the tourist to goo and gaa over.
This would create employment on so many levels ( tourism, hospitality, retail, vehicle hire and other flow on’s)and the tags could have a dollar value to be paid to the government coffers which then could assist in managing feral species and training tour operators .
I don’t want to see a cull where all and sundry can go out and blow a croc away, as rednecks on the water with guns is a scary thought . Of course the current system of relocation would need to kept up, with the authority’s in urban areas keeping numbers to a fair level through said trapping or elimination .

Thanks for the insight.
Greg Cavanagh is a very down to earth bloke.
Lets hope some practical recommendations come from this tragic event.
More often than not, the people giving evidence to a coroner will make some impractical recommendations in their evidence and the coroner wont adopt anything he has heard and is left to his own decisions.
unfortunately, nothing that he recommends is binding on anyone but it will be used as a guide to the law makers.

A very well thought out plan , I certainly agree with your thoughts about this problem.
I hope some good comes from this as the death rate just gets bigger every year and the
same old arguments just keep coming up . Tourist dollars are so important to the NT but what
about the life of a family member or friend , I'm sure if some politicians family members got
Killed things would soon change.

cuddlescooper wrote:

Rug wrote:I don't support the safari hunting idea and if a cull is the way to go I would like it to be done by pros who can do the job discretely and humanely. I also want good science and traditional knowledge to work this issue out and we have the worlds most regarded crocodile experts here.

I think the feral animal theory has a lot of merit.

Sorry about your Dad.

Why don't you support a safari Hunt? I am sure it will be monitored extremely closely and the appropriate training and testing would have to be completed before licences are issued. It fits right in with putting some revenue back through the communities and possibly the whole city of Darwin in the tourism vein. It can only be a win win for the Territory cant it???

Sorry for the late reply.

This is my personal view and in no way do I prescribe it as right or wrong. I'm not a fan of sport hunting. I more believe in hunting for a food resource and I generally think there is more respect for the kill as a result of that. Maybe a good response to the issue lies not with one or the other but a combination of both. I would hope whatever happens is done with a rigorous public submission process which is the best way of looking at the issue from all angles. Scientific, social, cultural, economic ect.

jeffish wrote:A very well thought out plan , I certainly agree with your thoughts about this problem.
I hope some good comes from this as the death rate just gets bigger every year and the
same old arguments just keep coming up . Tourist dollars are so important to the NT but what
about the life of a family member or friend , I'm sure if some politicians family members got
Killed things would soon change.

Council assisting bought up an interesting/trivial fact.... that with croc attacks tourist numbers rise .

Are you serious, I know I wasn't there and I may be taking it all out of contex but that seems terribly insensitive thing to say considering those in the room. But I suppose there were plenty of things said and printed that would have caused much more offence and further grief.
I think it was a shame that both deaths were looked at in the same inquest. I'm not sure if your family was happy about the whole inquiry, but I think there needed to be a review of things, as it seemed to change the rules. Where as mr trans death at Adelaide river seemed a much more "text book" croc attack. And combining the two seemed to only muddy the issue when reported in the media.

The question was raised about including the tourism commission, but that's when Mr. Currie bought that out . I have been a bit misleading there Mickkk ... that was bought up at the meeting a few days before the inquest, about the time they revealed the fact that Mr. Cavanagh wanted the croc heads in court room .