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Saltwater crocodiles, salties or Crocodylus Porosis, are found in coastal areas between The Tropic of Capricorn and just north of the Equator in the Indo Pacific-Region.

Within the last 100 years and until 1974, crocs were hunted under licence for their skins, for fashions. Queensland then legislated to protect them. Although they are breeding successfully, their numbers remain at a low density, contrary to media reports.

In The Daintree River, the population is about 70 adults within 50 kilometres upstream. Females outnumber the males and there are obviously several juveniles and hatchlings.

Crocodiles can live for 70 years and will generally spend their entire lives where they were born. So, we get to see the same crocs frequently. They become used to the boats’ presence and engine noises. We are allowed to be 10 metres away from them.

The breeding season extends from September to April, immediately after the winter as the climate starts to warm. Courtship begins with the large males becoming jealous of each other’s presence. Females are attracted to the dominant males. During courtship and mating, the female constructs the nest. It is about 1 metre high, 2 metres in diameter and is placed above the high tide mark, concealed among the trees and close to the waters edge.

Any rain that occurs during building will dampen the mound and this dampness promotes decomposition of the vegetation, raising the temperature of the mound. Towards the end of the year and when the female is instinctively happy with the conditions, she will mount the mound, dig a hole in the top and lay roughly 70 eggs. After covering the eggs, she will lie beside the nest in the shade of the trees protecting the nest from predators; particularly monitor lizards, or goannas. This process takes about 3 months. Apart from goannas, minor flooding in the wet season can cause drowning in the lower tier if the nest, as young crocs are breathing through the eggshell in the latter stages of incubation.

The temperature of the nest ranges between 30 and 33 degrees. Nests in the middle range will produce predominantly males. Any nests one degree plus or minus will produce predominantly females. After 3 months, the little crocs are ready to hatch. They will call from within the egg. The female then excavates the mound, releasing the young and she will crush some accidentally. So, only about 20 – 25 hatchlings are successful. The young gather in a huddle close to the water’s edge not far from the nest. They feed mainly on insects, frogs, lizards, prawns and crabs. Competition and hunger forces them to disperse. Having left the mother, they are unprotected and vulnerable to fish, birds, river sharks and established juvenile crocs who have already set up a territory. If a hatchling finds a vacancy along the bank, it will need to remain there and occupy it. After the first year, only about 1 – 2 will survive! This is nature’s way of regulating the population. So, the population remains stable.

We have now covered the basics of mangroves (last issue) and crocodiles. Be sure to follow my aspects of The Daintree River next month.

Some months ago the media heard a whisper from somewhere that one of our large male crocs had been killed by one of the locals. One of the tour guides received a secretive phone call saying that the croc had indeed been shot, dragged out of the river and had been buried. By the time it became obvious that he was not around, the vegetation around where the croc would have been buried had regrown, thereby leaving no tell-tale clues. The croc’s name was Fat Albert. He had become an icon here and when it was assumed he’d been killed, the media found it good reading. I was interviewed and my short and crude comments and thoughts were printed in the newspaper. These comments upset some of the senior locals. I have since had discussions with them and apologised. My comments suggested that the older generation, once passed on, would cause a change in the community’s attitude and that the future of the crocs were in good hands because the younger generation had a different education towards heritage values. When I was a teenager I had access to rifles and nothing was safe near me. However, by the time I was about 20 I had a sudden change of attitude and have not willingly killed anything since.

Back about 20 years ago my friend Chris Dahlberg was conducting his customary tours. He was just coming out from behind Pig Island, just upstream from the ferry when he heard a rifle shot. He tells me that at that instant a flock of egrets took flight from the bang. He sped there and witnessed a large male croc lying on the mud bank in a pool of blood and it appeared to be dead. On his return minutes later the croc had gone, perhaps it had slid into the water through its nerve movements. Within a couple of days the croc’s bloated body surfaced just a short distance away and the authorities dragged it out and away.

About 8 years ago another iconic male croc named Gummy went missing, assumed dead. He was a crowd pleaser and such a good natured animal that sat for tourists reliably. A friend of mine was returning from a fishing trip to the reef one day and said he saw a male croc fitting that description floating belly up in the river.

I personally don’t see these animals as dangerous as long as I respect their domain. It is sad that there are still people out there that fear them and don’t understand them.

See you next month.

I really enjoy being a tour guide in April on The Daintree River. Firstly, it starts to get cooler. That means that the water temperature gets cooler, which brings the crocs out onto the banks more frequently. Rather than searching high and low in the wet season for crocs, they become more reliable and the tourists and I are satisfied! Secondly, it’s the time of the year that we start to see the hatchling crocodiles turning up on the logs. At that age (about 2 – 3 months) they are dispersing from the mother’s care, through competition and hunger, for a life of their own. They say bigger is better, but I can tell you that the tourists get the most delight from seeing the hatchlings. I guess it is because people appreciate seeing something experiencing new life. You’ll remember that the hatchlings have a hard time once leaving the nursery, most are picked off within the first few days by fish, birds, small sharks and established juvenile crocs who will not tolerate intrusive babies.
One of the determined hunters is the Great – Billed Heron. This bird stands about one metre high, is as grey as the mangrove air-roots and stands motionless forever as it waits for the hatchlings to move through the kangaroo court of life. I’m sure this birds knows just when and where to be for this smorgasbord. The GBH, as us as tour guides call this bird, is described as rare. It was never one to be in flocks or groups but individually, so I’m sure it was an easy target for those of us who used to shoot anything that moved when we were young, thereby thinning the numbers. The pair mate for life and produce one offspring, but don’t necessarily nest every year, hence it’s rarity. It is sometimes called the Alligator bird. I don’t know if it is because of its great bill (perhaps resembling a croc) or its roaring sound (perhaps perceived to be the sounds that bull crocs make deep in the mangroves, mythically).

Finally, April is the time that many of the migratory birds disperse for their nesting duties in Siberia. While fishing generally, you would have seen flocks of hundreds of semi-sized birds wading at the river mouth. But did you happen to notice that all of a sudden they’re not there? Become a bird watcher and you’ll learn a lot more. They’ll be back by August, along with the T.I pigeons and others. See you next month.

Well over one hundred years ago this region became well known as a potential for gold mining. Of greater interest was the Palmer River area and places toward Cooktown. A government agent was appointed by the authorities to check it out. It was he who named this vast area after an Englishman, Richard Daintree. Once gold was found word got out about the prospect and people came running from all over the place. One such group was the Chinese gold miners from Ballarat and Bendigo, in Victoria (which was then New South Wales). That area was starting to close down. There’s nothing on earth that drives Chinese more frantically than gold!

They arrived here in the Daintree region in hundreds and established themselves immediately. It’s all very well to have ‘gold fever’ but at some point you need to eat. So, a group of them applied for a permit or lease to occupy some land to grow rice. It was actually an island along the Daintree River, known as Virgil Island and it is upstream of the ferry crossing by about 5 kilometres on the north side. You would not know it is an island as it blends in with the surroundings with just the small openings barely visible.

I’ll assume that the island and surrounding areas would have been logged for red cedar. So, the area in question would have been re-growth and scrubby. The Chinese would have had an enormous job preparing the land for rice. Obviously the water for irrigation would have come from the river. At low tide the water is fresh, although tidal. Pumps would have been rudimentary or perhaps they just had a line of people with buckets! I guess that would have taken months or even a year or so to become established. I’m told that the people set up camps along the banks close by.

Some years ago, once my ‘Permit to Occupy’ was granted to set up my tour operation here, we set about making a path between the trees from our house (100m) to the river bank. Because the bank is about 5 metres high we had to create a sloping path to allow us access to our proposed jetty. During works we came across what appeared to be pieces of a cast iron stove. I’ll assume that we disturbed an old camp site. Not far from there are a couple of old mango trees in poor condition. I’m suggesting that they had planted the mango trees there for the fruit which they used in their cooking, knowing that they would be in the area for a long time.

Life would have been pretty tough in those days dealing with cyclones, floods, diseases and other obstacles. History books tell us that Aborigines were determined to drive the white pioneers out. They resorted to cannibalism to do so. Modern Aborigines deny this; however, the lighter side of these stories is that they preferred the Chinese flesh because it was ‘grain fed’.

See you next month.