Crocs
 

I am planning a trip to Australia and finding that we could spend a month there and still not see everything. My husband really wants to see the saltwater crocs. We will definitely go to the Cairns area (probably stay in Port Douglas). Are the crocs seen there pretty much the same as the ones in the "Top End"? Right now we're looking at stays in Sidney, Uluru (maybe Alica Springs also), and Port Douglas. If we can keep it to just those we can spend more time in each. Plus leave some time to go on to New Zealand before we break the bank :-)!

Yes, the saltwater crocs in North Queensland are the same as those seen on the Top End. You can see salties on Daintree River cruise, usually sunning themselves on the river bank. However, on the Top End, it seemed to me there were a lot more possibilites for seeing them. Best was the Jumping Crocodile cruise on the Adelaide River (between Kakadu and Darwin)....they hang hunks of meat off the boat. HUGE crocs leap out of the water just a few feet away!

YIKES!!! Sounds like if we can manage to squeeze out a few more days to go to Darwin it might be cool, but at least we'll have a chance to see some crocs in the Daintree River (my guide book also mentioned night cruises). People think we are nuts wanting to see them, but the higlight of our animal viewing in Brazil was seeing several highly poisonous snakes right above our canoe :-)!

Yep, they're the same type of croc, found in many other parts of the world as well as tropical Australia. If you're coming in summer you're unlikely to see a croc on Daintree River, they like to keep cool then and stay underwater for a lot of the day. Daintree operators pride themselves on not dangling meat overboard to attract them. They're very common here and in summer beaches around Cairns and Port Douglas are often closed because of their appearances. For leaping crocodiles here you need to go to a wildlife park, Hartley's near Port Douglas does this performance. Also there's a crocodile farm just south of Cairns which breeds and slaughters them for meat and skins, you can see about 20,000 of them there at various stages of growth, the smaller ones are penned - the huge ones are left in a well fenced tributary of Trinity Inlet. Wild crocodiles are protected animals with a different diet to those farmed, crocodile meat is commonly found in restaurants. As they are fed on chicken that is what they taste of.

I really do not agree with the croc feeding cruise... I think it's unbalancing nature's balance but to offer these animals huge chunks of meat.

I went to the Yellow Waters cruise in Kakadu and saw 3 crocodiles. They were swimming peacefully in the water. That's how it should be...

Where ever it is you get to see crocs, it'll be great. They are awesome creatures.

I agree. I'm not much on the "jumping crocs" - I would rather see them lazing on the bank or swimming peacefully. Thanks for all of the feedback. Sounds like staying for a more relaxed and longer time in Port Douglas will still give us everything we want.

Hi jcasale,

Believe it or not but you can actually see a saltwater croc here in Alice Springs at the reptile house right in the CBD. They also let you handle snakes and other reptiles.

Cheers

Paul_S

Yeah, being quite nature-minded, I tend to agree with the reservations about jumping crocs. Hypocritical I know, but it still thought it was quite impressive. I climbed Ayers Rock, too. Another one of those things that if they banned it I wouldn't argue, but it's not so bad that it's going to stop me from participating.

Here's a thought. There are a gazillion crocs in Australia and a few happen to get fed by jumping for their dinner. A few tourists might actually learn something about the crocs by watching this. Besides, some crocs do jump in the wild to pick birds off low hanging branches. Maybe it isn't such a bad thing if it gets people out in the bush and teaches them something about habitat and conservation.

Now where's that dingo eating baby show?

Dingos eating babies :-)! After some long flights with screaming ones, I might pay big to see that.....a bit politically incorrect?

I debate about the climbing of Ayers Rock. I suspect my knees may prevent me from having to make a desicion, but it's tempting even though I know it is preferred that I not. The dilemmas of travel to interesting places.

John - he is with the dingo with the snorkle ( Aussie joke about an ex-Aussie PM who went snorkling and vanished without trace in Victoria ) the rest of us believe it was a dingo with a snorkle that took him or the CIA, perhaps they are one and the same.

You can also see Saltwater Crocs in the Kimberley region of NW Australia. There are great coastal cruises where you go on daily expeditions to different remote islands, waterfalls etc and see plenty of crocs. You will even get to go on night tours where you can spot crocs with your torch! I was on a coastal cruise organised through www.kimberleycruises.com and I saw a Freshwater Croc in a tributary - it was dead. We saw a nearby waterfall and figured that it must have been living in the freshwater river at the top, then fallen over the waterfalls and died once it hit the Saltwater, as I hear they cannot survive in the Saltwater (but a Saltwater Croc can survive in both?) Anyway, very interesting and highly recommend seeing this region.

Talking of crocs, they have a well developed "homing" instinct. One very large fellow who was removed from a populated North Queensland area to somewhere more remote, just made it home - 450kms.

Pat, recently I took some visiting friends on a boat trip along the Mary River, at Maryborough, and the skipper said, that when the early settlers first arrived at Maryborough, there were salt water crocs along the embankments of the Mary River, and used to take sheep or cattle, until they were shot out by the settlers. The skipper claims that there maybe a few salties left, down near the entrance of the Mary River & Great Sandy Straits.
Another interesting yarn I heard, was that Hervey Bay had a small zoo of some sort a few years back, situated near Eli Waters, which flows out into the Bay, and the city experienced extremely heavy rain, which flooded the zoo, and they couldn't find the salterwater croc which was one the exhibits (I guess the croc is happily swimming around Hervey Bay?)

Don't know about crocs but I reckon there are a few sharks around Hervey Bay at the moment ;)

>>Now where's that dingo eating baby show?
<<

That's old news - now it's the Steve Irwin Baby-Eating Croc Show. ;-)

Lee Ann