The news that a man has been attacked by a two-metre saltwater crocodile at Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park will no doubt send shivers down the spines of the thousands of grey nomads who have taken a dip there in the past.
Yesterday’s attack comes just days after another popular swimming hole at Bitter Springs near Mataranka was closed due to the sighting of a crocodile.
The fact that two bodies of water so well used by humans can still be accessed by crocodiles is a reminder to all that the north is very much croc country and that the prehistoric predators don’t live by human rules.
After yesterday’s attack at Wangi Falls, south of Darwin, a 67-year-old man was reportedly injured on his back and arm. He is said to be in stable condition at the Royal Darwin Hospital.
Back in February, rangers trapped and removed this giant croc from Wangi Falls. PIC: NT Parks and Wildlife
Rangers have now deployed a crocodile trap to the popular waterfall, and the public are very much being kept out of the water.
The ABC reports that the NT Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security confirmed the attack.
“It is estimated the crocodile is approximately two metres long,” the department’s head of Northern Australian Parks, Dean McAdam, said in a statement. “Rangers are working with the Crocodile Management Team to remove the animal … further crocodile surveys will then be undertaken prior to reopening.”
One eyewitness told the ABC he was swimming at the falls when he saw the crocodile appear at the surface.
“Everyone was yelling ‘croc, croc!’,” he said. “It kinda popped up, saw people closer to the falls and made a B-line for them.”
Another eyewitness, Will Johanson, told the ABC he as swimming with his five-year-old son, when everyone suddenly got out of the water and he realised there was a croc swimming nearby.
“We were sort of stuck on the other side of the waterhole, probably me and half a dozen other people, and my five-year-old son,” he said.
Mr Johanson said the group waited five minutes for a chance to sneak around the edge of the waterhole back to safety.
Wangi Falls is typically closed during the wet season when saltwater crocodiles can move up flooded rivers. Back in February, NT Parks and Wildlife’s Crocodile Management Team and Litchfield Rangers removed the 3.4-metre reptile from a trap at Wangi Falls. The falls reopened to the public on June 17 after rangers surveyed the popular spot for any crocodiles.
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Yes, yes it does. No longer culling numbers in the salt water croc population means overcrowding closer to the coast and teenage crocs spreading out looking for their own patch of pool. Be very careful out there.
Attack and presumably 1st sighting of the croc happened 24 days after Wangi Falls had been reopened and surveyed? Does anyone who has knowledge of these matters know whether that means the survey was sub-optimal (i.e. the croc has been there the whole time) or is it possible for the croc to have accessed the water hole AFTER the survey was completed? Thanks
The blokes in the know do and can clear waterholes of Crocs..
But because of the ever increasing Croc population they are always on the move and can appear in a waterway virtually overnight..
Especially the young maturing males who are being chased out of their area by the bigger older males.
I visited there Wangi Falls 10 years ago. I was too worried about Crocs to risk swimming over to the Rocks where the young couple were stranded at the time of this attack. However I have been at Bitter Springs for the past 6 weeks floating daily along on my noodle. It freaked me out when the Springs were closed due to Salty Croc sighting. It was fortunate no one was attacked. The Springs are still closed.