A man has been killed by a 3.5-metre crocodile while trying to walk across the East Alligator River at the Cahill’s Crossing in the Northern Territory.
Police have said the 47-year-old man from the remote community of Gunbalanya was ‘foolish’ to try to make it across. His two female companions had made the crossing just minutes earlier, and then raised the alarm after they realised the man had gone.
His body was later recovered last night about two kilometres downstream with the crocodile that attacked him. The crocodile was shot and killed.
Although the crossing is recommended for high-clearance four-wheel drive vehicles only is notorious for its high concentration of saltwater crocodiles, people have previously been seen standing in the water fishing and last year a woman famously tried to shoo away a large croc with the thong.
The ABC reports that, in 1987, a 40-year-old man was decapitated by a large crocodile while he waded in the water fishing.
“Cahill’s Crossing is notorious for crocodiles and to walk across it to me is just foolishness,” NT Police Duty Superintendent Bob Harrison said. “There are signs saying not to swim or even go in the water at Cahill’s Crossing,”
Vehicles also get regularly stranded while attempting to cross, including a grey nomad towing a caravan earlier this year.
The Mayor of the West Arnhem Regional Council, Lothar Siebert, told the BAC that something needed to be done about the crossing, but because it joined public land with Aboriginal land that required a permit to enter, it was not a simple task.
“The Northern Land Council, National Parks and traditional owners have been having a chat, and we as a council don’t have an input in this,” he told ABC Radio Darwin. “It is a land issue and it has to be solved by them.”
While Mr Siebert said a bridge would be the answer, in a decent wet season people would still not be able to cross the river there safely.
“They put the boom gates down. They just get smashed one after another,” Mr Siebert said. “You are wasting public funds doing something like that.”
Rangers and police will recover the body of the crocodile today so a file can be prepared for the coroner
· Have you crossed the river at Cahills Crossing? Have you seen people taking risk there? Comment below.
Yes we have crossed it, when the water level was about 2 inches.
Then we returned to watch the tide rise, that is when all the crocs cross from one side to the other and catch the fish coming up stream.
What I found was, that a lot of tourists (and i’m one) not only the ones from over seas are quite naive to the danger that they are putting themselves in.
I saw an Australian couple, with 2 small children down on the crossing, allowing the kids to play on the rocks and in the water on the concrete crossing. The little boy climbed over the rocks and his thong got stuck in the mud, they retrieved it. My heart was in my mouth, how irresponsible those parents where.
If they had stayed only another 10 mins they would have seen a 2.5mtr Croc come out of the water at that spot and cross over. Who knows maybe it was just waiting for the opportunity.
We did a river tour with Aboriginal guides and they tell you DO NOT enter the water or even put any part of your body outside of the boat. They tell you some pretty scary experiences they have had too.
People need to pay attention to the signage.
Those parents could have ruined a great holiday for themselves and those that could have witnessed their child being taken.
We have been at the crossing, when a tree that was floating across the crossing got stuck. The water on the incoming tide was flowing very fast. A guy in a SMALL four wheel drive car decided to cross the crossing, in doing so, hit the tree that lifted the car out of the water. The guy panicked and managed to get his car over the tree. This large croc was floating at the weir. Had the car gone over, this guy would have been taken.
We were standing on the platform at the crossing a few years ago, when a fisherman got his line hooked in the rocks. There was a big croc over near the other bank but he still went into the water to unhook his line. Some people think it only happens to the other fellow.