Watching out for wandering wildlife from the side of the highway is one of the key safety issue for travelling grey nomads. They’re all out there … kangaroos, emus, cattle, roadkill-eating eagles…. but estuarine crocs aren’t normally part of the highway entourage.
However the 1.5 metre-long saltie that decided to sunbathe by the side of the Bruce Highway at Mt Ossa this week obviously hadn’t read the script.
After receiving a startled phone call, RSPCA Mackay inspector David Ferrar, attended the unusual scene and used a his ‘dog pole’ – a long metal pole with a noose at the end – to guide the crocodile back into the water.
“It was the best thing we had in the middle of nowhere,” Mr Ferrar told the Sunshine Coast Daily. “I tightened the dog pole over its top snout and manoeuvred it steadily and gradually to the nearest waterhole.”
Mr Ferrar said the crocodile then swam off and disappeared into the ‘murky depths’.
The unlikely spotting is a timely reminder for residents that crocodiles inhabit waterways of the Mackay region, including freshwater creeks.
“As an RSPCA inspector I never know what I’ll come across,” Mr Ferrar told the Sunshine Coast Daily. “One day it’s a sick cockatoo and tackling an estuarine crocodile the next.”
The animal was not injured.
What’s the most unusual things you’ve spotted while driving along the highway? Comment below.
