Last Update: Monday, August 22, 2005. 1:15pm (AEST)
MP wants Cape York croc hunting safaris
North Queensland Liberal MP Warren Entsch has called for safari-style hunting of big crocodiles to be permitted on Cape York Peninsula.

Mr Entsch says a Northern Territory proposal to offer big game hunters the chance to shoot crocodiles is worth looking into.

He says allowing culling of a certain number of crocodiles would also open up job opportunities for remote Indigenous communities.

"It's not just the actual culling of the animal, we are talking about an opportunity to engage guides, there's provisions, there's a whole heap of things that goes into these experiences," he said.

"These are highly professional people that are involved in this. It's not everybody's cup of tea, it's not something that interests me. However, there is a market there, a very significant market."

Queensland Environment Minister Desley Boyle has dismissed the idea.

Its a great idea to raise revenue for different communities and get rid of nuisance crocs but it has a snowballs chance when pollies think about the political backlash.

I wouldn't mind hunting a croc if the chance came up but they are talking trophy fees of $25,000 something, aren't they?

quote:

wouldn't mind hunting a croc if the chance came up but they are talking trophy fees of $25,000 something, aren't they?

Hell if their trying to make money out of Crocs again? I'd pay $25,000, to feed a couple of MP's to the crocs! One does come to mind straight up!

Dave

but would the croc eat him?

Perhaps it might, but you would be able to tell that croc easily. It would be the one swimming around, licking all the other crocs arses, trying to get the bad taste out of its mouth!

Cheers, Dave.
Non Illegitium Carborundum

well, I guess if we could get crocs to eat certain politicians, it would be a damn good thing.

But I would feel sorry for the diarrhea it would develop........ as well as the foul taste in the mouth.

Anyone ever seen a croc putting it's fingers/claws don it's throat to throw up?
Wait to I get $25,000 & I'll show ya cause I reckon it will happen30secs after eating said Polition& it gets the taste! Be like eating a S##T sandwich

dave

On another note, when I was about 10 in 1960- something, two brothers from the small town i grew up in went to the NT hunting salties for about two years. Unlike many, they did make (and SAVE!) a fair bit as both invested in businesses when they came back.

They both reckon it was the hardest, dirtest work they had ever done, with poor food, excessive costs and a gamble as to profits.

They shot around Oempelli (I'm working on old memories here) which was then very isolated with few tracks.

Worked with a team of Abos, two dingies, spot lights, old .303's that took a battering.

I read a book by Keth willey "Crocodile hunt" about 12 months he spent hunting up in the territory somewhere as it made good reading with good pics. must try and get a copy.

The boys from my old home town never got tired of hunting after they got home.

Sounds as tough as 'roo shoot, D o K?

I don't know that i could have taken the conditions they lived in.

quote:

On another note, when I was about 10 in 1960- something, two brothers from the small town i grew up in went to the NT hunting salties for about two years. Unlike many, they did make (and SAVE!) a fair bit as both invested in businesses when they came back.

They both reckon it was the hardest, dirtest work they had ever done, with poor food, excessive costs and a gamble as to profits.

They shot around Oempelli (I'm working on old memories here) which was then very isolated with few tracks.

Worked with a team of Abos, two dingies, spot lights, old .303's that took a battering.

I read a book by Keth willey "Crocodile hunt" about 12 months he spent hunting up in the territory somewhere as it made good reading with good pics. must try and get a copy.

The boys from my old home town never got tired of hunting after they got home.

Sounds as tough as 'roo shoot, D o K?

I reached the NT as the croc industry was grinding to a halt! Croc shooters were a breed unto themselves! A lot of em smelt of croc as they ate the meat as a staple diet! Buff shooting was'nt much better ! We could have any cal we liked providing it was a 303! I shot on a lease on the east Alligater for a Chap (long dead now ) By the name of Don Mclean!But the money was Bloody good & being a kid the conditions did'nt bother me ! In retrospect I would never work under those conditions again!
Dave

Don MCLean gets a good wrap in that book I mentioned by Keith Wiley (sic)

STILL ON CROCODILES


I had a feeling I had a copy of the book years ago. I thought I lent it to a guy who went to the happy hunting country years ago. Son said, look here, with the book in hard.

ANYONE interested in old days croc hunting should get one. Our copy – Keith Willey: Crocodile Hunt.- Jacaranda Press: Brisbane, 1966


Guys mentioned in Keith Willey’s book………. I wonder what happens to old croc hunters?

D- o- K- interesting or not??



Bill Dean- was the guy he hunted with
Yorky Billy
Old Nym
Roy Moffat, skin buyer????
Skin buyer, Irwin Ridsdale
Bogger Young, publican at Pine Creek. He has to be related to Maisie Young, D o K? She wrote a brilliant book, mentioning Tom Cole a lot.

I wonder what happened there?

Anyone reading this and thinking that I am wasting your time, please get a couple of books written by Tom Cole and you will forgive me-

Read
“Hell West and Crookedâ€
“Crocodiles and other talesâ€
“Riding the Wildman Plainsâ€

He was a pom that came out here when he was 18 (I think) and lived his life as a hunter- crocs, buff, etc- then went on to grow coffee and shoot crocs in PNG. I think I read somewhere that one of his daughters married Laurie Oakes, the TV personality who is often on NINE. But I could be wrong there. But Tom is a legend in my mind!

Some of his experiences in the Outback of the Territory are far better than most fiction I have read. The story about the guy who cut off his own arm with a pocket knife when he got caught up a tree trying to get some galahs out of a hollow (or other parrot). Arm caught in hollow when horse moved. Stuck there so he slashed his own arm off at the shoulder when he realized he wouldn’t be found. Fell on the ground under the tree and died of blood loss. (1903, roughly. Tough stuff. No wonder we have the legend of Gallipoli if there were a few in his mound).

Don McGregor—Jim Jim area
George Haritos
Jack Slade

I had forgotten what a tough year this guy put in!

Better not go one too much.

From the book, and I have just skimmed it, they very nearly lived on croc. And what their black companions could grab in the Bush. No thank you!

I’ll email you on about Friday, Dave.


Old Greybeard

I think that if MPs start suggesting it ,then its about time. The money it would bring into the area would be good. The crocs up Cape York and N.T are the biggest in the world ,so they would entice a few more overseas hunters over to bag a few buffalo, Banteng ,pigs and scrub bulls while they are over here.
I know from first hand experience that if crocs are worth big money to the proprty owners ,they wont be bumping off the trouble crocs on the sly. I will be up in Cape York in 2 days time. I will try to get some pics of crocs while I,m at it.

I have just seen on T.V a there has been a Shark attack in OZ,Can you kill great white sharks still over there?

quote:

Originally posted by TOP_PREDATOR:
I have just seen on T.V a there has been a Shark attack in OZ,Can you kill great white sharks still over there?

Yeah, a guy was taken yesterday afternoon off our main metropolitan beach here. Not a common but certainly a regular occurence. The last one was about 8 or 9 months ago, a young guy being towed behind a boat (just like a big lure )
I think Great Whites are a protected species but I think there are exceptions if ones ends up eating somebody. Invariably it gets hunted.

Yep, the proven maneaters usually get hunted, but these days, of course we will have to get a greenie social worker to counsel it first, put it in rehab, then see if it re-offends!
Unless it does the world a favour, and eats the greenie!

Cheers, Dave.
Non Illegitium Carborundum

I have a couple mates in the outfitter business in OZ and they are in the que for permits if they ever come available. The pinheads in the gov just don't realize what all the benefits will be. I think the number of permits that they were talking about is 20 for the NT, not many crocs, but it will bring a LOT of money into the country and it will keep the crocs wary of people and instead of being shot and left to rot, they will be doing a lot of good.

I reckon the rogue crocs are like painfull animals anywhere.

They just, um, go away from lead fever.

Get Big Game Magazine from the US.

Have a look at the crocs they pay a fortune to shoot there.

And other "game".

I wonder what I could charge to let some oneKnock the Mother-in-law off ! She comes under the heading of dangerous Game /Maneater!

Send her to Kakadu dressed as a tourist!