A wall of wheelie bins and heaps of hay were among the unusual solutions used to trap a croc on the loose in the Gulf in the final hours of 2016.
Anyone preparing for the New Year’s revels at Karumba Point would have been shocked to see a three-and-a-half meter monster prowling far from his usual territory and instead wondering up the main street in the early hours of the morning,
Unimpressed by whatever Karumba was serving up on the street, the crocodile then swaggered into the backyard of a house on the Esplanade yesterday morning.
The croc enjoyed basking in the backyard for a few hours from around 6am on New Year’s Eve before he made a snap decision to move out to the front gate where he remained for the rest of the day.
Police officers and locals alerted to the croc put together a line of wheelie bins in an attempt to funnel him back towards the water but the reptile showed no interest in getting away from dry land.
Officers then made the large scale decision to box him in with hay bales and contain him until wildlife experts from Cairns arrived to relocate him.
Photos from the eventful day in Karumba show a police officer crouching down on the other side of the fence from the crocodile, with a sprinkler thoughtfully set up to keep the animal cool.
Karumba resident Danielle Day told the ABC the crocodile must have walked about half a kilometre through the streets before it wandered into two accommodation complexes and settled down in a residential backyard.
She said a forklift was used late on Saturday night to help lift the croc into a boat before it was taken away.
Wildlife officers with the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection are currently monitoring the animal at a local holding facility.
Acting Police Sergeant Jim Richards said the animal would be moved to a crocodile farm in Cairns when the temperature cooled down.
"He's tucked in a trailer in a shed that's shaded so they've got wet bags on him to keep him comfortable so he's fine at the moment," he said.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
