De Grey River

G'day Phill

I'm not too sure if I fit the "well informed people" category, but I will say you are a brave bloke ~ taking a swim in the DeGrey at the rest area, but to your credit you were possibly wise in swimming with your two dogs.

Just a few years back, an elderly gentleman, who was camped up at the DeGrey rest area, went missing, the Port Hedland Police, SES and national parks/wildlife people were mustered and searched for the old bloke for the better part of a week with no trace found, he's still missing to this day.

Yes the DeGrey river at the rest area has over the years been the domain of estuarine crocodiles amongst the occasional sharks that make their way up stream from the Indian Ocean, any watercourse and mangrove area should be viewed with great caution in respect of salties ~ all the way south to Carnarvon.

The warning signs, like most other bridge and roadside signage were possibly souvenired, this seems to be fairly common place these days.

Safe travels :

Swum there myself.
Definitly potential if not overl likely to be an issue. Crocs while known as far as hedland are much scarcer than up nth
So no definitive answer.

A large croc was sighted and photographed in the De Grey in 2009.

The De Grey is the "official" territorial limit for crocs - but "official" doesn't mean much.

The crocs are slowly moving South, and are being found more often in the sea at Broome now.
One was caught at Cocos Island, some years ago, around 1100NM from Wyndham!
The Australian mainland was the only place this croc could have come from.

During heavy rains, crocs will often move upstream, and then become stranded in billabongs as the river dries up.
A croc will know you're there, long before you know he's there!

Always check with the local authorities as to the safety of any body of water, from the Pilbara Northwards - even one well upstream of the sea, and seemingly isolated.

http://dec.wa.gov.au/pdf/plants_animals/living_with_wildlife/crocodiles.pdf

The rangers in the NT will place a white foam float in the rivers to test for saltwater crocs. If there is one around they can't resist chewing on the float. If you ever see a white foam float tied up in the water it is a good indicator that someone thinks there is a saltwater croc in there. And if the float has been chewed then you know there definitely is one in there.

Either way if you can't see through the water - like so often up north the rivers are coffee colour then don't go near the water. At least if it is clear water and knee deep you could see a croc coming. Still didn't help that tourist in Kakadu a few years back. They swam in thigh deep crystal clear water - but at night. And there were definitely crocs at sandy billabong.

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