Never smile at a crocodile.

Anywhere north of Rockhampton in Queensland or north of Port Hedfland in WA

Can be several hundred km inland and several hundred km out to sea. They do venture away from water but usually when moving from one water source to another. They are opitumistic ambush hunters.

Lots of places are sign posted. Clear areas are also often marked. No sign does not mean no croc's. Maps are rapidly out of date so I would not trust them. Some signs are weird ie "camp above the track" at cape Melville. Croc's obviously don't cross tracks!

You need to be croc aware not paronoid.

One NT solution was to chuck the dog in the water and shoot anything that moved towards it. Bit hard on the dog!

Steve

My attitude was much the same when I went to north QLD for the first time in 07 - we southerners know bugger all about such risks. All I can say is I'm glad that I'm very wary of those lizards - with a bloke taken in 08 in the precise spot that I was encouraged to consider croc-safe, I'll take no notice of people who claim to know where the crocs do and don't lurk. Enjoy the trip - I'll be back there - but just stay back from the water's edge !

there are conflicting areas too like there are plenty of places to swim in kakadu such as gunlom falls but officially you are told the only safe swimming spot in kakadu is the pool at jabaru

katherine river is considered safe but they pull salties out of there every year

i went to the Flora river because it is advertised as an excellent canoe spot - when i got there it was covered with sighns sporting massive hungry looking crocs.

many spots there are natural barriers to salties so they set traps to catch the ones that sneak in during the wet
- these spots are considered sort of safe - such as the waterfalls in litchfeild

Bohle River at Townsville must be pretty safe. Last year I saw a bloke with a canoe on the side of the river bank doing some fishing.

He just gave me a blank stare after I told him there are BIG lizards in this river system as I went past in my 6m boat.

Malcolm

One rough rule of thumb to keep in mind is - if there's barra in there, could also be crocs.
How far inland depends on the nature of the stream systems - a big, wide river with no, or few, barriers like big falls, can be croccy a long way inland e.g 100 km plus.
They can venture quite a way from water, but generally only if there is an incentive, like food if getting really hungry.Or when trying to find a new territory, which is why they tend to go upstream or wherever in the Wet/floods. I've known a lagoon based croc come a couple of hundred metres from the water, to eat a litter of pups - early Dry season in Kakadu area.
There are some common sense precautions to take - do not camp right on water's edge if you suspect crocs. Dogs attract them. Do not leave anything "fishy" around your camp. Do not follow the same routines in one camp - like going to the same place, at the same time, each day, for water. A big campfire will deter crocs - but you have to keep waking up at night to stoke it!

wato35

Croc Wise

Wendy and others have said most things that are true. The above link verifies all that has been said and more.
Cheers Colin

Let Google be your friend.

Wato35


You will enjoy the top end but like everything respect the crocs.

A saltie when it attacks travels one and a half times its body length in .47 seconds. The average human reaction time is 1.7 seconds.

If you see a sign warning of crocs do not swim there.

There are salt water crocs trapped in the Katherine River at the end of each wet season - the hot springs is a safe place to swim.

Donkey camp (Katherine River) is a good fishing spot but there are salties there.

At the moment it is the best time of the year - best weather - best scenery - best fishing and no tourists to spoil it.

Went to Darwin and back yesterday and didn't spot one caravan.

1964 a 3.3m croc was shot in the Mary River near Tiaro.

I have heard that a 5m croc was shot in the Brisbane river in 1911 but can't find that one on the www