Creatures Featured: ‘Steve’ the Croc

We know that horses aren’t that unusual (as seen in our last blog) but normally a freshwater croc would be. However, after news reports recently about a Salt Water Croc located in the Mareeba Waste Management Plant, maybe it’s not.

I am sure most of you realise that some of the more interesting stuff happens on night shift here. Our officers come across some unusual things and a few years ago Constable Norriss was on night shift when the communications room received a very strange phone call.

Constable Norriss said it went something like this:

“Mareeba Police, how can we help?”

“Well, I was driving along the Mulligan Highway on my way home and I’m sure I saw a croc on the side of the road, just near the cattle yards.”

Now I know the questions that went around the station were more along the lines of, ‘has he been drinking?’ or ‘is it a full moon?’, but the main question asked was, ‘is he for real?’

Officers who have been stationed in Mareeba for a while will tell you that this isn’t the first time Mareeba Police Station has received a phone call about a croc. With our close proximity to the Cape as well as a croc farm just out of town, our officers were expecting the croc to be a salty.

After a quick call to a wildlife carer and some important information about how to catch the croc and secure it, so it couldn’t injure itself or anyone else, off the crew went.

What the crew found next, was an eye opener. Here was a freshwater crocodile waltzing along the edge of the highway heading for Granite Creek.

The freshwater crocodile is a relatively small crocodilian. Males can grow to 2.3–3m (7.5–9.8 foot) long, while females reach a maximum size of 2.1m (6.9 feet). Unlike their much larger Australian relative the saltwater crocodile, freshwater crocodiles are not known as man-eaters and rarely cause fatalities, although they will bite in self-defence if cornered.

Our trusty animal loving officer, Constable Norriss, was the first out of the vehicle and after much banter with her male partner, she was the one that completed a text book manoeuvre from Steve Irwin, minus the ‘Crickey’, and leapt on the croc. Her partner then came to the rescue with some rope and tape for the snout.

Our trusty croc ‘Steve’ was then locked in the back of the pod. Police pods are smooth surfaces normally made of plastic, which is the perfect container to transport crocs. So ‘Steve’ was taken back to the watchhouse to keep him safe and everyone else until a wildlife carer could pick him up in the morning.

While Constable Norriss is our usual resident animal loving officer on the Tablelands, after my first blog went out another officer sent me a great photo which combined with Constable Norriss’ photos makes this blog.

More recently than Constable Norriss’ encounter with ‘Steve’, police were conducting patrols in Aurukun and stopped a vehicle for a check, what they found in the esky wasn’t what they expected.

Senior Constable Rebecca Bradley was lucky enough to get up close, but not quite as personal as Constable Norriss and ‘Steve’, with these salt water babies when she opened the esky to find two crocs instead of the alcohol she was expecting. These two beauties were returned to the water not long after this photo was taken.

Senior Constable Bradley with Eleanor and her croc babies.