82 Australian GeographicInside the trap, a huge estuarine crocodile appears
docile, momentarily mesmerised by the unfamiliar
sights and sounds. Ropes are threaded through either
side of the trap and looped around the creature’s top
jaw. Once the chief wrangler is satisfied the ropes are
correctly positioned, she crouches in front of the trap
and issues the instruction to raise the gate.
A collective intake of breath hushes the small
crowd of onlookers as we nervously watch Terri Irwin
coax the creature out into the open. The lull is brief,
for suddenly the crocodile springs from his metal
prison and unleashes his fury, trying desperately to
extricate himself from the ropes.
The ground beneath my feet vibrates with every
roll as the hapless creature thrashes and writhes,
binding the ropes ever more tightly around his snout.
He expends all available energy in the effort and
eventually gives up and quietens. It’s the moment the
jump crew has been waiting for. Once more, Terri
issues the instruction, and they leap forward as one,
landing on the crocodile’s back, swiftly taping his
jaws shut and fitting a blindfold over his eyes. It’s
time for the drama to cease and the science to begin.T
HE ECOLOGICALLY significant Wenlock
R iver fl ows through the Steve Irwin Wildlife
Reserve (SIW R) in Cape York, one of four
conservation properties in Australia Zoo’s portfolio,
all of which are in Queensland. It’s here, since 2007,
that the world’s most comprehensive crocodile study
has been taking place. I’m spending a few days with
the team led by Professor Craig Franklin, director
of research for the SIW R. The group, which includes
Terri Irwin and her children, Bindi and Robert,
spends a month here in the middle of the dry season
each year to monitor the river’s crocodile population.
The reserve was acquired in July 2007 after the
federal government signalled its wish to honour
recently deceased Steve Irwin by renaming a national
park in his honour. Terri requested a more hands-on
memorial to her husband.
“I said that, with all due respect, we would like
to proactively manage a property so that instead
of just setting it aside in Steve’s name, we could do
some positive things with it,” she says. That propertyturned out to be Bertiehaugh station, a 1350sq.km
pastoral lease in remote Cape York, 55km north-east
of the bauxite mining hub of Weipa.
Barry Lyon, a seasoned Cape York park ranger,
had tracked crocodiles in the Wenlock R iver
previously, so when it came to deciding upon a
property, Terri and Craig sought his advice. “It
was very near and dear to Steve’s heart because of
the crocs, and Barry was the one who said it should
be this place,” explains Terri.
Once they had purchased the property, Barry
came on board to help run it and to develop a
management plan. This is a requirement under the
National Reserve System program (see AG 94),
which stipulates that conserved areas must meet
certain scientific criteria and strategically enhance
the national network of protected areas.
“Through Barry’s hard work with a number of
scientists, we’ve learnt that this place is so much
more valuable than we ever anticipated,” Terri says.
It was the Wenlock ’s rich aquatic biodiversity, not
least its high density of crocodiles, that originally
drew Australia Zoo here.
Ultimately, though, it was a series of permanent
freshwater springs associated with a bauxite
(aluminium ore) plateau that will secure its status as a
‘strategic environmental area’ under the Queensland
government’s new Cape York Regional Plan.Khaki crew. Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin head west
along the Wenlock River to attend the morning’s fi rst
crocodile capture. Toby Millyard is on the tiller.M
ANY HANDS MAKE light work of hauling the heavy steel
trap out of the Wenlock R iver and up a sandy bank. The cage
clears the brackish water and scrubby shoreline vegetation,
and, along the pull ropes, necks are craning to catch a fi rst
glimpse of its contents. But this is no time for gawking; the clock’s ticking,
the sun’s warming fast and hearts are racing as a crack squad of khaki-clad
wildlife workers launches into a well-practised routine.
ALL IMAGES RUSSELL SHAKESPEARE (RS)ag0914_cape_york_crocsP82 - 80 2014-08-08T16:11:14+10:00