Indigenous Custodians Strive to Repatriate Renowned Crocodile

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Traditional Owners in far north Queensland are calling for an iconic saltwater crocodile to be returned to Country.

The croc, named Old Faithful, featured in the Crocodile Hunter series in the 1990s alongside the late conservationist Steve Irwin, but he’s been rehomed far from his natural habitat following concerns over aggressive behaviour.

Indigenous leaders say proper consultation needed to occur before that decision was made.

The four-and-a-half metre crocodile holds deep cultural significance for First Nations people.

Alwyn Lyall, the chairperson of the Rinyirru Lakefield Aboriginal Corporation, shared with SBS News the deep connection the community feels with Old Faithful, likening the crocodile to a family member.

“Old Faithful holds totemic significance for some members of the Kuku Warra Aboriginal group,” Lyall explained. “For many families, there are profound cultural ties to Old Faithful himself.”

The Queensland environment department issued a statement, affirming that it had selected the most appropriate facility for Old Faithful, considering the crocodile’s size and cultural significance.

The animal is now a long way from home.

Wildlife officers removed him from the Normanby River in Rinyirru National Park last month after reports that visitors were using food to lure him from the water to take photos.

Since then, he has been living in a Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service facility in Cairns.

He has now been moved again to a new home at the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast, owned by the Irwin family, nearly 2,000km from his home.

“They should return him to us,” Lyall expressed. “I am waiting for Australia Zoo to reach out because they need to understand our perspective. What they are doing is not right. Our crocodile doesn’t belong there; he never should have been taken in the first place. He needs to come back home.”

The zoo released a social media video with croc team member Toby, explaining the crocodile’s transfer.

“We would have loved to hear that Old Faithful, and we were hopeful that Old Faithful could have been released back into his natural habitat in Rinyirru National Park,” he said in the video.

“Once we heard that he was unreleasable, we jumped in to offer to give him a home, because we know that we can give him the best of the best for the rest of his life, and to avoid him going to a crocodile farm.”

Lyall said that video was the first he heard about Old Faithful’s move, and Traditional Owners were not consulted about the decision.

He’s calling for the crocodile to be returned to its natural habitat.

“What they should do is bring it back home. I’m waiting for that Australia Zoo to contact me, because they need to hear it from us, what they do is not right. We don’t want our crocodile down there; he shouldn’t have gone down there in the first place. He should be brought back home here,” he said.

Amanda French, co-founder of Community Representation of Crocodiles (CROC) Queensland, said Old Faithful should have been moved to a facility on Country, if he could not be returned to the wild.

“I think it’s concerning when you know proper consultation hasn’t occurred, especially when you’ve got an icon crocodile, and there is an icon crocodile process that needs to be undertaken, where Traditional Owners are supposed to be engaged on where a crocodile goes beyond removal,” she said.

The group has requested a statement of reasons from the government regarding Old Faithful’s relocation.

“What we would really like to see is the Queensland government cracking down on this reckless behaviour and fining people and ensuring that a crocodile removal is always a last resort, and that there’s other mitigation strategies that can be carried out, such as fining people for illegally feeding crocodiles before such a drastic measure is undertaken and we remove a threatened species from a protected area,” she said.