Crocodile Hunter's dad fires up over culling proposal
The father of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has hit out at calls for the large reptiles to be culled in popular waterways, describing it as pointless.
Bob Irwin took aim at proposed Queensland laws that would result in crocodiles found in populated sites being killed or relocated.
Katter's Australian Party put forward the bill under a long-running campaign to enhance crocodile control laws, claiming numbers had "exploded" in the state's north.
Queensland's Liberal National government said it would consider the findings of a parliamentary hearing into the bill and decide whether it was "fit for purpose".
Bob Irwin says killing or removing crocodiles is not the answer.
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"Culling crocodiles is a pointless exercise, absolutely pointless," he told the hearing today.
Terri Irwin and Bob Irwin accept a posthumous honorary professorship from the University of Queensland on behalf of the late Steve Irwin in 2007. (Source: Getty)
The Katter party renewed calls for crocodile control after a failed bid under the former Labor government.
The bill would allow crocodile culls and safari-style hunting trips, amid claims more than 1200 crocodiles had been spotted in 2023 compared to 126 in 2010.
Bob Irwin said if a large crocodile that protected a territory was removed or killed, a "juvenile delinquent" moved in and took over.
"You're never going to be able to say to the general public you can swim in that river now, because you won't ever know that there are crocodiles still there," he told the hearing.
Bob Irwin helped found Australia Zoo where his son grew up and developed a passion for wildlife, later becoming the world famous Crocodile Hunter before the livewire conservationist's tragic 2006 death.
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His daughter-in-law Terri Irwin had earlier echoed his concerns in a submission to the committee, saying the proposed laws would increase the likelihood of croc attacks due to a false sense of security in culled areas.
A freshwater Crocodile pictured in Queensland, Australia. (Source: Getty)
The Queensland environment department's deputy director general said education was paramount in preventing crocodile attacks, not culling.
"No amount of crocodile removal can guarantee the absence of crocodiles in a waterway, nor can it assure that an area is completely safe to swim," Ben Klaassen told the committee today.
Some community members threw their support behind the bill, with one group suggesting Aboriginal people should assist crocodile culls.
Murrandoo Yanner won a landmark 1999 High Court case that ruled Aboriginal people could hunt crocodiles.
He said Aboriginal people in Queensland's Gulf Country were hunting crocodiles and maintaining the population, so there was "no greater group" to aid a pilot culling programme.
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"We hunt and eat them, but we're not in that camp that we just want to totally cull them," the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation stakeholder officer told the committee.
"But we also know they're of great cultural significance, and they're in good numbers here, so we manage them very well."
Recent estimates reveal there are around 20,000 to 30,000 crocodiles across northern Queensland.
Yanner hoped to work with the state government, advising how to cull crocodiles without eradicating the species.
Two councils in the state's north, Mareeba and Whitsundays, also want the bill become a reality, saying there was a risk to residents and tourists.
Mareeba Shire Council deputy mayor Lenore Wyatt said dozens of saltwater crocs in eastern waterways were not native after some escaped from a nearby farm in the 1990s.
The area is already zoned to allow the removal of crocodiles, but the council wanted a faster process, saying a farmer had a reptile in his dam for more than six months.
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The committee report is due in August.
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