Bob Katter has slammed “inner-city morons” and “ignorant wildlife warriors”, warning they will have blood on their hands if they continue to block his calls for an emergency crocodile cull in the country’s far north.
The MP’s speech comes after a 40-year-old New South Wales man was killed by a crocodile near Cooktown in far north Queensland as his family watched in horror.
The man was fishing on the banks of the Annan River, about 320 kilometres north of Cairns, with his wife and children when he fell into the muddy waters at about 2.10pm on Saturday and was unable to surface.
It is believed to have been caught by a 15-foot (4.5-meter) male saltwater crocodile that inhabits that stretch of the waterway. known to locals as ‘Crocodile Bend’ and dragged to his death at the bottom of the river.
Extensive searches by police and emergency services have so far failed to locate her remains and her traumatised family remain in Cooktown while investigations continue.
Mr Katter, whose Kennedy electorate includes a wide swathe of north Queensland, described the incident as a tragedy but insisted the killer crocodile should never have been allowed to take up residence so close to a township.
He blamed “do-gooder Southerners” for allowing the deadly reptiles to grow “completely unchecked” and terrorize waterways across the state’s north, and warned more lives would be lost unless their numbers were controlled.
“This is an absolute tragedy, a man was killed by a crocodile in front of his loving wife and two young children,” he said.
A 40-year-old man from New South Wales was killed by a crocodile near Cooktown in far north Queensland as his family watched in horror. Pictured: Rangers set up a crocodile trap in the Annan River
It is believed to have been caught by a 4.5-metre male saltwater crocodile (file image pictured) that inhabits that stretch of the waterway, known to locals as ‘Crocodile Bend’.
‘His widow has lost her husband and her children will now have to grow up without a father.
‘And it’s all because these privileged idiots from the city centre, surrounded by concrete canyons and colossal buildings, think they know more about crocodiles than the people who live here.
‘These wokies tell us that we are not allowed to slaughter crocodiles. Well, that’s crazy.
“They believe that the life of a crocodile is worth more than the life of a human: what a disturbing loss of human values!
“You, the inhabitants of the big cities, do not know what you are doing. You are responsible for this attack. It is not the crocodile, it is you.”
Crocodiles They were granted protected species status in Australia in 1971 amid an alarming decline in their numbers as they were hunted almost to extinction.
But their populations have since recovered and today there are between 20,000 and 30,000 crocodiles inhabiting Queensland’s waterways.
MP Bob Katter has called for an urgent culling of crocodiles in the north of the state.
Mr Katter, who has been calling for a cull for years, said the continued rise in Queensland’s crocodile population has forced the prehistoric predators ever closer to the region’s major cities and towns.
“Crocodiles are incredibly dangerous and there is incredible ignorance about how many of them we have here,” he said.
‘A mother crocodile lays around 60 eggs a year and numbers are increasing exponentially.
‘For thousands of years, native Australians kept the population under control, but now these ignorant wokies have thrown the entire ecosystem out of balance.’
Not everyone agrees and the incident sparked a fierce dispute over the fate of the alleged killer crocodile.
Cooktown wildlife conservationist Beau Peberdy said the reptile was well known and loved by locals.
“It’s an animal that everyone here knows,” he said. “It’s been in that part of the river for at least 20 years and can often be seen on the bank with two females.”
‘A lot of people are now expressing concern that it was shot because it opportunistically fed on something in the wild without knowing what it was.’
A monstrous male crocodile inhabits a stretch of the Annan River known as ‘Crocodile Bend’
He said the big male was at least 40 years old and would have been extraordinarily fast to pounce on anything and fall into the river.
“If you were to fall into the water and he was on the other side of the river system, you wouldn’t have time to break through the water, let alone get out,” he said.
“There is nothing you can do.”
Mister Peberdy said he was against any suggestion of a cull, saying most of Queensland’s crocodiles (about 80 percent) were in the sparsely populated areas of upper Cape York and were unlikely to interact with humans.
Police have not confirmed which part of New South Wales the tourist who was abducted by the crocodile is from or the ages of the victim’s children.
A Cooktown resident said the crocodile had associated people with food as some locals were feeding it roadkill from upriver.
“People throw roadkill in for food, but it’s possible they were sitting 15 feet under water waiting to be fed,” the local told the Cairns Post.
‘There’s been a bit of rain so the bench would have been soft and even if he hadn’t been near the edge it could have collapsed underneath him.
“It’s just horrible and everyone is feeling sorry for the family; to see that happen in front of you is unthinkable.”
Police declined to comment on speculation that members of the public had been feeding the crocodiles in the vicinity.
“While the circumstances of this matter are yet to be confirmed, we remind everyone that Cooktown is known as ‘Croc Country’ and urge everyone to be safe by practising ‘CrocWise’ behaviour,” a Queensland environment department spokesperson said.