What The F***

[DOC]

Why is the test not starting today?

Stop calling it the New Years Test.

[am Bays]

Why is the test not starting today?

Stop calling it the New Years Test.

The "Christmas Test" started over a week before Christmas Day, just saying....

[dedja]

Why is the test not starting today?

Stop calling it the New Years Test.

The "Christmas Test" started over a week before Christmas Day, just saying....

[DOC]

Why is the test not starting today?

Stop calling it the New Years Test.

The "Christmas Test" started over a week before Christmas Day, just saying....

I think it has been the Boxing Day test since about 1980.

[Jim05]

Why is the test not starting today?

Stop calling it the New Years Test.

The "Christmas Test" started over a week before Christmas Day, just saying....

I think it has been the Boxing Day test since about 1980.

The Adelaide test was labelled the Christmas test

[dedja]

Why is the test not starting today?

Stop calling it the New Years Test.

The "Christmas Test" started over a week before Christmas Day, just saying....

I think it has been the Boxing Day test since about 1980.

Ahem …. Adelaide Test

[am Bays]

Why is the test not starting today?

Stop calling it the New Years Test.

The "Christmas Test" started over a week before Christmas Day, just saying....

I think it has been the Boxing Day test since about 1980.

Boxing day test was in Adelaide in 1976, just saying. Like 1994 it started on Christmas Eve.

the 1978 Boxing Day match game only lasted one day, because it was a one dayer....

[Dutchy]

4.9m croc trapped and removed from a place we swam in 3 months ago in Litchfield

[am Bays]

Wangi or Berry Springs??

Yearly occurrence it’s why this places are closed basically from Dec to end of March depending on rainfall.

Edit I see it’s Wangi. Bloke 3rd from the left in the 1st photo has the most NT Cred ever. Tommy Nicholls his left is missing its last two digits after an argument with a croc that didn’t want to be captured

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-08/nt-parks-and-wildlife-rangers-crocodile-capture-data-croc-risk/106206212

Old NT joke yeah mate don’t worry about the sharks, the crocs have got them all already…

[Dutchy]

We went in at Berry and Wangi, I deliberately didn't do any googling until we had finished our visit, when I did I discovered there was an attack at Wangi in July '23.

Sort of take confidence that others are doing it and that the rangers OK it, but I guess you can never be 100% certain.

[dedja]

As Bays said, it’s OK as long as you’re not there in the wet season when the water levels rise heaps to allow the crocs to roam all over the place.

Years ago, the missus and I camped at Sandy Billabong in Kakadu, 50m from the water which was full of crocs.

Fairly scary shining a torch at the water at night and seeing all those red eyes.

The locals said it was fine

[Dutchy]

How does that explain the attack in July '23 in the middle of the dry?

[am Bays]

How does that explain the attack in July '23 in the middle of the dry?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-11/nt-crocodile-caught-wangi-falls-litchfield-attack/102587720

It was a smaller male (2.4) which can be quite mobile as they are trying to find some territory to claim for themselves. With no other large males (4m+) in in that area (Litchfield quite heavily trapped) it founds some "safe" water for him. So it had probably on just got in there and was hungry.

At 2.4 m it is unlikely to be fatal to humans but the tourist has a bloody good souvenir from the NT

Can proudly say I've swum with a croc in Litchfield but the fact it was a 15 cm freshie is neither here nor there!!

[dedja]

Yeah, I’ve swum with freshies at Twin Falls but never a saltie, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.

I had an uncle, auntie and cousin who llived up there for years, and the way they explained it is that crocs are very territorial and habitual. They will stealthily watch activity, for example, if you walk across a creek with one nearby, it probably wont get you the first time, but walk across that creek three time and you wont do a forth.

Where we camped at Sandy Billabong, there was someone taken a year or 2 after we were there, but it was one of a group tourists how decided to have a dip in the middle of the night, probably yelling and splashing around heaps, whilst we kept our distance, although 50 odd meters doesn't seem far when you know whats at the other end!

Don’t think of it like in the Jaws movie and you’ll be OK.

[Lightning McQueen]

How does that explain the attack in July '23 in the middle of the dry?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-11/nt-crocodile-caught-wangi-falls-litchfield-attack/102587720

It was a smaller male (2.4) which can be quite mobile as they are trying to find some territory to claim for themselves. With no other large males (4m+) in in that area (Litchfield quite heavily trapped) it founds some "safe" water for him. So it had probably on just got in there and was hungry.

At 2.4 m it is unlikely to be fatal to humans but the tourist has a bloody good souvenir from the NT

Can proudly say I've swum with a croc in Litchfield but the fact it was a 15 cm freshie is neither here nor there!!

So we humans can risk swimming in a spot where they have lived for millions of years and if they attack us we kill them? Makes sense.

[am Bays]

So we humans can risk swimming in a spot where they have lived for millions of years and if they attack us we kill them? Makes sense.

No argument here but I supposed with this case (crock attack in July 23) this is a designated tourist spot within a National Park in the middle of the tourist season and that to keep it safe the croc needed to be removed quickly.

However, if it was outside that domain, especially when three of the main rivers up there are the South Alligator, South West Alligator and South East Alligator there's a fair hint that swimming in those waters is probably not advisable...

On a side note it is "interesting" up there when you see a croc trap in the water, most effective do not swim here sign ever!

The other hint I was given up there was 40 years ago was if you see the brothers and sisters swimming it's generally safe as they know

[dedja]

They should be trapped and relocated elsewhere if possible, not shot and given to a croc butcher.

The Territory is a great place, but they’re a weird mob. Explains Bays with the amount of time he has spent up there.

[am Bays]

They should be trapped and relocated elsewhere if possible, not shot and given to a croc butcher.

The Territory is a great place, but they’re a weird mob. Explains Bays with the amount of time he has spent up there.

Mango madness/troppo fever is a real and serious condition and I deserve respect and understanding...

50-60 years ago they were shot to virtual extinction however now the real risk is over population hence why Crocs who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time are "removed" and turned into belts, bags, pet food and soap.

[Dutchy]

Id love to be a fly on the wall when the authorities discuss the risk mitigation strategies of when to allow people to swim in these waters and when to not. No one would want to be the one that Ok's it only for there to be a fatal.

It is so bloody tempting when you are hot, sweaty and see this beautiful cool water in a idyllic setting, but at the same time walk past the signs warning you of the risks!

Wangi was the most concerning as it was a 100m odd swim with no visability below you to get over to the waterfalls.

[dedja]

I first went to Litchfield 37 years ago, and back then you were allowed access to more falls with very little restriction, so it is much more heavily managed now.

The authorities can’t be everywhere and know where every croc is, so it’s definitely a case of caveat emptor.

It’s just like our beaches here, there are shark patrols but they can’t see everything in the water, and every now and again a shark is spotted close to shore.

There have been around 260 fatal shark attacks in Australia since records began with European colonisation, whilst there have been 44 fatal croc attacks Australia wide since formal records began in the early ‘70s, of which 23 were in the Territory. So if you extrapolate those numbers, you are more likely to be killed by a shark than a croc.