-
Source: ONE News -
Related
Briony Goodsell was doing what kids do.
On a hot Sunday afternoon out in the bushlands of rural Darwin, the 11-year-old was cooling off in a local creek swollen by a deluge of wet season rain.
As she splashed about in Black Jungle Swamp with her seven-year-old sister and two mates, the bubbly 11-year-old had no idea of the crocodile that lurked beneath.
In took only seconds for her to be dragged under water, briefly surface and then disappear entirely. The only sign of her killer was the splash of a mouth and tail.
Her mangled body was found almost 24 hours later by an elite police search squad. The crocodile is thought to have escaped into the surrounding floodplains of Lambells Lagoon.
"Briony was a beautiful, innocent and fearless girl who touched the lives of so many people," her family said in a statement.
"Kids being kids don't always see possible dangers, no one is to blame for this tragedy it is just one of those things."
But her horrific death has put the long-debated and highly contentious issue of crocodile culling back on the agenda, almost 40 years after the saltwater species was first listed for protection.
For years governments have dismissed culling as an inhuman and unnecessary form of population control.
But with an ever increasing number of crocodiles, critics says people and crocodiles can no longer safely share the same backyard.
"I'd take a cull over a life anytime," said Litchfield Shire council president Mary Walshe.
"We've got to live in the Northern Territory and a big part or our lifestyle is in the waters and I think that is paramount that human life comes first."
The NT is home to the highest population of crocodiles in Australia, with estimates there are more than 80,000 of the reptiles living in local waterways.
At a time when the urban sprawl is encroaching on the bush, supporters of controlled game hunting are also arguing there is money to be made, an economy to bolster and lives to be saved.
"People down south don't realise that all waterholes are dangerous," said Michaela Johnston, a director of the Gupulul Marayuwu Aboriginal Corporation.
The organisation is seeking a 12-month trial for croc hunting, with the project to be headed by indigenous actor David Gulpilil and renowned croc hunter Mick Pitman, in partnership with traditional owners.
"Twenty years ago people could swim in places you can't even stick your big toe in now," she said.
"Hunting will create new industry and employment for Aboriginal people and take out the larger problem males."
In 2005, the NT applied to reopen game hunting for 25 big crocs a year in a bid to earn valuable income for impoverished Top End Aboriginal communities.
But then-federal environment minister Ian Campbell shot down the proposal after visiting crocodile celebrity Steve Irwin's
Queensland park, saying trophy hunting would send the wrong message to the world.
"The problem is, if you've got an amateur shooter travelling from overseas to Australia shooting a crocodile from 50 yards, they're very hard to shoot in a humane way where you can guarantee a kill with a first shot," he said at the time.
The NT government again raised the issue of trophy hunting in 2007 and on Thursday a spokeswoman for NT Environment Minister Alison Anderson said: "We remain in favour of it".
"It's an issue we will continue to pursue."
She said the NT government was currently considering the introduction of safari hunting as part of a revised croc management plan, to be completed in a few weeks before going to the federal government for approval.
Before last weekend's horrific attack, the most recent death in the NT was that of an eight-year-old girl in the Arnhem Land Community Maningrida in 2006.
Queensland recently suffered a spate of attacks.
Jeremy Doble, five, died in February in the Daintree River after he followed his dog into the water while last September 62-year-old Arthur Booker was checking crab pots at a campsite on the Endeavour River near Cooktown when he disappeared.
The Vietnam veteran's remains were found two months later inside a 4.3-metre crocodile.
While the Queensland government has dismissed calls for a crocodile culling program, NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson has publicly refused to rule it out.
"The fact of life here in the Territory is, we live with crocodiles," he said.
"It's part of the landscape of the Northern Territory and we've got to learn to live together."
"(But) we're not going to be able to have a sign on a gate on every billabong in the Northern Territory."
Jim Grant, chief executive of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport, said his department would have "a very close look" at the possibility of a cull as part of the new croc management plan.
"We'll definitely be looking at in the next few weeks," he said, adding that the government would always try to reduce risk "but we certainly can't guarantee safety".
In a message sent to her home town newspaper in Ipswich in Queensland, Briony Goodsell's grandmother, Lynda Bennett, was adamant.
"These eating machines have made anywhere where there is water a danger," she said.
"I want anybody and everybody to help me petition the government and have these things culled."
Others such as NT crocodile researcher Adam Britton concede there is little doubt that crocs are on the increase, and moving into freshwater areas.
"They're moving closer and closer to Darwin," he said.
But Britton was reluctant to back calls for widespread culling and suggested instead a community awareness campaign.
Federal Labor MP Damian Hale agreed, calling for a considered decision based on science.
"At times like these our first response is to call for a croc cull, we really have an obligation to examine the science to find the most effective means of managing crocodiles," he said.
As the debate continues to rage, one thing is for certain: those living on the rural fringes have no intention of moving or changing their lifestyles.
"If you come from the town you'd be more scared of the grass and snakes and dingoes and crocodiles ... but being bush children it's just second nature to go into the bush and into the creek," said Michael Dobrobitch, who lives off the red dirt road that runs to the swamp where Briony was killed.
"You can get killed by a car or you can get taken by a croc or you can get run down by a buffalo. Anything can happen and that's the chance you take."
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
