Two men, including the pilot who survived a fatal helicopter accident in 2022, have been charged over stealing saltwater crocodile eggs from the Northern Territory\u2019s iconic Kakadu National Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sebastian Robinson and Timothy Luck, both aged in their early 30s, are facing Commonwealth charges alleging “unauthorised taking” of eggs from the park in February 2024.<\/p>\n
Mr Robinson and Mr Luck were both involved in a crocodile egg collecting mission in February 2022 which resulted in the death of television personality Chris “Willow” Wilson.<\/p>\n
Mr Robinson was piloting the helicopter involved in the accident and suffered lifelong injuries as a result, including paraplegia and a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n
The ABC is not alleging any wrongdoing on behalf of either man in relation to the 2022 crash.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cahill’s Crossing, in Kakadu National Park, is known for its saltwater crocodiles. (ABC News: Sara Everingham)<\/p>\n
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP), Australia’s federal prosecution service, confirmed its involvement.<\/p>\n
“[The CDPP] is prosecuting this matter after a joint investigation by Parks Australia, the Australian Federal Police and the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Parks Australia said proceedings started in the Darwin Local Court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Parks Australia will not be providing further comment as this matter is before the court,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Both cases were adjourned until September 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Crocodile egg collecting can be done for conservation purposes or to farm the reptile for its meat and skin. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Crocodile egg collecting is a recognised practice in the NT. It is done for various reasons, including conservation and commercial business operations.<\/p>\n
It often involves a helicopter pilot lowering a collector into nests from the air to avoid having to walk distances in crocodile-inhabited waters.<\/p>\n
The practice is legal. However, it does requires approvals from environmental authorities and traditional owners in certain areas.<\/p>\n
Kakadu, located about 150 kilometres east of Darwin, covers almost\u00a020,000 square kilometres, including estuaries, floodplains and billabongs.<\/p>\n
The park, which is also a UNESCO world heritage listed site, is known for its large crocodile population with roughly 10 per cent of the Northern Territory\u2019s crocodile population estimated to live in Kakadu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men, including the pilot who survived a fatal helicopter accident in 2022, have been charged over stealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8288,25668,64,63,51800,16489,1154,11630,51797,61165,4892,61163,621,44,11920,59690,1160,48747,37777,61164],"class_list":["post-80506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-8288","tag-25668","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chopper","tag-commonwealth","tag-crash","tag-crocodile","tag-egg","tag-federal-police","tag-helicopter","tag-kakadu","tag-national","tag-news","tag-park","tag-parks-australia","tag-pilot","tag-sebastian-robinson","tag-stealing","tag-timothy-luck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}