{"id":76678,"date":"2025-08-17T15:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T15:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/76678\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T15:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T15:54:07","slug":"can-crocodiles-and-canoeists-coexist-at-australias-2032-olympic-games-crocodiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/76678\/","title":{"rendered":"Can crocodiles and canoeists coexist at Australia\u2019s 2032 Olympic Games? | Crocodiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Miller is only minutes into a crash course on how to use a V8 ocean ski when he first drops the C-bomb. The former red beret paratrooper and current president of a Rockhampton canoe club is explaining to a first-time paddler why he won\u2019t begin on a K1 \u2013 the kind of craft the world\u2019s best canoe sprinters will paddle when and if they come here<\/a> to central Queensland to compete at the 2032 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like sitting on a pencil,\u201d Miller says. \u201cIf a crocodile so much as tapped your hull, you\u2019d be straight into the drink!\u201d<\/p>\n

The club secretary, John Mackenzie, admonishes him: \u201cYou had to use the C-word.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be fair to Miller, the proximity of the world\u2019s largest living reptile is not much of a secret. On the wall of the humble green shed belonging to the Fitzroy Canoe Club is a mascot of sorts: a toy croc called Fitzy. Pinned to the noticeboard are tips on being \u201cCroc Wise\u201d. The club\u2019s paddling area is a known crocodile habitat, the note reads. Enter boats \u201cbriskly\u201d. Don\u2019t drag arms and legs in the water. If you capsize, get out as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

In March, the Queensland government announced that the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, about 500km north of Brisbane<\/a>, would host rowing and canoeing events at the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n

map of queensland<\/a><\/p>\n

Scattered along the banks of the Fitzroy are signs warning of injury or death from saltwater crocodiles. A four-metre croc can be right beside you in the water, invisible, one reads.<\/p>\n

Visitors to the \u201cbeef capital of Australia\u201d are extremely unlikely to see a live saltie.<\/p>\n

But they won\u2019t miss representations of the prehistoric ambush predator throughout the grand sandstone and wrought iron buildings of the river port. In the lane behind the newly refurbished Rockhampton Museum of Art is a crocodile mural, 18 metres long and five metres high.<\/p>\n

But now the C-bomb has been dropped, the jokes are carpeted.<\/p>\n

The Fitzroy Canoe Club secretary, John Mackenzie, had a \u2018majestic encounter\u2019 with a saltwater crocodile. <\/p>\n

We hop out to our boats atop the backs of crocodiles, Miller reckons. But don\u2019t worry, the crocs aren\u2019t hungry \u2013 \u201cwe feed them all the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the gags, Miller gets serious. You won\u2019t encounter a croc, he promises. Just enjoy the river, there isn\u2019t a better one between here and the mighty Murray.<\/p>\n

And with that, as the pinks and purples of dawn filter through the leaves of paperbarks that line the Fitzroy\u2019s banks, the canoeists paddle off into the mist that rises from the chalky brown water.<\/p>\n

Corellas screech from towering gums. Pelicans break the still surface of the river. An osprey peers down from the branches of a dead tree. The kayak quivers as its rudder hits a clump of duckweed.<\/p>\n

The canoeists paddle upstream, away from the city and the barrage that divides the Fitzroy between its salt and freshwater reaches.<\/p>\n

This piece of infrastructure is one reason Miller contends the river is \u201cpristine\u201d. Unlike those to the south, the freshwater Fitzroy is not swept by tides, lined by mud and mangrove or racked by wind and wave.<\/p>\n

The Fitzroy River barrage. Photograph: Sylvia Liber\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

That concrete barrier, built as a water storage system to help meet the region\u2019s water supply needs, also marks a boundary on the government\u2019s Queensland<\/a> crocodile management plan between targeted management and general management zones.<\/p>\n

Upstream of the barrage for 20km, park rangers are tasked with removing \u201call large crocodiles\u201d and any croc \u201cdisplaying dangerous behaviour\u201d from the water.<\/p>\n

After a couple of kilometres, a pair of canoeists pass through a stretch of river they claim is the territory of a croc about the length at which it is officially considered \u201clarge\u201d \u2013 that is, longer than 2 metres.<\/p>\n

A few kilometres farther upstream is the spot that one canoe club member sighted a 4.5 metre saltie two years ago. After several weeks, it was captured and removed.<\/p>\n

A crocodile safety sign along the Rockhampton riverside. <\/p>\n

This is winter, too \u2013 the same time of year that sunny Queensland will host the summer Olympics \u2013 and the period in which crocs are most easy to spot, basking their cold blood on riverbanks.<\/p>\n

Yet, statistically, Miller is almost certain to be right. The Boyne River, more than 100km to the south, is officially considered the southern boundary of typical crocodile habitat.<\/p>\n

Here in the lower reaches of croc country, the number and density of these apex predators is far lower than in the far away tropics to the north. A government monitoring program estimates the number of crocodiles in rivers of the Cape York peninsula \u2013 more than 1,500km to the north \u2013 at three crocodiles per kilometre. That ratio declines southward, down to 0.2 crocs per km on the Fitzroy.<\/p>\n

Saltwater crocodiles were declared a protected species in the 1970s after the population was decimated by hunting. Photograph: imageBROKER.com\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The canoe club has been paddling here since the late 1970s without incident. They are on the water almost every day, often starting in the dark. So, too, their rowing counterparts, who are also looking forward to hosting the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie says he has been paddling in the river for the past seven years and has seen a croc upstream of the barrage only once.<\/p>\n

It was during the colder months and the saltie had its snout out of the water. During the central Queensland winter, he says, crocodiles aren\u2019t breeding, aren\u2019t territorial and aren\u2019t hungry. He wasn\u2019t worried at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was doing its thing, and I was doing mine,\u201d Mackenzie says. \u201cIt was quite a majestic encounter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Other local water users aren\u2019t so enamoured of sharing the water with these toothy reptiles.<\/p>\n

Steve Diehm grew up five minutes from the boat ramp above the barrage on the banks of the Fitzroy and has spent his whole life in Rockhampton. An avid waterskier, Diehm had a boat before he had a car.<\/p>\n

Steve Diehm stopped waterskiing on the Fitzoy River because of his fear of crocodiles. Photograph: Sylvia Liber\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The Fifo oil and gas worker met his wife and raised his three children waterskiing. But, over recent years, Diehm began being gnawed by a sense of unease familiar to many north of the tropic of capricorn.<\/p>\n

Since they were protected in the 1970s after being hunted to near annihilation, saltwater crocodiles \u2013 which despite their name also inhabit freshwater environments \u2013 have been steadily returning to their former range, reclaiming waterways that people swam for decades.<\/p>\n

Diehm had always been aware he was in croc habitat but began to feel less and less safe. Then, when he saw a picture of that 4.5 metre saltie captured in 2023, a \u201chorrible feeling\u201d wrenched his stomach. He had skied that \u201cexact bank\u201d for 15 years. Diehm thought about his children.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old was devastated when he made the decision that it was no longer safe for his family to be on the Fitzroy.<\/p>\n

Looking out across the river gives Diehm a pang of remorse. It is perfectly smooth, basking in sunshine, a \u201cskier\u2019s dream\u201d \u2013 and there is not a soul on the water.<\/p>\n

Scott Lawton and Andrew Miller paddle along the Fitzroy River, which will host 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games events despite concerns about increasing crocodile numbers. Photograph: Sylvia Liber\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should be like the Murray Darling,\u201d he says. \u201cThere should be houseboats workin\u2019 on here. There should be, you know, park a houseboat, swim off it, ski off it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this, all the way up here, there\u2019s this ability for tourism, for so much good, old-fashioned, outdoor fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diehm believes the Olympics would be great for Rockhampton but, without a change to crocodile management, he reckons athletes will be \u201crunning the gauntlet\u201d.<\/p>\n

The University of Queensland\u2019s crocodile expert, Prof Craig Franklin, runs the world\u2019s largest and longest active crocodile tracking program.<\/p>\n

The Fitzroy Olympics plan \u201cworries\u201d him \u201con a number of levels\u201d.<\/p>\n

Andrew Miller encourages visitors to forget their crocodile fears and enjoy the Fitzroy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s safe,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s foolish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franklin fears the Olympic event sends the message that it is \u201cOK to go swimming\u201d in places like the Fitzroy. But crocodiles travel vast distances over short periods, crossing barriers and moving overland for several kilometres.<\/p>\n

\u201cRowing in a place where it\u2019s the natural habitat of the world\u2019s largest species of crocodilian and, arguably, the most dangerous?\u201d he says. \u201cWhy would you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mackenzie, though, there is no other river like it.<\/p>\n

Still flush from his early morning canoe as he sips a coffee at his regular cafe near the river, the retired financial planner reflects that many people worry about all the wrong things. In the year to early August, 178 people have died on Queensland roads.<\/p>\n

That morning, Mackenzie watched the Fitzroy\u2019s surface ripple with the movements of big catfish, barramundi and bum-breathing turtles.<\/p>\n

So, yes, he knows there are risks when he gets on to the water, but they are ones Mackenzie gladly accepts.<\/p>\n

One of the beauties of this river, he says, is that it\u2019s alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Miller is only minutes into a crash course on how to use a V8 ocean ski when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-76678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}