Cook was more relaxed about crocs, however, noting Rockhampton\u2019s active rowing community and use as an Olympic training venue, while acknowledging the deadly reptiles could prove \u201cquite shocking\u201d for international visitors.<\/p>\n
The Australian rowing team trained in the Rockhampton waterway before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and plans to do so again before the Los Angeles Games.<\/p>\n
But it is not just foreigners surprised by the fact Olympic athletes will be asked to compete on water that even the local rowing club president acknowledges is natural crocodile habitat.<\/p>\n
Just hours before the plan was officially unveiled, Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was asked on radio what he thought about the then unofficial reports of Rockhampton as an Olympic rowing venue \u2013 and if he himself would swim the Fitzroy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure how sensible a proposition that is,\u201d Albanese told Brisbane\u2019s B105.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding is it was sort of listed eight out of eight as options, and if there were 15 options, it would have been 15.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister went on to say that Rockhampton was a \u201cfantastic place\u201d and the Fitzroy a \u201cgreat river\u201d \u2013 to \u201cwalk along\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m not sure that having rowing there, although I\u2019ve got to say, people might break world records,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d want to go pretty quickly wouldn\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n
But crocodile fears were dismissed by the Brisbane Olympic chief, Andrew Liveris, who called for a \u201ccan do, not can\u2019t do\u201d mindset at Tuesday\u2019s live announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are sharks in the ocean and we still do surfing,\u201d Liveris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCreatures below the water \u2026 that\u2019s a bit kind of Hollywoodish, we\u2019ll leave LA to worry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rockhampton Fitzroy Rowing club president, Sarah Black, told a parliamentary inquiry into hosting the Olympics in February that Rockhampton rowers \u201chave processes in place\u201d for reporting crocodile sightings, working around crocodile behaviour and with crocodile managers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Fitzroy River is a natural habitat for crocodiles, we\u2019re well aware of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201c[But] I think some of the reports in the media have been sensationalised, with comments around it being \u2018crocodile infested\u2019. It\u2019s certainly risk managed and [that is] something that our sport does quite well, regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n Lever, the crocodile farmer who was responsible for removing crocodiles from areas of human habitation for a decade in the 1980s until it was taken over by state wildlife rangers in the early 1990s, said the Fitzroy River delta was at the southern extremity of the saltwater crocodile\u2019s range.<\/p>\n \u201cFormally, when you look at them, that\u2019s where the map stops,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Lever thinks the Olympic decision is \u201cwonderful\u201d, describing the Fitzroy as a \u201cspectacular\u201d tapestry of centuries old paperbark trees, floodplains, islands, swamps and houses.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s environment department would have to rezone the Fitzroy from \u201ctargeted\u201d to \u201cactive removal\u201d he said, meaning all crocodiles, regardless of size or behaviour, were targeted for removal.<\/p>\n \u201cThen it needs constant monitoring by surveys in the Fitzroy River,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then, probably, you\u2019d even go to the extent of putting out a couple of traps there and baiting them up once a week, just to see if anything pops up in the area, so that it might get caught.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all doable.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, he says, much of it is already being done, pointing to official crocodile removals in recent years. Less humanely, in 2017, a massive 5.2-metre male crocodile was found floating in the Fitzroy after it was shot in the head.<\/p>\n But Lever said \u201cnone of these crocodiles actually posed any sort of a problem\u201d and that people regularly swim and use the river without being attacked.<\/p>\n He points to the Rockhampton\u2019s crest, dating back to the 1800s, upon which the only animal is a crocodile \u2013 standing on rocks above a quadrant of images depicting city\u2019s history of mining, shipping, machinery and commerce \u2013 as evidence to the longstanding coexistence of humans and crocodiles in the region.<\/p>\n Although Lever admits the city\u2019s founders did \u201chave to kill a lot of crocodiles to make it safe for people to load and unload boats there\u201d.<\/p>\n While there are crocodiles responsible for fatal attacks farther north, where they occur in far greater numbers, he said crocodiles were remarkable creatures that had existed unchanged over millions of years, but had been \u201cso much misjudged\u201d over comparatively recent ones.<\/p>\n \u201cThe part that really got me besotted with them was their parental behaviour,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are lovely, lovely, gentle dinosaurs with their offspring.\u201d<\/p>\n This article<\/a> by Joe Hinchliffe was first published by The Guardian on 25 March 2025. Lead Image: Rockhampton rowers already \u2018have processes in place\u2019 for reporting crocodile sightings, a parliamentary inquiry was told in February. Photograph: Richard Wainwright\/AAP.<\/i><\/p>\n Wildlife continues to face threats, which include hunting, poaching, illegal trade in animal products, habitat loss as well as a rapidly changing climate.<\/p>\n Become a Wildlife Champion today by supporting our conservation partners<\/a> with a monthly donation as little as $1.<\/p>\nWhat you can do<\/h2>\n