{"id":2189085,"date":"2025-11-16T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2189085"},"modified":"2025-11-16T12:42:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T11:42:50","slug":"massive-crocodile-taken-to-steve-irwins-australia-zoo-despite-traditional-owners-anger-over-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/massive-crocodile-taken-to-steve-irwins-australia-zoo-despite-traditional-owners-anger-over-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive crocodile taken to Steve Irwin\u2019s Australia Zoo despite traditional owners\u2019 anger over removal"},"content":{"rendered":"

An \u201ciconic\u201d saltwater crocodile has been transported more than 1,600km to Australia Zoo \u2013 made famous by Steve Irwin \u2013 almost two months after its controversial removal from its far north Queensland habitat.<\/p>\n

But while the Sunshine Coast zoo said it was proud to become the \u201cforever home\u201d of Old Faithful, as the crocodile that measures longer than 4 metres is known, traditional owners said they were \u201cvery upset\u201d by the outcome, which conservationists describe as a \u201ccover-up\u201d.<\/p>\n

Australia Zoo announced the crocodile had arrived at its facility, near the Glasshouse Mountains of south-east Queensland, via a social media video on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

The clip begins with footage of the late Steve Irwin capturing Old Faithful in the waterhole for which he is named in Rinyirru \u2013 or Lakefield national park \u2013 as portrayed in the mid-1990s television series The Crocodile Hunter.<\/p>\n

In that episode, Irwin \u201chazed\u201d the apex predator, before returning him to his home on the Normanby River, in an effort to instil fear of humans into the big reptile and so avoid conflict with anglers \u2013 a pioneering experiment which appears to have been successful for almost two decades.<\/p>\n

But that coexistence unravelled on 8 September when Old Faithful and a second \u2013 albeit smaller \u2013 crocodile were removed from the river by wildlife officers.<\/p>\n

It came after the Queensland environment department said it received reports of the crocodile\u2019s repeated, concerning escalating behaviour \u201cas a direct result of it being fed by people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Old
Old Faithful in a shallow pool at a government facility in Cairns after his removal from the wild<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the social media video, Australia Zoo\u2019s Toby Millyard says the crocodile research team he leads had initially hoped Old Faithful would be released back into its natural habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we heard that he was unreleasable, we jumped in to offer to give him a home because we know that we can give him the best of the best for the rest of his life,\u201d Millyard said.<\/p>\n

But the Rinyirru (Lakefield) Aboriginal Corporation chair, Alwyn Lyall, said he was saddened and \u201cpissed off\u201d to learn on Monday morning that this \u201cimportant and totemic\u201d animal had been taken so far from his country and its traditional owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis crocodile comes from up here in Cape York,\u201d Lyall said. \u201cA zoo is the wrong place for that animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo remove him over the weekend without [any] notice or notification to us traditional owners, or anything \u2013 it\u2019s like a thief in the night sort of rubbish?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never gave the authority for that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyall said that if the croc had to be rehomed, he would rather Old Faithful go to a facility in Babinda, less than 400km south, and more accessible to traditional owners. Croc Country Australia also runs training courses with Indigenous rangers, and is home to another icon crocodile removed from Rinyirru.<\/p>\n

Its owner, Jesse Crampton, confirmed he had put in an expression of interest to the department to house Old Faithful.<\/p>\n

Crampton said he established the facility specifically to meet a \u201chousing crisis\u201d for crocodiles deemed icons under Queensland law \u2013 which are longer than 4 metres \u2013 but also considered a problem by authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a purpose-built, newly established crocodile facility designed to house icon crocodiles for these kinds of scenarios,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In September, the Environmental Defenders Office \u2013 acting for advocacy group Community Representation of Crocodiles (Croc) \u2013 lodged a request for a statement of reasons for Old Faithful\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n

Croc\u2019s co-founder Amanda French said the department requested an extension for the request until Wednesday, but had simultaneously \u201cfast-tracked the paperwork and transport logistics\u201d to move Old Faithful. She said this amounted to a \u201ccover-up for mistakes\u201d made in a removal from the wild that lacked \u201ctransparency\u201d and \u201ccultural authority\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said Old Faithful would no doubt provide \u201ca great commercial opportunity\u201d for the zoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly sad that a crocodile that survived decades in the wild \u2013 swimming enormous distances, feeding on whatever he wants, mating with whomever he wants \u2013 is now sentenced to a lifetime in [captivity] \u2026 for tourists\u2019 [amusement],\u201d French said.<\/p>\n

A department spokesperson confirmed the smaller reptile captured along with Old Faithful had been relocated to a crocodile farm in far north Queensland.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> by Joe Hinchliffe was first published by The Guardian on 3 November 2025. Lead Image: Old Faithful, the crocodile made famous by Steve Irwin, in Rinyirru (Lakefield) national park, north Queensland. Photograph: Barry Lyon.
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