00:00Powerful cascading waterfalls of crystal clear fresh water, the crown jewels of Northern
00:08Territory National Parks and an attractive food source for crocodiles.
00:15The crocodiles are very territorial animals and the reason that they would be in a plunge
00:19pool like this is because of the fish and the food source that is available.
00:24At the start of each wet season, rangers close off these swimming holes to the public and
00:29re-rig crocodile traps.
00:31Critical work that's not for the faint hearted.
00:34They're just an aluminium cage and they've got a trap door on the front.
00:40We bait them usually with a couple of nice pieces of feral pig and if a crocodile does
00:47go in there and grab the bait then it drops the door at the rear of the trap.
00:52NT government data shows rangers removed nearly 260 saltwater and freshwater crocodiles from
00:59management areas in 2024.
01:02Of those, 19 were from swimming holes in Lichfield National Park, nearly three times as many
01:08as were caught in the same area last year.
01:11The biggest I think was 3.65 metres which is a large animal and even a couple of the
01:17other saltwater crocodiles which were about 2.8 or 2.9 metres, they're large animals.
01:23It's spectacular waterfalls like this that draw hundreds of thousands of tourists to
01:28the Northern Territory every year.
01:31But without the work of rangers, these popular swimming holes would all but certainly be deadly.
01:37Just last year, a tourist swimming here at Wongai Falls was bitten on the back by a small crocodile.
01:43Since that time we've reviewed the croc management plans for the area.
01:47We review all of our processes to make sure that we're doing things as best we can.
01:52Life-saving work, balancing tourism with the natural environment.
