Environmental Engineering Reference
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thoughts of science, to which we should pay more attention. Part of my current
research on crocodilian conservation involves interviewing those who research,
manage and live alongside crocodiles, in the attempt to capture examples of this
kind of individual behaviour by crocodiles.
Even the hunters, with their tales of thousands of marauding man-eaters, viewed
merely as animated traps, recount tales of tussles with particular 'larger-than-life'
crocodile characters. A famous Australian example is that of Sweetheart, a 5.1m-
long saltwater crocodile who in the mid-1970s terrorised anglers on Sweets
Lookout Billabong by ripping their outboard motors off the back of their boats.
Between 1974 and 1979 he bumped, bit, and even upended at least six boats. He
totally ignored the humans in the boats, and those he had tipped into the water.
He was eventually snared but died, probably from the exertion of his struggles to
get free, and is now on display in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern
Territory in Darwin (Webb and Manolis, 1998: 116-118). This idea of agency is
important, because if all crocodiles are the same, then just as some rangers suggested
after Val Plumwood was rescued, grievously bitten, all crocodiles are 'man-eaters'
and should be killed. Or at least, an official should go out to the attack site and
shoot any large crocodile in sight.
At the heart of the debate over ecological invasions are ideas about what belongs
and what is desired (and not wanted) where, and these are informed by scientific
observation and theory, and just as importantly by our lifestyle choices and our
values, utilitarian and spiritual. As William Cronon (1995) observed nearly 20 years
ago, we need to overcome the idea that 'nature' and 'wilderness' exist in separate
realms from those we view as native habitat, reserved for us. Crocodiles will not
remain in the nature reserves we have set aside for them. They appear to be
colonising new areas because they were shot out across their former range by
humans in the 1950s and 1960s, and they are recolonising these areas because they
have been protected since the 1970s and their populations are growing.
The film
Invasion of the Crocodiles
was actually an investigation into the reasons
why saltwater crocodiles have been turning up in places where they have not been
seen in recent decades. It followed the work of a well-respected Australian
crocodile expert, Adam Britton. In his concluding piece to camera he says:
Crocodiles definitely have a place in the Northern Territory, but we obviously
have to make sure that crocs and people are not coming into conflict with
each other, and that means that there are places where we have to control
them, we have to keep them from killing people. It's a balancing act, and if
we don't get the balance right, then the consequences for either species could
be fatal.
What would be very welcome is a companion piece examining the revolution in
thinking about nature, environmental change and belonging which is required to
unpack the baggage associated with what we call 'invasions' by creatures we fear,
dislike or simply misunderstand.
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