Inheriting a crocodile

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Inheriting a crocodile

Over the years, there was rumoured to be a fully grown saltwater crocodile living in a suburban Darwin backyard. It belonged to a crocodile hunter who died in 1992.



This is the story of where it is now.

Helen Haritos' suburban backyard feels like a jungle. Dappled light filters through a tall tropical canopy. A faint breeze stirs in the leaves. All else is still. But not for long. Yellow eyes have surfaced on a black pond, the smell of fish detected.

"She lets us know when she's hungry," Helen Haritos says.

Helen is softly spoken and dressed in an elegant dress, orange beads and a round hat. The crocodile is watching her as she moves cautiously to a hole in its cage carrying a snapper.

In an instant, the fully grown reptile bursts from the pond and across a landing. Helen quickly throws the fish through the hole. It disappears in crunching jaws.

"It's not quite like my dog but I do have a particular bond and care for the animal," Helen says.

"It's quite easy actually (to look after) I'd say low maintenance, but treat with respect because they are very dangerous animals." she says.

This is how Helen has fed Albert - a female - since 1992 when her father George Haritos passed away and she inherited the reptile, which has grown to just under four metres.

"My father and his brothers were very sea orientated," she says.

"They had pearling luggers for a time... and in between pearling (my father) was a barramundi fishermen and a crocodile hunter."

From the Mary River to Fannie Bay

Albert joined the Haritos family unintentionally in 1958. Helen was five.

Helen says someone asked her father for a crocodile at a party.

She says her father caught Albert in the Mary River but when it came time to hand the crocodile over the person had sobered up and no longer wanted it.

"I can vaguely remember my parents discussing where the crocodile should go, I think my father won out and it came to Fannie Bay and it's been here ever since."

Albert is the only adult saltwater crocodile living in a backyard in suburban Darwin.

The crocodile joined the family before crocodiles became a protected species and since then the Haritos' have obtained permits.

Helen says the crocodile is about 70 years old.

It survived through Cyclone Tracy in 1974, when Helen remembers the winds being so strong they tore down walls inside their home.

"We weren't sure what we were going to find the next day, but the cage was untouched. And the crocodile was still there," she says.

Hunting with a prince

In 1956, the Duke of Edinburgh was passing through town on his way to the Melbourne Olympics.

"My father and his three brothers were approached to take Prince Phillip out croc shooting in [Darwin] harbour," Helen says.

"So they went out in the evening... and they took Prince Phillip and his aid and a couple of other men... and Prince Phillip actually shot a crocodile."

The crocodile was reported in the local paper to be six foot.

"Dad had the skin sent to a taxidermist and then they sent it over to Prince Phillip."

Topics: animals, darwin-0800

First posted