When Loveena Kruger was growing up in the Northern Territory town of Katherine in the 1980s and 1990s, her family would regularly swim in the Katherine River.

"My brothers would hitch-hike with tourists all the way to [Nitmiluk] Gorge, float down [the river] on pandanus branches to Knotts Crossing and we would meet them there," she said.

"You just wouldn't get caught doing it now."

Monster crocs caught in 2018

It has been a busy year for Parks and Wildlife rangers so far, with eight crocodiles being pulled from the Katherine River, ranging in size from 4.2 metres to 2.5 metres.

The rangers monitor a stretch of the river from the Flora River junction to Nitmiluk Gorge, trapping and removing any saltwater crocodiles they capture during the dry season.

One 3.92-metre monster caught in March was brought to a primary school to deliver a water safety message to students.

A 3.1 metre saltwater crocodile caught near Novus Quarry in the Katherine River on April 9, 2018. ( ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald )

Over the past five years the number of crocodiles caught in the river reached a high of 13 in 2017 from just four in 2015 and the animals are certainly on the minds of the locals.

Katherine River used to be a 'very safe swimming hole'

While the river is open to swimming in some sections of Nitmiluk Gorge, 30 kilometres north east of Katherine, nearer to town it is generally considered risky to do any more than paddle in the shallows at the Low Level Crossing.

For Ms Kruger, the threat of crocodiles means her children aren't allowed near the Katherine.

"They know that mum can smell the river water on them, so they don't go swimming. There are just too many crocs to get comfortable," she said.

Similarly, 40-year Katherine resident Ashley Harris said he used to float down the river on weekends, and if he lost a lure from his boat he would jump overboard to retrieve it.

"You don't do that nowadays because you're just not sure what is going to be under [the water]," he said

Ex-crocodile farmer Owen 'Bluey' Pugh has worked in the NT's crocodile farming industry since 1989.

"In the early 1980s when I first came here, [the Katherine River] was considered a very safe swimming hole, now I would seriously consider where I was going," he said.

Kayne Jansen and Siobhan Mackay live near the Katherine River with their children Magill and Faolan. ( ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald )

Towards the end of the wet season, Siobhan Mackay and Kayne Jansen found the tracks of a crocodile not far from their house on the edge of a waterhole on the Katherine River.

Upon inspecting the tracks, Parks and Wildlife rangers estimated the animal to be between 4.5 and five metres long.

The couple said finding the tracks was quite a wake-up call, making them reconsider how their family used the riverbank.

"I had been telling the kids to stay back [from the water] but it felt more like a hypothetical exercise, I didn't really think there was going to be a croc in one of those little puddles," Ms Mackay said.

"If we were to surprise a beast like that, obviously the chances you have to think are pretty negligible, but the consequences are too horrific to contemplate."

Parks and wildlife ranger Erin Britton pours water on a captured crocodile to keep it cool. ( ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald )

Mixed opinion on calls for a crocodile cull

Since the Northern Territory banned crocodile hunting in the 1970s, saltwater crocodiles numbers in the Top End have grown from an estimated 3,000 to about 100,000.

Calls for a cull of crocodiles, even licensed safari hunting, have come and gone for many years in northern Australia.

Katherine's mayor Fay Miller has been an outspoken supporter of a cull, but opinions in the town are varied.

Some long-term locals like Ms Kruger believe the protection of saltwater crocodiles has "gone too far" and their numbers need to be controlled.

"We don't run around with dinosaurs on land, so why should we swim with them," she said.

"You can tell the person who doesn't support a cull because they've probably been here [a few] years, whereas someone who has been here for longer than 30 years will tell you the population of crocs we have in our river is ridiculous."

Despite witnessing the huge growth in crocodile numbers over the past 30 years, 'Bluey' Pugh said he was not in favour of a crocodile cull.

"If you shoot some crocs out it would just cause a vacuum and others will move in, so do you just keep going until you get an overall reduction in numbers?" he asked.

A wider policy around an NT cull

"I don't think that a cull would really achieve anything.

"At the end of the day it is an animal that you really need to be educated about and learn to live with."

Parks and Wildlife rangers operate crocodile traps near Katherine during the dry season. ( ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald )

Mr Pugh believes Top End crocodile numbers have plateaued but younger crocodiles are being pushed further inland.

"I don't think the food and resources are there to support any more animals," he said.

"But still they are moving up rivers because they are displaced further downstream; bigger animals are chasing them out so they are moving further and further upstream."

While Kayne Jansen has reconsidered how close he lets his children roam to the Katherine River, he said he would not support a crocodile cull.

"I understand the safety concerns that people have, and the Katherine River would be safer if there was some sort of a policy around a cull in the wider Northern Territory," he said.

"But I am also of the belief that we share this place with a lot of animals that attract a lot of tourism; and they are part of the reason why we love this place, the natural beauty and the excitement of the place."