The ABC’s latest croc

They never stop at the ABC, not ever. Take the latest climate change horror being reported by the national broadcaster’s “online environment reporter” Nick Kilvert, a young fella two-and-a-bit years out of journalism school. Here’s how his latest effort begins:

The chances of limiting climate change appear to be growing slimmer by the day — and this may have big implications for Australia’s wildlife.

Recently a number of crocodiles have been trapped in the Mary River, just 105 kilometres north of Noosa and 250km south of their usual range.

Recently, eh?

In 1947, a Mary River crocodile also was “recently” observed:

A fishing party coming up the Mary River in a launch this afternoon saw the crocodile, first seen last Thursday, about a quarter of a mile on the river heads side of Walker’s Point.

Mr. W. J. Barkess, the owner of the launch, put it about and went back to within 20 yards of the crocodile.

Mr. Barkess fired a shot at it from a gun. It moved along the mud for a few yards and then turned and slid into the water.

And another “recent” sighting came in 1893, prompting this letter to the Maryborough Chronicle from Mr Archibald Meston, the “well-known authority on Australian natural history and aboriginal folk-lore”:

There is nothing remarkable in discovering a crocodile in the Mary River. We are not far distant from the time when crocodiles inhabited the waters of Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River. An old blackfellow at Pialba told me the crocodile was once common in the Mary River, and that he bad seen them several times when a boy. They were seen in the Burnett forty years ago, and a Bundaberg blackfellow informed me that one comes there occasionally at the present time.

Environment reporter Kilvert’s online CV lists a Masters in Journalism among his qualifications. Perhaps he missed the class which saw the web address of Trove.com.au handed out. For those not beside themselves with fear and preconceptions about climate change, many further “recent” reports of Mary River crocodiles can be found via this link or the one below.

— roger franklin

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