An ariel map of Crocodylus Park and research facility in Darwin which is generally associated with conservation and research and thus acts as a draw card for tourists both from within Australia and overseas, wanting to know more about our native wildlife - the Australian saltwater crocodile.
However after visiting this so-called facility, I was to find out that Crocodylus Park is little more than a glossed over reptile circus, that exploits wild animals for profit. Locals have informed me that a recent addition to the tiny cages of this tropical prison are actually lions and tigers.
Fact: The first two crocodiles 'relocated' from their natural environment to the first crocodile farm in the Northern Territory (20 June, 1980) "Phillip" and "Edna" both of which had upturned snouts from a calcium deficient diet. They bred successfully.
A solitary salt water crocodile lies on the concrete of a raising pen at Crocodylus Farm in Darwin. The smooth concrete is meant to protect the belly skin of the crocodile who will later become a belt for someone's trousers.
Half starved captive crocodiles who will fight each other over pieces of animal flesh which are dangled down into muddy pens on pieces of string make for good tourist entertainment. Who could ask for more?!
Sixty-two hungry salt water crocodiles are kept in this small and foul smelling human-made lagoon at Crocodylus Farm, as part of a meat-dangling performance for the entertainment of tourists.
This unfortunate crocodile was perpetually harrassed by visitors to the farm. I observed chlidren who were accompanied by adults saying, 'what are you fucking staring at?' They were kicking dirt at the crocodile through the wire netting. I saw at least four seperate incidents of harrassment of crocodiles in cages within fifteen minutes whilst at the farm. Later on I saw a female crocodile severely bashed by two workers as she tried to defend her new eggs in a concrete pen while surrounded by dozens of other frightened crocodiles.
A crocodile trap on display at Crocodylus Farm in Darwin. In addition to captive breeding, crocodile management in the Northern Territory allows wild eggs to be collected and incubated. They are an important source of raising stock for all farms in the Northern Territory.
The koisk at Crocodylus 'research facility' sells back-scratchers made out of crocodile claws. The tiny nails painted with bright red polish. This facility is all about product research, in otherwords, what sized crocodile claws make the best back scratchers?
A container of small pieces of kangaroo backbone which is feed daily to the crocodiles by being dangled on long pieces of string attached to sticks by the staff for tourist entertainment.
The hungry and degraded crocodiles are forced to jump daily in the concrete pens for the tiny morsels of kangaroo meat.
Purses made out of dead cane toads on display at Crocodylus research facility in Darwin. Other products included stingray purses and back-scratchers and keyrings made out of crocodile claws. The tiny nails were painted with bright red nail polish - yet another example of Australia's native wildlife being put to good use for public education.
A container of small pieces of kangaroo backbone while the hungry crocodile waits its turn amongst dozens of others in the background.
A captive crocodile is forced to jump up into the air from a concrete pen in order to obtain food as part of a meat-dangling performance for the entertainment of tourists.
A real crowd pleaser at Crocodylus Farm - hungry crocodiles fighting over small morsels of food at feeding time. The hungrier the crocodiles are kept, the more entertaining their desperate fighting over a limited amount of food will be.
Each of the animals has been selected for a particular trait that may be significant in the eventual selection of a crocodile, which is adapted to crocodile farming through captive breeding, for example - growth rates, skin pattern and acceptance of particular foods.
A crocodile keyring holder featuring the preserved and head of a native Australian crocodile, who was never allowed to live in the wild.
There are approximately 62 'salties' or salt water crocodiles held captive for public display in this stagnant green lagoon. These unfortunate crocodiles will never experience their natural habitat of rivers, estuaries and the open ocean again. But instead will be forced to fight it out for tiny morsels of kangaroo spine in front of paying crowds of tourists.
Many people I spoke to seemed to think that Crocodylus Farm in Darwin was involved in research for conservation purposes. When in fact the research conducted at the farm is about crocodiles as 'improved product' and not as unique wildlife worth conserving for its own instrinsic value.
A small raising pen. A battery of 4 larger raising pens on the farm currently holds 362 salt water crocodiles. They are graded on the basis of size, with the smallest (128 animals, average length 1.3m) in the 1st pen and the largest in the 3rd pen (72 animals; average length 1.8 m).
Crocodylus Farm conducts research for the Australian crocodile farming industry and runs a daily crocodile performance to attract tourists into spending money on the entry fee and the various crocodile products available at the kiosk.
A captive crocodile is forced to jump up into the air from a concrete pen in order to obtain food as part of a meat-dangling performance for the entertainment of tourists.
Entertainment and fun for all the family at Crocodylus Farm in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. This so-called educational facility is an industry against reptiles in action.
The public display pens with the large crocodiles weren't much bigger than a bathroom and consisted of a concrete pit filled with water, a bit of grass and concrete at the end of the pen. Many of the crocodiles had been in these tiny spaces for years. When I asked the manager about the tiny space he replied that 'crocodiles don't move much in the wild.'
In a similar way to pigs being tail and ear docked and hens being debeaked, crocodiles are also cut. They are identified by the cutting of their scutes when young. The scutes are the pieces of fine flesh that form a ridge down the length of the crocodiles back ending at the tip of the tail. The mutilation of crocodile scutes is done so that crocodile can be identified from a distance and amongst others. It's all about what scute is removed and where it is removed from along the length of the crocodile. The identification relies on counting the scutes. Each is numbered (by scute clipping) and their history to the egg and nest is known precisely.
What household could do without one of these elegant crocodile claw book ends featuring false plastic nails painted with bright red polish? The Crocodylus 'research facility' in Darwin is well known for its innovative use of native Australian wildlife. Just ask at the kiosk!
During the tours run for the public there is little consideration given to the processes of the industry and talk of the actual crocodile slaughter is avoided altogether. This is the psychology of most intensive animal industries, who chose to hide what they do and Crocodylus Farm in Darwin is no exception.
The tiny raising pen that house solitary crocodiles for farm research and public display. This is the end of the line for those crocodiles who are unfortunate enough to be kept at the Crocodylus Farm.
Most of the time is spent 'grading' the crocodiles, that is, removing the fast growers, so that size in any particular 'growing shed' remains constant. The crocodiles need to be of similar sizes and strengths. Otherwise the larger crocs will pick on, fight, eat and dominate the smaller ones. This would be primarily caused by boredom and the stress of overcrowding, just as it is on all other intensive animal farms. Although mammals and reptiles are very different animals, there are similarities in their responses to stress suffered whilst in captivity.
There are approximately 62 'salties' or salt water crocodiles held captive for public display in this stagnant lagoon. Problems from the stress of overcrowding includes mutilation of animals by each other, such as the loss of eyes and limbs.
A real crowd pleaser at Crocodylus Farm - hungry crocodiles fighting over small morsels of food at feeding time.
Every year the Northern Territory Conservation Commission supplies the Darwin crocodile farm with approximately one hundred crocodiles from the Darwin harbour in a constant clearing out process, that is meant to keep 'people places' basically crocodile free. All these captured wild crocodiles face years of unnatural confinement and eventually death at the various farms.
The Hawksbill turtles held captive in this shallow pool were jamming their heads into the sides in a form of repetative behaviour. A computer chip will be inserted into the flesh and the turtles fattened for research to 'provide encouragement' for a joint programme with the Cubans for the commercial raising and killing of Hawksbills.
Enclosures are damaged when crocodiles attempt to escape.
A pair of back scratchers made from the claws of Australian native salt water crocodiles. These crocodiles are supposedly a protected species in Australia - but from whom?
Behind the tourist facade at Crocodylus Farm, I saw a young mother crocodile, five years old and with her first batch of eggs in one of the raising pens, being bashed by employees with a wooden broom handle. They were collecting her eggs for incubation. Apparently she wasn't meant to have a nest in the pen and was trying to protect her eggs from the dozens of other crocodiles who were all crowded in together. I remember her determination to protect her eggs from the workers, the blood on her snout after being bashed, her unblinking eye and the slow panting of her breath beneath the shadecloth.
The pathetic sight of the captive Hawksbill turtles perpetually pushing their flippers against the edge of the shallow pool, whilst endlessly circling the pool's small circumference will haunt me for a long time to come. A computer chip will be inserted into the flesh and the turtles fattened for research to 'provide encouragement' for a joint programme with the Cubans for the commercial raising and killing of Hawksbills.
Example of an information plaque at Crocodylus Farm:
Sex: Male
Total Length: 3.92 m (12.10)
Body Weight: 275kg
Identification: 39
Scutes Cut: 30/9
Date of Capture: 24th August, 1994
Capture Method: Steel Trap
Capture Location: Mary River
An employee from Crocodylus farm and circus reaches down into a plastic container of bloodied meat while the crowd eagerly awaits the show. Crocodile feeding frenzy shows occur throughout the day and are covered by the public paying an initial entrance fee.
A captive crocodile is forced to jump up into the air from a concrete pen in order to obtain food as part of a meat-dangling performance for the entertainment of tourists.
The first large commercial crocodile farm in Australia was developed at Edward River, Queensland in 1969. Initially funded by the government, it has created employment for aboriginals for over twenty five years. The product of crocodile meat for human consumption was pioneered by this farm.
Example of a display pen at Crocodylus Farm, Darwin, Northern Territory. There is no adequate shade and barely enough room for the crocodile to turn around in tiny concrete pond. In the wild this crocodile may have swam hundreds of kilometres down rivers and in the open sea. (S)he would have hidden in mud, mangroves and undergrowth or perhaps basked on a sandy riverbank or a beach.
Example of an information plaque at Crocodylus Farm:
Sex: Female
Total Length: 2.78 m (9.1)
Body Weight: 95kgs
Identification: 24
Scutes Cut: 20/4
Date of Capture: 1 June 1998
Capture Method: Harpoon
Capture Location: Adelaide River
Damaged Tail
Yet more educational tools from the Crocodylus 'research facility' in Darwin. They include; ornamental crocodile book ends featuring a decapitated head of a young native saltwater crocodile and half a claw glued on to wood and perhaps preserved in your memory forever.
Captive salt water crocodile in a display and raising pen at Crocodylus Farm, which may have once known hundreds of kilometres of a wide brown river or an ocean estuary before its capture from the wild. The only way out of this prison for the crocodile is death - slaughter by a .22 calibre rifle wound to the head.
A captive crocodile is forced to jump up into the air from a concrete pen in order to obtain food as part of a meat-dangling performance for the entertainment of tourists.
Australian cassoary (flightless tropical rainforest bird) behind bars at Crocodylus Farm. With an insatiable need to attract an ever increasing number of tourists, the farm is fast developing into a mini zoo, with recent reports of the new additions of pumas and lions, locked in tiny display cages for the rest of their lives and panting in the tropical heat.
Portrait of a crocodile reduced by human greed. Crocodiles were here for thousands of years before human beings and are amongst the oldest animals on earth. People should simply stay out of their territory and not impinge upon it.
The kiosk sells an assortment of crocodile products, from single teeth to full length skins. Other products include; wallets, purses, belts, hat bands made of crocodile skin and teeth and key rings made out of the tip of the crocodile's tail or the scutes along the top of the crocodile's back. The large objects hanging on the wall behind the glass of the display cabinet are sting-ray purses and cane toad handbags.
Aussie joker and employee at Crocodylus Farm up to the elbows in kangaroo flesh. We've seen Crocodile Dundee and the 'comical antics' of The Crocodile Hunter as he supposedly puts himself as risk by scaring reptiles and other small animals. The salt water crocodile is the only animal in Australia who is able to predate on human beings. Therefore we reverse the role between crocodile and the Australian male to show our dominance over the natural world. Australian cruelty and stupidity are disguised in the ever present 'easy-going' and 'she'll-be-right-mate' attitude and then sold and exported to the rest of the world.
The tiny raising and display pen is the end of the line for the crocodile at Crocodylus Farm. The Australian saltwater crocodile is now a protected animal in the wild, but more than ever this unique wildlife needs protection from an unscruptulous luxury industry, where a precious individual life is worth less than a back-scratcher or a keyring.
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to make a donation or send a cheque/money order to;
The Thylazine Foundation Pty Ltd
GPO Box 1480, Darwin, Northern Territory, 0801, Australia.
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