Our photograph of this belly up freshwater crocodile in Queensland sparked a right royal follow up from Melbourne journalist Kim Lockwood . He recalled the event in which his Melbourne Herald reporter and author father, Douglas, covered the unofficial 1963 opening of the Ord River Dam in Western Australia during a visit by the Queen and Prince Philip. A crocodile unexpectedly changed the planned arrangements for the Duke , as Kim explained thus :
From the top of the dam, an unctuous bootlicking official said, "If you look
closely, Your Royal Highness you might even see a crocodile" -- as though Phil had never
seen one before -- " Oh, look down there on the left, there's one on the bank!"
And indeed there was. Dad piped up loudly, not having taken to the toe-rag, "And
it's dead." He had noticed its snout was in the water, preventing it from
breathing. Uriah Heep ummed and aahed and said, "If Your Royal Highness would
like to press the button to open the floodgates ...'' Phil was having none of
it. "No," he said, "you press the button. I want to watch that crocodile." So
the hapless lackey had to press the button, the gates opened, the water flowed,
and the croc rolled over and over downstream in the current. As dead crocs do.
Phil harrumphed and strode back to his vehicle.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies officially opened the $20million scheme on July 20 , 1963 and described nearby Kununurra and the Ord River irrigation area as " the most exciting place in Australia ."
Prince Philip , above , went on a crocodile shooting trip with the Haritos brothers of Darwin in the l950s and shot and helped skin a saurian , an outrageous claim made the beast had already been shot and placed on the bank for the Duke to plug .
Prince Philip , above , went on a crocodile shooting trip with the Haritos brothers of Darwin in the l950s and shot and helped skin a saurian , an outrageous claim made the beast had already been shot and placed on the bank for the Duke to plug .
Lockwood wrote that "hysteria set in " when an American newsagency ran the story and he was cabled for extensive details about Nicodemus , including the size of his teeth, whether or not he had eaten any men or bailed up any bank robbers.
Of course , the gullible Yanks wanted photographs, ideally one of Nicodemus holding a robber at bay in a corner .
There was a tiny grain of truth in the story-Nicodemus , about two weeks old , about 18 inches long , was fed by bank staff . Darwin bank johnnies were a fun loving , thirsty lot and a pet dog which came to the pub with them became an alcoholic , journalist Keith Willey of the Northern Territory News writing a moving story about the canine when it went cold turkey and was seen , sadly , its dry tongue extended , outside the Vic Hotel , the bank boys merrily quaffing ale inside .
