The residents of Hughenden in Queensland’s outback have two questions.
How did a freshwater crocodile come to be living in their local swimming spot – and when is it going to move on?
“Everyone’s confused,” says Constance Holden, who works in the Great Western hotel, one of the town’s two pubs. “I didn’t fully believe it was there until I saw the photos.”
The town, population 1,100, is more than 300km from the coast and its main river, the Flinders, is now dry. Its human-made recreational lake – now home to the croc – is not connected to any big waterways and the area has not flooded significantly this year.
“There’s no way you’d usually see a croc here, especially in the lake,” she says. “I have no idea how a croc would get there. I’ve heard some rumours about someone putting it there but I don’t know what to believe.”
The animal was first spotted in the Hughenden recreational lake in June. It was believed the reptile could not have survived a cold snap the next month, with three below-zero nights. But a sighting last week, confirmed by the council, proved that theory wrong.
The mayor called in the state’s environment department to rid the lake of the visitor, thought to be less than a metre long, but the team was unable to locate the animal.
“Despite receiving official information that there was no crocodile present in our lake and assuming it had perished due to water temperatures, the unexpected appearance of a croc left us all in shock again,” the Flinders shire mayor, Kate Peddle, wrote on social media.
Asking whether the croc was an “elaborate hoax”, she added: “The mysteries of nature never fail to keep us on our toes.”
The evasive creature has earned the nickname the Houdini of Hughenden.
But its provenance is likely to be far less peculiar. The Flinders River, close to the lake, is a natural freshwater crocodile habitat when in flow. The animals are known to move between waterholes and can move long distances overland in search of water.
Barbra Smith, a director at the council, said it was the first time she had seen a freshwater crocodile in Hughenden – but that a farmer had found one on his property 65km west of the town in March.
“It’s definitely not a usual occurrence, that’s for sure,” she says of Houdini. “It’s not ideal to have a crocodile in our lake, it’s deterring people from swimming and enjoying its full use.”
“Freshies” can reach up to three metres in length. They are shy and not considered dangerous – unlike saltwater crocodiles they do not eat humans – but they have been known to attack people in self-defence.
In 2022 a man was airlifted to hospital after wrestling himself free from a freshwater crocodile that had latched on to his arm at a waterfall in remote north-west Queensland.
The council says it is working to “determine the best management approach” and has urged the community to be “crocwise”, advising people to stay five metres from the water’s edge and to avoid using small watercraft such as kayaks and paddleboards.
Wildlife officers plan to return to Hughenden to locate the animal, a protected species, which would be released into the nearest suitable habitat, if captured.
For now, Holden is taking no chances.
“Even though it’s a freshie, I’m still scared of it,” she says. “They say freshies won’t hurt you, but it’s still a croc.”