It may be that crocodiles are unaware of the science saying they do not normally live south of Gladstone.
Reports of a recent crocodile sighting at Noosa follow confirmed sightings in and near Gympie region over many years – including one at Tiaro in 1964.
That crocodile’s skin is on display at the Mt Bauple and District Historical Society Cultural Centre and Museum. It was shot in 1964 by Maryborough resident Jim Greensill, according to news reports at the time.
Even earlier, in June 1905, a crocodile was recorded as having been shot in the Logan River, south of Brisbane.
The Brisbane Courier reported soon afterwards on the sighting, illustrated with a photograph of Logan locals with the crocodile carcass.
Information collated by the State Library of Queenland’s Myles Sinnamon included the report that rumours of a croc living in the river near Coomera “were confirmed when local storekeeper Alf Hinds, his brother Jack and local publican Charles Rumpf pulled the reptile’s dead body onto the river’s banks”.
The report said the 3.83m croc had been shot a few days before.
Numerous sightings since then include one by a Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service ranger on 3 February in front of the Sarawak camping area at Inskip Point.
Others in the same area include one in August 2019, two reports in Gympie in April that year and several around Boonooroo and K’gari, also in 2019.
In 2017, a father and son reported a 2.5m croc near Kidd Bridge, in the Gympie CBD.
