FISHING WAREHOUSE ℝℕ ℍℝ
Legendary tales of enormous estuarine crocodiles and their capture, by whatever means, are nothing new to generational North Queenslanders.
Such yarns almost always invoke a degree of wonder, incite debate – sometimes fierce - and deliver community history lessons (along with embellishments sometimes beyond reasonable imagination).
They invariably leave the listener wanting more, such is the mystery and danger surrounding the dinosaurian reptiles.
One particular image that hangs on the Warehouse wall often demands customers pause and perhaps contemplate the life and times of those who went before us… pioneers that helped shape this great city and surrounding districts.
A large crocodile laid out on a river or creek bank with 2 children, siblings, sitting atop and a shaded figure behind, is extraordinary and compliments a yarn that stretches back nearly 100 years.
The image is simply labelled ‘Ross River, Townsville 1928’, but we now know that to be only partially true – the year correct; however, it seems Alligator Creek was the kingdom of the 16 ½ foot (5 metre) crocodile known as Big Ben.
The yarn is a good one and recounts the capture of Big Ben by Mrs Mary Ann Lee, the story detailed in the 1937 book written by Norman Caldwell.
“We were living on the bank of a creek near Townsville at the time,” an article in the Daily Mercury quoted Mrs Lee.
“One still summer evening, I was warming goat’s milk in a saucepan over an open fire. I heard a sudden loud splash behind me.”
Those lines commenced a story where Mrs Lee set about catching the large croc known as Big Ben, an animal responsible for taking at least one of the Lee’s goats which had become entangled in a fishing net and subsequent bleating attracting the crocodile.
Following a futile first attempt where Big Ben made good its freedom, Mrs Lee upsized her tackle.
“I got a long heavy rope and an outsize in shark-hooks – one specially made for deep-sea fishing – with a long chain.”
Mrs Lee baited the hook with the large goat’s head recovered from the fishing net before setting the offering from a branch overhanging the creek where a bait the previous night had been taken.
A goat was tethered nearby and was said to bleat incessantly before being released as evening fell.
It was a stormy night when the goat head bait was taken and the following morning Mrs Lee rushed to the creek where she found the rope taught and mid-stream… “and there was a monstrous crocodile floating on the water with a shark hook in its jaw.”
“I rushed back to the humpy, took down my rifle from the wall and rushing outside, fired a shot at the big brute.”
Mrs Lee missed, but racing through the scrub to her nearest neighbour, she burst into the house demanding they come and look.
The news of the hooked crocodile apparently spread like wildfire.
“All the womenfolk and the few men rushed to the spot where I had the rope tied. We all hauled together and the crocodile was yanked to the bank and shot.
Slipping a rope over the long jaw, we dragged the monster ashore. It was Big Ben alright”
A quick Google search will reveal plenty of crocodiles, affectionately or otherwise known as Big Ben, but few can boast such a capture.
Courtesy of Fishing Warehouse via Facebook