Jonathon Delacour the heart of things

Be careful down under

No-one I’ve spoken to these past couple of days has failed to mention the tragic incident earlier in the week in which a German tourist was killed by a crocodile while swimming in a billabong in the Kakadu National Park (a billabong is a pool formed from a branch in a river).

Isabel and Valerie von Jordan had traveled from Bali to visit friends who had been evacuated to a Darwin hospital after being wounded in the terrorist attack. One newspaper report says that they had left the Sari Club only an hour before the explosion, another report suggests they were on another island at the time of the attack but knew many of the victims.

The sisters joined a four-day tour to Kakadu and the group was swimming in Sandy Creek billabong around midnight when Isabel von Jordan was taken by the crocodile. My initial response—and everyone else’s—was: “Why would anyone be crazy enough to swim at night near a crocodile infested river? Especially since the TV news stories showed a number of signs warning of the dangers of swimming in a well-known crocodile spot…”

Unfortunately, it’s been alleged that when the nine European tourists asked about the warnings, the tour guide told them that the signs only refered to freshwater crocodiles, a less dangerous species. Isabel von Jordan’s body was recovered 500 meters up river the following morning.

Crocodile attacks are not uncommon in Australia’s north: the map on this page cites 12 fatalities between 1975 and 1988 and there have been another four or five deaths since. Non-fatal attacks occur regularly.

It’s clear that visitors to Australia lack any real understanding of the potential dangers they may encounter in the outback and on the beaches. In addition to the saltwater crocodile, Australia is home to:

• the top ten most poisonous snakes in the world (four of which can be found around Sydney)
• 160 shark species
• one of the most poisonous spiders in the world, the funnel web, and also the redback spider (again, both in the Sydney area)
• the box jellyfish, the most venomous marine creature in the world.

Many of the ocean beaches have treacherous rips that can drag an unsuspecting swimmer hundreds of meters away from the shore in a couple of minutes. During the summer, lifesavers spend most of their time rescuing people from rips.

So, if you’re thinking of coming to Australia for a holiday, we’d love to see you. And you wouldn’t want to come all this way without exploring the outback and the coastal regions. Just be careful.

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