The Outback Wrangler

by Matt Wright

  I landed back in a nearby paper bark swamp and walked up to his den. It was a great spot. He’d made a channel from the main lagoon and a deep wallow around the tree where he was laying in anticipation to ambush the cattle passing by. This is where I was going to catch the big fella.

  The moment I got airborne, I was on the phone to Nick.

  ‘I’ve just seen the biggest croc of my life,’ I said. ‘We should do a story on this and everything else that I’ve been doing over the last month.’

  The timing could not have been better. Channel 7 had just launched its news magazine program, Sunday Night. It was modelled on 60 Minutes, with a commitment to in-depth coverage of a story. Nick weaved his magic and got us on the third episode. He sold it to them as a something that was right up Sunday Night’s alley. The newsworthiness of the story was obvious. One of the largest saltwater crocodiles in Australia was ripping through cattle, horses and livestock on a famous northern cattle station. It was also a story that cast a light on the broader issue of how to deal with excessive numbers of saltwater crocodiles threatening remote communities in the Top End since the ban on croc hunting.

  Channel 7 loved the idea. Within a week, Samantha Armytage was on her way up to La Belle. Sam absolutely nailed the story. The 13-minute piece perfectly captured the savage beauty of the Territory, whilst providing a glimpse of life in the Top End. And, boy, did the crocs come out to play.

  The camera crew got some great footage of me throwing a rope around the snout of a couple of gnarly fellas in a muddy bog and lifting them onto the back of a ute. The cinematography was stunning and perfectly portrayed the powerful beauty of these creatures. I also managed to trap a huge, 16-foot croc that we airlifted in a cage. The whole thing was capped off with a tense sequence shot at night in a tinny. We managed to rope a big boy into our boat. As we were preparing to haul him over the gunwales, Sam started crying. Her tears were completely valid, given the terror of the moment. It was the perfect storm for telly, although not much fun for Sam.

  The story was as much a profile piece on me as anything else. The producer played me up as a kind of modern cowboy and homed in on the fact that I was single. On camera, I told the producer what I felt at the time about relationships: that they slow you down. I was totally committed to the work and had conservation goals and dreams. That for me was what it was all about.

  I couldn’t have been happier with how the whole thing went. There was only one problem. The massive croc never showed up. Some of the boys thought that we had actually caught the croc and that the size of the fella that ripped apart that 14-footer was not as big as we had imagined. But my instincts told me that he was still out there. Before Sam and the Channel 7 crew left, I moved the trap and reset it around the tree he had been lying under. When we returned the next day, a croc had taken the pig but didn’t set off the trap. I leapt into the pen and inspected the huge prints left in the mud. They were clearly made by an abnormally large crocodile. I suggested to the producer that they stick around for a couple more days. He told me he had run out of time. Besides, they already had more than enough. It was frustrating. But there was nothing that could be done.

  Channel 7 pumped a lot of publicity in the lead-up to the show. The episode enjoyed a ratings bonanza, providing a welcome boost to the general profile of the show. I took a call from Nick shortly after the episode aired. Channel 7 was stoked. The producer had contacted him to say that if I managed to catch the big croc, they would be prepared to air a follow-up episode, provided that they didn’t have to foot the bill to shoot it.

  By that time, I was catching crocs on nearby Welltree Station. I still had the trap in place at the old spot and was quietly confident that, provided there was bait in the trap, I would catch him. While working at Welltree, I regularly flew over the trap to throw a pig in. I left the trap unset so the crocs could come and go as they pleased. The best thing was that the big croc was also going in there and getting comfortable with the trap.

  I set a few days aside and got on the phone to Mark Priest who flew up to help film me the action. The moment Mark was on the plane heading north, I hunted the biggest pig I could find. Once I’d bagged a big old boar, I rebaited and set the trap. As I was making noise and setting up the trap, I could see the big croc lurking outside the gate, watching my every move. I made sure I did everything with razor-sharp precision. Once I was satisfied the panels were secure and the trigger mechanism on the door was working, I flew back to Darwin to collect Mark.

  I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I had a feeling the big fella was already in the trap. I wanted to get out there and have a look. It took an eternity for the sun to come up. At the first hint of light on the horizon, we were off flying out to the lagoon. I was bursting with excitement.

  I kept high as I approached the nest. I didn’t want to get too close in case I spooked him and he smashed apart the trap. I could see that something had stirred up the water inside the trap. I could also see a big tail sticking out. There was definitely a crocodile inside the trap. But the question remained – did we have the right one?

  I landed the chopper and we made our way to the trap. As we approached, the big croc went nuts. It was definitely the croc we were after. He looked more like a dinosaur. He took a lunge for the panels and managed to get his front legs over the top rail, which was about six feet high. One more kick and he was over and out. Without thinking, I took off towards him and got underneath his chest. I pushed him up and to the side, making sure my head and arms where out of the reach of his jaws. He slid sideways and down the panels. He gathered up his energy and had a go at the gate. He rammed the gate with such force, that it bent the whole trap out of shape. I raced back to the chopper to get a few more panels and ropes to reinforce the trap. I wasn’t letting him get away this time.

  I made a few phone calls to get trucks, vehicles, ropes and manpower. Nick Robertson, a very experienced croc catcher based in Darwin, came out to sedate him. Nick and I managed to get a rope around his snout without too much trouble. After gaffer-taping his mouth shut and covering his eyes with a blindfold, four of us pulled him out of the pen. We got him to the edge of the riverbank. The tricky part now was getting him across the river. There was no way we would be able to lift him onto the tinny. Weighing in close to a tonne, the animal’s weight would probably capsize the boat. So I came up with a solution.

  I tied the rope that was around his snout to the cargo hook of one of the choppers. With the help of the chopper, we managed to lay the front third of his body over the stern of the boat. With the back two thirds of his body dragging behind the tinny, we got him across the river to the tilt-tray truck waiting on the other side. From there, we took him back to the Crocodile Park in Darwin. We got out the measuring tape. His length was 18 feet, three inches. This was my biggest croc yet and one of the biggest ever captured.

  Mark and I edited up the footage and sent it to Channel 7. Two weeks later I was on a plane to Sydney. We did a live show in front of a studio audience. I was sat on a couch fielding questions from hosts Chris Bath and Mike Munro. We started off with a series of clips of me gaffer-taping the snout of the croc before airlifting the croc’s head onto the back of the tinny. Then a producer came out with a measuring tape to indicate the incredible size of the animal.

  After a commercial break, Sam Armytage joined us on the couch and discussed her experience reporting on me up at La Belle. The context provided by Sam, coupled with my footage and our live audience discussion told a good story. But then came the questions about girlfriends. It was becoming clear that my relationship status was going to come under scrutiny, which was uncomfortable for me. At that time I was 12 months into my first serious relationship and was trying to make a go of it, but the media attention didn’t make it easy. The advice from PR people was that it didn’t hurt being single. In fact, in all of my interactions with media to this day the question of whether I’m a bachelor or not is always a point of discussion. I was with my girlfriend Ge
mma for about four years; she is a beautiful, kind-hearted woman who supported me through a lot. Unfortunately, with the pressures of the media and work commitments, our relationship deteriorated and things came to an end between us. I find the attention on my relationship status very embarrassing and bizarre. Anyway, it’s something I take with a pinch of salt and have a laugh about nowadays.

  Another point raised during the Sunday Night show was around people drawing comparisons between me and Steve Irwin. Steve’s conservation work is second to none. There are so many people who continue to be inspired by Steve, myself included. There are a few people who have done more for conservation in this country than Steve. I have nothing but respect for him. To be mentioned in the same sentence as him is a huge compliment. After all, Steve’s life was dedicated to the same goal I am driving towards – raising awareness about animals in the wild and the dangers they face in the modern world. But I certainly don’t aspire to be the next Steve Irwin. In my view, comparing me to Steve detracts from his legacy. So when I was asked whether I saw myself as the next Steve Irwin, I answered, ‘Irwin was one of a kind. He did remarkable things for the country and for conservation.’

  Following on from this, Chris Bath asked about the other areas I work in aside from crocodiles. It was an opportunity to spell out the sort of show that Nick and I were interested in creating. Yes, it was going to involve crocodiles. You can’t do a show set in the Top End that doesn’t include crocs. But there was also going to be stories covering the plight of wild brumbies, bull catching on cattle stations and the life of mustering pilots.

  I couldn’t have been happier with how everything went. It seemed to hit the mark. Sure enough, the next day, Nick’s phone started ringing. Discovery Channel and National Geographic were lining up to make a show with us. Nick and I talked things over and decided to go with Discovery. It was an exciting time. This was the culmination of five years’ work. The dream was about to become a reality. I was about to learn a hard lesson about how television works.

  * * *

  It all seemed so good at the start. A producer from Discovery touched down in Darwin, absolutely bursting with enthusiasm. She was genuinely excited about filming in the Territory and the potential of the new show.

  ‘This is going to be huge!’ she said in her strong American accent.

  Her vision for the show was all about crocs. That was to be expected. The footage of me pulling the 18-foot monster out of the pen at La Belle had gone viral on the internet. This was what the audiences wanted. I told her that I hoped the show would be more than just catching crocodiles. She assured me that it would. But there is, she explained, a global fascination with these animals. The primary focus of the show initially had to be on crocs.

  ‘We want to see you pull a croc out of a swamp,’ she said.

  ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I can ring around and find out if there are any crocs that have been humbugging station owners.’

  ‘I was hoping we could go to this place,’ she said.

  She handed me an online news article. The moment I saw the headline, alarm bells started ringing. It read, ‘Croc kills Briony Goodsell in Black Jungle Swamp, Northern Territory’.

  Briony was an 11-year-old taken by a croc at Lambells Lagoon near Black Jungle, about an hour’s drive east of Darwin. Given the lagoon’s distance from the coast, it was generally regarded as a safe place to swim and was a popular spot for locals. Briony got permission from her mum to take her younger sister down for a splash about in a swollen creek. Her mum had no reason not to let her go. Briony was a sensible girl who had swum in that creek hundreds of times before. Before she left, Briony’s mum told her daughter to keep in the shallows.

  The eldest of three kids, Briony jumped in. Her sister, Bethany, witnessed her resurface with a distressed look on her face. A friend heard her call out for help before she disappeared. She was never seen alive again. Other witnesses said that they saw a crocodile’s tail slap the surface just after Briony went under. The cops called off the search later that day when Briony’s remains were found washed up 450 metres downstream from where the attack took place. The coroner concluded that a 14-foot saltwater crocodile killed Briony. But the animal was never found.

  ‘I want you to catch this croc,’ she said.

  ‘Not interested,’ I said, without hesitation.

  It was a slightly tense moment. The producer reminded me that she had creative control of the show. I didn’t care. Under no circumstances was I going to profit from a family’s tragedy.

  ‘But isn’t this a big reason why you capture crocs?’ she asked. ‘To protect the local community?’

  I couldn’t argue with her point. The producer then told me she wanted me to interview Briony’s mother, Charlene. She believed that it was the most powerful way of drawing attention to the dangers that crocodiles posed to people that lived in the Territory. I agreed on two conditions. Firstly, Charlene had to agree to the interview. Secondly, I had the final say as to how the show was put together. The producer agreed. In light of her earlier wishes of creative control, I was pleasantly surprised.

  I rang Charlene. It was one of the toughest calls I’ve ever made. It turned out that Charlene was more than happy to be interviewed. She was in the middle of a croc-management campaign to kill or remove all crocodiles within a 50-kilometre radius of Darwin. This would be a welcome opportunity to raise awareness.

  We drove out to Charlene’s place the next day to conduct the interview. The producer was fantastic during the interview. She was very in tune and sensitive, adding words of support during the interview. Charlene was incredible. She had a lot of dignity in the face of her tragedy. I didn’t ask tough questions, I just let Charlene speak. After about an hour, we wrapped things up and were happy with how the interview went.

  Now it was time to catch a croc. There was no point returning to Black Jungle. The police had trawled the area and turned up nothing. The crocodile would be long gone. I told the producer that we could be out there for months and never find a crocodile so we headed back to La Belle to pull out another big croc. I brought along Jimmy, my old mate from my days out at Moroak. Jimmy had as much crocodile experience as anyone. He was someone I had worked with for years and trusted with my life. He also brought a bit of character to the production.

  Jimmy and I pulled out a 14-footer from a creek. It wasn’t as big as the croc that we caught for Sunday Night. But it was feisty. We roped a few crocs in a bog and pulled them onto a ute. It all came up well. The footage was sure to make a great promo reel. The producer took everything back to the States and knocked it together. A couple of weeks later, the director of the production company sent the first edit in an email. The subject line of the email read, ‘THIS IS FANTASTIC!’ I hit the link and started watching. Within seconds I was fuming.

  The music was this doomsday crap that was completely wrong. It cut to a series of made-up newspaper articles with headlines describing crocs eating children alive on the streets of Darwin. Then we cut to an over-the-top voiceover.

  ‘Kids of Australia are getting eaten by crocodiles,’ a voice bellowed. ‘Matt and Jimmy are here to save the day!’

  The worst was the interview with Charlene. Every reference to the croc-management program was edited out. It seemed to me that the whole thing had been reduced to a couple of cobbled-together quotes about how much she missed Briony. I felt it was shameful. There was no way my name was being attached to this show, not unless the whole thing was recut. I got on the phone to the producer.

  ‘Hey, Matt,’ she said. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I’ll be honest,’ I said. ‘It’s not what I had in mind at all. I think we’ve got a lot of work to do.’

  I started off telling her about my disappointment with the interview with Charlene.

  ‘I agree,’ she said, with distress in her voice.

  She then began opening up about the pressure she’d received on her arrival back to the States from her managers wanting to create a
sensationalist piece.

  ‘I am so sorry,’ she said. ‘I did not want this to be the end result. It doesn’t do you or Charlene any justice.’

  I felt sorry for the girl and knew it was out of her hands. I hung up the phone and called the director. I told her to can it straight away. She said she couldn’t, that I was tied to a contract and didn’t have a choice in the matter. I went silent, contemplating my response.

  ‘Yes, I do,’ I said. ‘I’m out and want nothing to do with you.’

  I hung up and that was the end of my short time with Discovery.

  I understand that television is a commercial business. You have to produce shows that people want to watch. But I wasn’t willing to sell out for the sake of a show I thought was crap. Besides, there is so much real excitement, beauty and danger in the Top End, there isn’t any need at all to manipulate the facts. This show for me was about showing the world what happens on a daily basis in this place, not to spin shit for the sake of ratings. The phone call from Nick came about half an hour later.

  ‘What happened?’ he said.

  ‘Sorry, mate, but I’m out.’

  ‘Why?’

  I listed all the issues I had with the program.

  ‘You can’t give up now,’ he said.

  ‘Fucking oath I can.’

  ‘But we’ve worked too hard—’

  ‘Nick,’ I said, ‘I’m not jeopardising my reputation, my friends, my family, my colleagues just to make bullshit American television.’

  I don’t know how Nick did it, but the Discovery contract was torn up without any ramifications. I was pretty deflated there for a while and felt bad for Nick. He had invested a lot of time to make the show a reality. There were other people, too – mates who had given up their time to hold a camera or show me how to edit a film or helped in some other way to make the dream come true. I felt like I was letting them down. But if this was what it meant it be on television, I wasn’t going to be a part of it.