The Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park is around 18ks outside of Broome and the road out isn’t as cyclist friendly as those we are used to, very much unlike those in Noosa, so with some cloud building for the first time since we arrived we decided to hire a scooter for the day. The 50cc scooter wasn’t so powerful with the two of us onboard but it did the job even when the road train overtook us on the trip out of town.
Most of us have seen the films produced by Malcolm Douglas, Shelly has even seen him in person many year ago in the Kimberley, sadly he died in a car crash a few years back but his wildlife park is going strong here in Broome his home town. We entered through the large croc head and within seconds I jumped a mile high when I noticed a 4 meter croc just siting in front of me, he was behind a fence but I still jumped!
The main feeding was due to start in an hour but we noticed a group in the park so we caught up to them and joined in the grey parade led by George Negus. It turned out to be a private tour so we headed back for the main tour and before we knew it Shelly had a real croc in her hands, soft and smooth not al all like we expected. The tour guide dude gave us a run down on the park and crocs before he pulled out his bucket of chickens (dead, not live) to start the feeding frenzy.
Australian Salt Water Crocodile
American Alligator
The park had many crocs both fresh and salt water, one of the large pond held 34 or 35 American Alligators, not sure I was comfortable he didnt know how many they had, it was only one but that one was enough to have me looking around for number 35 on my side of the fence. The story old mate told us about the alligators was interesting, they are banned in Australia due to these yanks being able to live in the warm and cold unlike our crocs who love the warm weather like us. He told us about times when alligators had been frozen in storms where they just go to sleep for as long as required before lashing out at anything they can once they wake up pissed off and hungry or when they were washed in with Hurricane Katrina hundreds of ks and had no problem setting up home where ever they liked, these yanks are multiplying fast and becoming a real problem.
They found their way to our fine shores strapped to an americans chest who arrived in Sydney years ago, the 12 alligator ended up living in Taronga Zoo where they were bred under strict conditions, the 34 or 35 in Broome are direct descendants of the original Taronga Zoo alligators.
Press the PLAY button for our crocodile feeding video
The croc park was well worth the scooter ride to see the croc and alligator ponds and then the huge crocs they keep in separate pens, one of the largest was near 5 meters long and looked near 5 meters around his big guts, most of the big boys have found their way here as a result of relocation from populated areas, they had no choice relocate or be shot. They all had a wife some have more than one for breeding but most eat the wife or the eggs if they get grumpy and hungry. Crocodiles can live for 100 years and unlike us grow every year, they don’t grow in length for the full life but in later years grow out just like us.
Press the PLAY button for a Shelly video
Press the PLAY button for a Malcolm Douglas video
CameronCorner 
Scary critters ay