Forget Africa – some of the wildest wildlife is in our own backyard

Keen to see the Big Five on safari? That’ll be a 15-hour flight to Johannesburg, then some transfers, then some early starts and some bumpy four-wheel-drive rides.

Want to see a host of wildlife, including a century-old five-metre crocodile basking on the banks of a billabong? That’ll take a 90-minute drive from Darwin and $75 for the tour.

It’s mid-morning and our guide, Stuart, has got us in the boat and is giving us the safety briefing for our Corroboree Billabong cruise. Dragging limbs in the water? Not advised, unless you want to come home without one.

Stuart is a master of croc facts and dad jokes – “if we all go in the water, you don’t need to swim faster than a crocodile, just faster than the slowest swimmer”. It’s a little bit Darwinian, up here near Darwin.

Corroboree Billabong is part of the Mary River Wetlands, which is said to contain the largest concentration of saltwater crocodiles on earth.

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It’s August now, so the high waters of the wet season have drained off the flood plains, luring the birds to the billabong for all the food to be found hereabouts.

We set off in the safari boat and an azure kingfisher darts past in a flash of colour. And over there, on the other side of a flotilla of lotus leaves, big as flying saucers, a flock of whistling ducks is nestled nervously in the shade of a tree, a three-metre crocodile nearby waiting like a statue for the ambush.

“They’re an energy-efficient predator,” Stuart tells us. “They won’t move until they need to, but when they do move, they can strike in a split second.”

A little further along there’s an Indonesian water buffalo, with its huge coat hanger horns, grazing on the banks of the billabong. There’s another croc eyeing it off from the shelter of some trees. The buffalo is the size of a small truck and it stomps towards the croc, which makes a reptilian escape, slithering quietly away into the water.

If it was no match for the buffalo, “Errol” probably would be. Who is Errol? He’s sunbathing when we see him, maybe 5.5 metres long, weighing 800 to 1000 kilos and potentially 100 years old.

“Why do you call him Errol?” We ask Stuart.

“Because he’s so good-looking, like the actor Errol Flynn. And also he still has all his legs and teeth.”

I’m of the view that special ops or some other sinister military outfit has devoted substantial time and resources to the study of saltwater crocodiles.

Consider their coating – each of those scaly looking bits of hide contains sensors; they have thousands of them, meaning they can feel the slightest movement, of their prey in the water, for example.

They have uncanny night vision and despite their size can move like lightning when required. If they lose teeth in a battle, they’ll simply grow some more; they can do this up to 40 times. And even without teeth, their jaws are so strong they can still crush the skull of a pig.

Another croc fun fact? They make grassy mounds for nests and the temperature of the nest will determine the sex of the hatchling – warmer for males, cooler for females.

Not everything here is out to kill you, though. We see a rufus night bird, asleep in a tree and resting for his nightly hunt. A flock of magpie geese fly off in the distance, up close is a royal spoonbill, with its filter-feeding spatula of a beak.

And high in the trees above are white-bellied sea eagles. In the southern states, they’ll claim a vast tract of air and land as their territory, but up here because their prey is so plentiful, they might only roam as far as 500 metres.

That’s life, and death, on the billabong.

THE DETAILS

TOUR
Corroboree Billabong Wetland Cruises run from mid-April to late October and vary from 90-minutes to two-and-a-half hours’ duration. Prices start at $75 for adults ($60 children, $220 family – two adults, two children). They also offer a service including lunch and a shuttle to and from Darwin, from $225 for adults.
See wetlandcruises.com.au

STAY
The complex known as the Novotel Darwin Airport Resort includes three of Accor’s hotel brands – Novotel, Ibis and Mercure – with a vast variety of rooms and rates. At the high end, the Novotel Tropical Pool Villas range from $350 (wet season) to $650 (dry season) a night. There are 17 accessible rooms. See allaccor.com

The writer was a guest of Tourism and Events NT, see northernterritory.com