Man rescued after 3 days with crocodiles
2012-03-23 12:03
Sydney - An Australian man has been rescued after a three-day ordeal where he was trapped at a remote flooded fishing hut and was stalked by 4m long crocodiles, a report said on Friday.
Terry Donovan, aged 65, was at the Staaten River Fishing and Wilderness Lodge in crocodile-infested northern Queensland when he became isolated this week, the Cairns Post said.
He told the newspaper he saw huge saltwater crocs lurking in the waters, with one lunging at a wallaby sheltering on the hut's back deck.
Rising water
Donovan said he was afraid that if the water rose much higher, one of the beasts could swim in and attack him.
"The first one I saw was sitting out the back on the veranda in about a foot of water, maybe a bit more," he said.
"I thought to myself, 'Well, there's a warning, there's a crocodile there. Where there's one, there's probably two or three or more'."
Donovan said a second crocodile placed itself underneath the house, after he spotted it through a window.
Highest place he could find
The report said he positioned himself in the highest place he could find, taking refuge on a billiard table which he packed with supplies.
"[The water] just kept going up and up and up, and it was just an inch or so above the nets where the balls are collected by the billiard table," he said.
"And I thought, 'Well, the next step is the roof, I'm out of here'."
Donovan was eventually spotted by a passing helicopter which had gone to check on him after he failed to answer his satellite phone. Officials then alerted local fishermen who rescued him.
Saltwater crocodiles are a common feature of Australia's tropical north and kill an average of two people a year.
- SAPA
