Crocodile campaigner and Daintree River tour operator David White says he “feels very positive” following a public meeting held in Cairns last week to discuss a possible new State Parliament bill designed to further control croc numbers.

Mr White, who was invited to speak on behalf of First Nations people at the Thursday, May 8, meeting, said he “even got to sneak in some of his own thoughts”.

“(The parliamentary committee) are not accepting of trophy hunting at all and they asked for more thoughts from the croc’s perspective,” Mr White stated after the meeting.

Part of the draft Crocodile Control and Conservation Bill, introduced earlier this year by Katter’s Australian Party MP Shane Knuth for the bill’s fifth iteration, pushes for the ability for hunters to shoot crocodiles as part of a new trophy-hunting tourism industry similar to that of Africa.

In a state parliamentary submission to the inquiry into the draft bill, Mr White made an impassioned plea to back scientific evidence, which he said showed that complacency is the most dangerous aspect when it comes to crocodile attacks.

“In countries with far less crocs than we have, they suffer more attacks,” Mr White stated in his submission. 

“The bill proposes that the way to save human lives is through killing crocs. 

“But this is not based on scientific evidence,” he said. 

“In fact, it has been shown that the killing of crocs will make the waters more dangerous by increasing complacency.”

But Mr White’s views have been challenged by some heavyweight organisations in the more than 170 public submissions made to the inquiry, including the Queensland Local Government Association, Whitsunday Regional Council, Cape Tribulation tour operator Safari Lodge and Ocean Safari and the Whitsunday Charter Boat Industry Association.

“We have been operating at Cape Tribulation since 2008 and did not see crocodiles on the beaches until 2012,” the Safari Lodge submission stated. 

“Since then, the population has grown incredibly, with daily sightings of large crocodiles on the beach and swimming along the shoreline.”

Those submissions supporting the bill were concerned crocodiles were spreading into more waterways further south and were now affecting multimillion-dollar industries such as diving, fishing and farming.

President of the Rockhampton Water Ski Club Peter Darby said recreational use of the Fitzroy River had decreased as crocodile numbers and sightings had increased - an issue which has become more scrutinised with the venue set to host the 2032 Olympics rowing.

And Whitsundays tourism operator Ocean Rafting made its own submission.