Croc Express crew staying strong in the face of flood damage
Our People
Their boat worth about $400,000 was swept out to sea, and they’ve faced three floods this month, but the blokes from Crocodile Express are determined to keep smiling.
The crew at the Daintree Village cafe and tour business were preparing for a third Daintree River flood in 15 days as Tropical Cyclone Narelle bore down on the coast near Coen last Friday - but they were taking it all in their stride.
Owner Dean Clapp said most of the Croc Express boats were already lifted out of the water for the cyclone, except for the one carrying passengers across the river after the ferry broke down in the first flood a fortnight before.
“Not much we can do, the water comes up,” Mr Clapp said.
“The other day, in 12 hours, I had 500mm of rain in here.
“When you get that much bloody rainfall in the hills here, the water’s going to come up very fast and very high.”
He said sometimes you are just in the “lap of the gods” and you can’t prepare for everything.
“If you wanna live here you’ve got to accept it,” he said.
“I don’t go around saying ‘poor bugger me’.
“You make a choice to live in an area and, if it doesn’t work out, go somewhere else.
“There are things that come along to try us out, and this is the perfect place to do it.
“It’s paradise most of the time, but by geez it can come and kick you in the balls if you don’t watch it.”
Last weekend the Daintree flooded for the third time in 15 days, marketing manager Vincent O’Flaherty said. Many have generators, which helped when the power was out for about four days after the first flood, but the biggest long-term concern was if a bridge or road got washed away.
Mr O’Flaherty said it was just him and another local in the Daintree Village Hotel on a Thursday night three weeks ago when the river rose up, eventually washing away a wharf, putting the ferry out of action, and washing their croc-tour boat Jungle King - valued at about $400,000 - to a Cairns reef.
The boat was upside down and lost its roof in the incident.
“(We were) looking at turtles instead of crocodiles,” Mr O’Flaherty joked.
“Made its way all down around Lowe Isles, around Batt Reef and worked its way down to Cairns outer reefs.”
Luckily insurance is paying for the damage.
But the biggest issue remains the absent ferry, with Douglas Shire Council racing the clock to have it fixed before the busy Easter weekend.
Shire residents and businesses on both sides of the river are desperately hoping that deadline is met.
