JUNGLE JUICE: How many crocs is a load of croc?

My brother Cranberry from Down South said "I can't believe the sponsors of your AFL team let them be called the Crocs. Isn't that bad for tourism?"

The Oak Beach croc Miss Vanessa didn't appear to be too good for tourism - her behaviour on September 7 placed her under the wary gaze of the wildlife department, and she was duly extracted from the water last Sunday and shipped off in a big steel cage to destinations unknown.

A few of the AFL crocs were also nursing sore heads on Sunday after the club won two flags the day before, but that's a different story.

With a million-dollar expansion of Hartleys on the way, hopefully Miss V ends up there, rather than as a handbag on a French catwalk.

But, the million-dollar questions around these parts still remain: Is increased awareness of our huge prehistoric reptilian mud geckos good or bad for tourism? Do our genteel FNQ tourists really need to know they are surrounded by them?

I certainly won't be fetching my ball when it skews out to the right and into the drink on the 10th hole at Palmers, that's for sure.

But, judging by the ever-present crowds on the Mowbray River Bridge, and on the Daintree River croc boats, isn't it about time we took our crocs out of the closet and put their names up in lights?

This is certainly what some of the more adventurous tour operators have told Jungle Juice over a quiet Black Fish up the Tav and PO.

But many others are notoriously jumpy when their hard-earned is on the line, and are not ready just yet for a giant billboard of King Mo the Third or Bung Eye looming over a Sydney freeway, or painted on the side of a Collingwood-bound tram.