2009-01-19

Aboriginal Wishes Disregarded Again By White Australia


There is anger on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria over the recent killing of a 2.2-metre crocodile.

Gulf Aboriginal leader Murrandoo Yanner says he and other traditional elders want to know why authorities moved so quickly to kill the reptile which had moved into a creek near the community. 

The croc was captured in a trap over the weekend and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave police permission to shoot it. 

Mr Yanner says that is a poor reason, and elders are seeking legal advice. 

"There was a plan by the community rangers to trap those crocodiles, relocate them into our country on the mainland," he said. 

"Instead the police have taken it upon themselves to kill and hide in the scrub a protected species, an endangered species in Queensland."

But the EPA's Michael Devery says the croc was killed because there were no holding facilities or trained staff on the island to manage a captured reptile.

"An animal that goes out of the wild would go to a crocodile farm or somewhere like a zoo, but in these remote locations it's sometimes very difficult to actually do that," he said.

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