‘Lovely gentle dinosaurs’: Brisbane 2032 Olympic rowing may be held in saltwater crocodile habitat

Fears dismissed by Brisbane Olympic chief, saying ‘there are sharks in the ocean and we still do surfing’

Rockhampton rowers already ‘have processes in place’ for reporting crocodile sightings, a parliamentary inquiry was told in February. Pic: MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images

After 82 years of a life devoted to saltwater crocodiles, John Lever still fondly recalls the first “saltie” he ever caught on Rockhampton’s Fitzroy River, about 500km north of Brisbane.

The year was 1982, the crocodile was a three-metre long female and she’d just eaten “a lovely labrador dog” from a market garden in the central Queensland city.