M
any people will know of George Craig as
the owner of Cassius, at present the
largest captive Saltwater Crocodile in the world.
Thousands have witnessed George feeding Cassius at
his Marineland Melanesia display at Green Island, off
the coast from Cairns, Far North Queensland. I doubt
that the majority of them were aware that they were
watching a legendary figure in his chosen field; a man
who has lived an unbelievably dangerous and exciting
life, the like of which we will not see again.
I had read of George Craig in several books about
crocodiles and the lives of the old-time crocodile
hunters and bushmen in northern Australia and New
Guinea. I had seen photos of him in his younger days
as a crocodile hunter and, of course, was aware of the
three largest crocodiles he had owned; Oscar, Gomek
and Cassius. One day, Kathy had come home with a
book left in the waiting room library of the train
station where she works and said, “I thought you
might like this.”
Little did she realise that the book, entitled ‘To Catch a
Crocodile’ and written by Peter Pinney, was the story
of several months that the author spent with George
in Papua New Guinea during George’s days as a croco-
dile hunter. I read it cover to cover that first day and it
only fuelled my desire to meet the man. However,
although I did speak with George on the telephone
some years ago, I had never met him in person. The
opportunity to do so arose when I travelled to Cairns
for a series of interviews with well-known herpetolo-
gists.
My close mate and business partner, Nick Stevens,
who was one of the people I interviewed, contacted
Green Island to try to arrange a meeting with George.
I must admit that I was not confident that this attempt
would be successful, as George is now well into his
eighties and I would have quite understood if he did
not feel like talking to us. Nick spoke to George’s
grandson Billy who assured him that we would be
able to meet George, and so, accompanied by Nick and
his partner Heather and Michael Cermak, I headed out
to Green Island. I’d like to state straight away that if I
had known just how fascinating it would be to spend
time with George, I would have been delighted to
spend several days on the island! I considered it a
privilege to be in the company of one of the most
impressive men I will ever meet. When we left that
afternoon, I had the sense of having just skimmed the
surface of a truly fascinating life, and both Michael
and Nick said to me, “Nev, you must come back and
spend more time with that man - he has such an
incredible story to tell.”
My thoughts exactly. I think the fact that Michael, Nick
and I had all had hands-on experience with crocs
helped to break down any hesitation George might
have had in giving us his time and contributed to the
enthusiasm that was evident when we conversed.
Upon our arrival at the island we were greeted by
Billy, who informed us that George was having a nap.
Sadly, Shirley, Georges’ wife, suffers from dementia
and George spends much of his time these days caring
for her. I told Billy that we would completely under-
stand if the interview could not go ahead, but he
assured us, “He’s a tough old bugger, he’ll come out to
see you.”
Billy was a charming host and took a great deal of
time to show us around the displays of New Guinea
carvings and artefacts that George has amassed
during his lifetime. These include native carvings of a
quality that would cause any museum curator to drool
with jealousy, and some of the largest and most
impressive croc skulls I have ever seen.
Of course, we were all keen to see Cassius, who
George quite believably is convinced is the real
‘Sweetheart’ - the giant crocodile that became a
legend due to its many attacks on boats in the Sweets
Lagoon area of the Finniss River years ago.
Previous page: George
has amassed a most
impressive display of croc
skulls and artefacts from
New Guinea.
Left: we never expected
to be able to be able to
venture into Cassius’
enclosure.
Right: ‘The largest croco-
dile I have ever seen in
the flesh.’
All images by Michael
Cermak.