Two crocs found in suburbs

21 February 2009
Northern Territory News/Sunday Territorian

BRISBANE: Two crocodiles have unexpectedly shown up in two southeast Queensland cities -- one less than 100km away from the NSW border.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has criticised the dumping of a freshwater crocodile in a suburb south of Brisbane, 1300km south of its natural environment. EPA officers responded to a call on the EPA Crocodile Sighting Hotline yesterday. EPA Wildlife Branch director Nick Rigby said a 1.6m adult freshwater crocodile was captured at Greenbank.

"The appearance of the animal strongly indicates that it has been held in captivity, which means that it has either been deliberately dumped or escaped from captivity," he said. A half-metre crocodile was also found in Bundaberg on Thursday.