George ( smiling ): I was once I got the rope on him !
This was said in such a matter-of-fact manner that one would have thought it was a perfectly natural thing to do . George didn ’ t elaborate , but I was under the impression that the croc had been shot . A little later research revealed that this animal had eaten a native woman , and in attempting to harpoon it , George ’ s boat was almost overturned . Fortunately , in the moment that those in the boat lost their footing , a desperate splitsecond throw of a harpoon struck home . The croc went to the bottom , and George and his crew sat for almost two hours , gently tugging on the harpoon line until George was pretty well convinced that the reptile had to be dead . He then jumped into the water and followed the line down until he encountered the croc ’ s head . By sheer fluke , the harpoon had entered the mouth and prevented the palatal valve from closing , causing the croc to drown . George then enthusiastically showed us many old photos of those early days , including his wedding pictures .
George : I was born in Peru and Dad sent me to England to be educated . After I ’ d been through 11 schools I realised they were interfering with my life and gave them a miss . I was a good swimmer so I joined a troupe of guys in London who were providing entertainment with fancy diving and aquabatics . Johnny Weissmuller , famous for portraying Tarzan , was part of it . The first time I tried an underwater escape from a bag with my hands tied I twisted my hands the wrong way and the rope didn ’ t move . Luckily , I realised and twisted the right way or I would have been in trouble . I then saw an article about croc hunting in Australia and thought that was for me .
Neville ’ s note : George arrived in Melbourne in 1951 , where he stumbled upon a meeting of the Australian Crocodile Shooters Club and met such famous croc hunters as Lloyd Grigg and Vince Vlassof . I myself met Vince one night at Stan Stirling ’ s home , but I was only seventeen and didn ’ t realise who and what he was .
George : I hitchhiked to Gladstone in Queensland and ended up on a yacht about to sail to South Australia . What a hell of a trip that was , with an inexperienced skipper , no radio and no compass . It took 74 days to reach Port Adelaide and after one full night of sailing we were still in the same spot next morning . We got into a huge storm and were lost for ten days . How we never drowned I don ’ t know ! Then I bought a . 303 rifle and hooked up with two other guys to travel through central Australia to the Northern Territory to go croc hunting . We were joined by another foreign guy , a big ugly bloke whom I didn ’ t take to at all . He kept looking at my rifle but I wouldn ’ t let him near it . We got thrown off the train at Marree and decided to hide in the sand dunes and jump the next train when it slowed down . When we ran out of the dunes towards the train there must have been more than a dozen other drifters with the same idea and there was a bloke on the back of the train with a club belting at them to keep them off .
Neville : So you never got on that train ?
George : No , we ended up walking most of the way and it took us a month . We lived mainly on black cockatoos , although we did manage to shoot one bullock . The big guy I didn ’ t like did the cooking that evening and when one of the guys made a joke about it he spat the dummy and threw all the food on the sand . Things got heated then and knives were pulled . We stayed sitting up all night watching each other . I was glad to see the last of him . In Darwin I worked at various jobs including blowing up unexploded bombs on the Darwin mud flats and shooting crocs on weekends . I knew all the old hunters , such as Tom Cole . I became a professional croc hunter and in 1956 headed to New Guinea .
Neville ’ s note : Tom Cole is the author of ‘ Hell West and Crooked ’, his autobiography of a life that saw him at various times working as a croc hunter , drover , stockman , horse breaker , buffalo hunter and many other jobs . He also wrote ‘ Crocodiles and Other Characters ’.
Unfortunately , at this point , the boat back to Cairns was leaving and I had to cut short my time with George . This interview serves only as a small insight into his amazing life , as he spent many years in New Guinea , owned several boats and associated with some very colourful characters . I can only hope to revisit him at some stage , to discover more of his amazing story .
Top left : George enthusiastically showed us many old photos .
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