Krys the Croc Normanton
2019
Chairman of NQLIRA The Hon Shane L Stone AC QC in the Gulf Country. One of the most recognisable landmarks in Normanton, the Gulf, North Queensland is Krys the Savannah King. This replica monument is allegedly scaled to the true size of a giant 8.6m estuarine (saltwater) crocodile, which would make him one of the largest ever captured in the world. Krys was shot on MacArthur Bank, Norman River in July 1957. The crocodile has been nicknamed ‘Krys’ after Krystina Pawlowski, the famous Polish crocodile hunter of the Gulf region. She ended up regretting the kill and transformed her life’s work from ‘hunter’ to ‘conservationist’ with her husband Ron. They later ran a crocodile conservation park in Queensland. By 1956, Ron and Krys had built the country’s first experimental crocodile farm, situated in Karumba. They were breeding animals from eggs found in the wild and studying their feeding habits. Their aim was to show that with good management and crocodile conservation farms, the species could be preserved.
- Document type: Photo
- Time period: Australian Public Service
- People: Jack BOWDEN, Krystina PAWLOWSKI, Ron PAWLOWSKI
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