By Peter Vincent For Daily Mail Australia
08:49 13 Jun 2023, updated 08:49 13 Jun 2023
- Croc-infested Cahills Crossing has reopened
- It is known as Australia’s deadliest river crossing
- Utes spotted struggling through high water
Fresh warnings have been issued about attempting Australia’s most dangerous river crossing amid claims at least one car is lost in its crocodile-infested waters every month.
Heart-stopping footage was shared online of a ute narrowly avoiding being swept away into the East Alligator River at infamous Cahills Crossing, in the Northern Territory.
In the clip, onlookers gasp as the vehicle dips and slides its way across the submerged 70-metre concrete bridge, which links Arnhem Land to the Kakadu National Park.
The crossing, which has recently re-opened after the wet season, is notoriously home to hundreds of saltwater crocodiles, some up to five metres long.
‘Very close to getting washed off, the dip in the road 15m from the Kakadu side entry almost got him,’ said local tourism operator Andy Ralph, whose video of the ute appeared in the NT News.
According to local tourism operators and workers at least one car a month is washed away attempting the crossing, putting the drivers’ lives in danger almost every time.
Boe Vella, civil construction worker who uses the crossing several times a month, said ‘the worst time is now’, with flood waters moving downstream and because the crossing is damaged with a hole in the bridge.
He claimed that at least a dozen vehicles a year were swept away there.
Mr Vella also said he’d seen locals take extreme measures to deal with crocs taking too much interest in swamped vehicles.
‘I’ve seen a man standing guard with a gun looking for crocs while local rangers try pull the cars out,’ Mr Vella said.
He claimed to have personally seen a caravan, a truck, and a police car stranded in East Alligator River.
Miraculously for such a high risk location it is understood only five people have died there since it opened in the 1960s and only two in recent memory, including one man who tried to cross on foot in 2017.
In 1987 fisherman Kerry McLoughlin, 40, was decapitated by a crocodile while wading in the river.
Last year July concerns were raised another fatal attack was inevitable when between 100 and 200 tourists meandered up to the edges of the river bank, ignoring warning signs.
Kakadu National Park’s officially condemned the dangerous behaviour and said the tourists were ‘risking the chance of being eaten’.
‘Saltwater crocodiles are dangerous animals and have attacked and killed people at Cahills Crossing. It is not safe to stand at the water’s edge.
The man-eaters gather around the causeway to feed on mullet and barramundi as the tide pushes over the road.
But some believe the crocs, which are highly intelligent and sophisticated hunters that work in teams, have learned to wait for vehicles and even impede their progress deliberately.
In September 2019 a tourist was left in a terrifying situation after their car became surrounded by more than 30 saltwater crocodiles.
The peak season for croc sightings – and the biggest threat of being eaten alive – is when the crossing is open, from July until the start of the wet season, when it is fully underwater.
As if driving through isn’t dangerous enough, many people walk the crossing out of ignorance.
In 2019 a Coffs Harbour woman, Lauren French, was photographed casually sitting in the river with her back turned towards it.
Ms French saw the warning signs but later admitted she didn’t realise their significance.
‘Everyone keeps saying ‘didn’t you see the signs?’ Yes [I did] but everywhere has signs up here,’ she said.
On TikTok, another woman admitted her mum naively waded into the river.
‘My mum walked through that to take a photo of our car driving through, she didn’t know about the crocs till after,’ said one young woman on social media.
‘To walk across the crossing is just foolishness,’ says advice on dangerousroads.org.
Daily Mail Australia approached Parks Australia for comment.