Michael Warren

Journalist

A crocodile sighting led local life saving operatives to put up the ‘beach closed’, no swimming sign on iconic four mile beach yesterday afternoon.

It’s understood the sighting occurred around 1pm which caused the beach to remain closed for the remainder of the day.

Witnesses told Newsport the beach closed sign remained in place this morning. It’s unclear what time the beach will officially re-open today.

Newsport reached out to Port Douglas Surf life saving club and other local representatives for further comment however a number of regular spokespersons weren’t able to comment because of unavailability or public holiday reasons.

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UPDATE 2.21PM, 21/7

Further points of interest

* A member of the public alerted lifeguards after seeing a crocodile that was visible from Four Mile beach on Thursday afternoon.

* Shortly afterwards the beach was closed as the crocodile was then seen 15-20 metres from the shore. A North QLD lifeguard representative told Newsport the crocodile then hovered for an extended period of time near the flagged swimming area at the beach.

*At that point no member of the public was at risk because the beach had already been closed for swimming 30 minutes prior to this.

* The beach remained closed for the rest of the afternoon. 

*After an inspection, the beach re-opened this morning around 9.30am.

* The North Queensland lifeguard supervisor told Newsport the crocodile was approximately one metre in size and that it "was highly unusual for crocodiles to be spotted around the beach at this time of the year".