THE Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) is putting its current CrocWise education campaign under the microscope in the Douglas Shire, saying ‘mixed messages’ were coming from tourism operators north of the Daintree River.

EHP Operations Manager of Wildlife Management Unit, Michael Joyce, said they were concerned about the differing views surrounding crocodile safety.

The Queensland Government today announced it was ‘comparing notes’ with experts from the Northern Territory about new approaches to crocodile safety. It comes after two tourism operators in Cape Tribulation have taken their boats and kayaks out of the water based on the threat of large crocodiles.

“We’ve got some different viewpoints going on (up) there (Daintree) and it’s an area that we need to fix,” Joyce said.

“It’s an area we would like to work quite hard at to get the messages right. We know that the previous CrocWise messages through all the information we have, we’re we say to people no, no, no, no, no, we get a different message.

“And people in this day and age don’t like that. It worked 30 years ago, but it doesn’t work today.”

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Joyce, in a presentation to around 80 community members in Port Douglas last week, used examples of information currently on tourist websites north of the river, pointing out that some were saying it was safe to swim at beaches in Cape Tribulation.

“Is it safe to swim at the beach? The answer is yes,” one of the websites said. “Outside box jellyfish season. National Parks has started placing some crocodile warning signs by the beaches, personally I think this is nonsense as it is not part of crocodile behaviour to attack on a beach.”

Another said “I would’t say it’s safe to go to the beaches for swimming. The only beach you can really swim at is Cow Bay beach, that’s the only one where the locals swim.”

Cow Bay is south of Thornton’s Beach, where 47-year-old Cindy Waldron was taken by a 4.3m crocodile earlier this year. Locals and tourists are often seen swimming at the beach during the daylight hours.

However, most business operators at the public meeting disagreed with the EHP. Darryl Tenni, from Pinnacle Village Caravan Park at Wonga Beach, said proactive management on beaches north of the Daintree was needed and criticised EHP for not taking people seriously.

He said he reported a 4m crocodile to the EHP that was cruising up-and-down the coastline, close to where kids were fishing, during school holidays but nothing happened.

Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles said it was time the crocodile awareness and safety program in Queensland was ‘refreshed’. The ‘CrocWise’ campaign was an Australia first when it was introduced in 2002.

Miles said their were elements of the Northern Territory’s Be Crosswise campaign, such as messages targeting recreational boat user safety, that could be adopted in Far North Queensland.

“The Territory has many more crocodiles than we do and, while some of their public education strategies would not be suitable in a Queensland context, we are very interested in hearing about what they have found works when communicating with targeted groups, as well as what does not,” Miles said.

The EHP is yet to give a position on whether it would review their policy on removing crocodiles, which continues to be constant source of frustration for many in Port Douglas.