Australia Weather News

A Northern Territory mum was taking her kids to school when she found herself jumping in to help remove a crocodile lurking in a puddle outside the local bottle shop.

Long-time Humpty Doo resident Melody Wehipeihana was doing school drop-off on Tuesday when she noticed a crowd gathering by the side of the Arnhem Highway. 

Members of the small community on Darwin's outskirts were peering into a large puddle that had pooled as a result of wet season rains.

Ms Wehipeihana had a heads up from a friend.

"My friend rang and told me that there was a small crocodile at our local bottle shop, and I used to walk my dog past there like every week," she said. 

"So I was a bit spun out that, you know, there was a crocodile just sitting in the puddle there."

Ms Wehipeihana said she had never seen a crocodile that close to shops and the highway, only further down the creek where a trap had been set up.

Zane Trebilcock was mowing the lawn outside the shop when he saw the crocodile's head pop out of the water.

"It gave me a little bit of a startle," he told ABC Radio Darwin on Tuesday. 

"That was the first time I've ever spotted a crocodile in there."

Mr Trebilcock said the puddle was only about 4 metres long and 60 centimetres wide, but it was big enough for the 1.5-metre freshwater crocodile.

He contacted NT Parks and Wildlife, suspecting the reptile had wandered up from one of the nearby creeks, but a local Humpty Doo man sprang into action before the rangers could arrive.

By then, the Wehipeihana family had pulled over to join the crowd, taking photos as the crocodile was pulled from the water. 

"We just knew we had to get it away from the road and relocate it," Ms Wehipeihana said.

"Dylan put a rope around its neck to pull it out because we didn't want it to get hurt."

He then asked if anyone could help secure the reptile and, when nobody else volunteered, Ms Wehipeihana stepped in.

She said she gripped the crocodile, applying pressure to the back of its head to limit mobility, while her co-rescuer tied rope around the animal's jaw.

"I was just hoping I was holding on to it tight enough so it didn't turn around and bite my hand," Ms Wehipeihana recalled.

The reptile was bundled into a trailer and moved to another creek "a bit further away from suburbia" and the busy highway. 

It is not unusual for extra rain to fall across the Top End this time of year, with crocodiles able to travel vast distances for food and mating as waterways fill up.

Mr Trebilcock said it was important that people pay attention near any water during the wet season. 

"With the amount of rain we've had this year, obviously there's going to be crocodiles on the move," he said.

"Just keep an eye out because you literally never know where they are going to show up."