Attacks by crocodiles and hi to you all. Or “Gidday!”
I’m Leighton Clark, a Darwin boy who moved about. Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, and moved to Darwin in 1962. I loved living in Darwin back in the day, back in the sixties. Sure, to be honest, for whatever reason Darwin is my home town and I do enjoy going back.
Thing is, we cannot go back to the sixties. And we cannot avoid the crocodiles, which back then, were no trouble. Attacks by crocodiles were not part of our normal life. There were a few crocs about, but we swam about in most places, without fear.
This site is about crocodiles and much more. It is about attacks by crocodiles, yes, but it is about Darwin, the N.T., and how life has changed in the Territory since I was a boy.
I want to share some stories , some facts, and some thoughts.
The sixties:
To me, the sixties were about Darwin, Darwin High School, fishing, hunting, adventuring in the bush, being a member of the Air Training Corps, and finally joining the Australian Regular Army late in the sixties.
On the home page I likely mentioned attacks by crocodiles, but I told you about my good friend Harold Harmer, who was a great bloke. I found Harold to be staunch, reliable, and a very good friend. Harold (sometimes I called him Sammy) was a real Darwin boy, and very comfortable in the bush, if you know what I mean.
ABOUT BLACK JUNGLE HUNTING.
I hunted deep in the Black Jungle, wading through swamp water up to my chest, barefoot, with snakes and spiders, and more. I hunted with Harold and another good mate Jim Sly, who was also my spearfishing “compadre”. One day I will tell the story of how we spent time at Two Fella Creek on the other side of the harbour. I am happy to say that of this week Jim (Army service, too) is, thankfully, alive and well. Good on you Jim!
Seeing that my site is not only about crocodiles I might mention another friend from first year high school. Ted Whiteaker is “going good”. He is a fountain of knowledge of all things past and present in Darwin N.T.
And my blood-brother Jim Noonan, also first year high school (Darwin High School) now a solicitor in Darwin N.T. I will add the snake stories with Jim Noonan in due course.
Another mate who joined the army a bit after me is Doug Mclean.
More on these guys later.
ABOUT THE SNAKE. MANY SNAKES.
I will talk a lot about attacks by crocodiles, but let us talk about attacks by snakes. I didn’t tell you one of my favourite snake stories. This story focuses on the dark night that Harold, another friend called Tim, and my good self were walking around Leanyer Swamp, which was a kind of wilderness, plus also at that time the R.A.A.F. bombing range, which did make it even more special.
The thing is close to midnight some of us were barefoot and we were walking along a track on the edge of the swamp.
Harold steps over a log.
He is OK, but a big snake as thick as my arm comes out of the log just as I begin to step on the log. Right!
I couldn’t stop and I do step on that log…………….
The King Brown Snake wastes no time….. Bang!
He hits me hard, fair and square on the boot.
Yeah, well, I don’t know if you worked it out yet but you should have by now. I am the one of the three who is wearing boots.
Harold and Tim are both barefoot.
The big snake has sunk his fangs in deep and he is holding on to my boot like it is a midnight snack.
Honest? I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to let go!
But, like I said, Tim is right behind me and he sees all of this.
Poor old Tim sees it up real close, and I will tell you what…………… Tim is bug-eyed for the rest of the walk back to our camp.
By the way, you can get a quick snake identification here.
LINK TO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT SNAKE.
About the Army and the size of the Old Darwin.
The population of the N.T. in 1961 was only 23,000 people or thereabouts. Darwin had half that many people.
There were some crocodiles, but not too many. Attacks by crocodiles were not the usual thing.
The human population comprised also aboriginal people whose numbers had by that time shrunk in N.T. to around 18,000.
Source: The Statesman’s Year Book.
Darwin was a “small” place. To give you a better idea, I submit the following:
Harold and I were part of a very small “club” of Darwin boys joining the Army at that time.
Harold stayed at Darwin High School to finish his Matriculation Year, while I finished the Leaving Year and promptly left 13/02/67.
Thus our enlistment dates were nearly one year apart.
Our Army numbers were not so far apart, as they were: 7134 (me) and 7139 (Harold).
As Army numbers are in sequence that left only four regular army enlistments (being army numbers, 7135, 7136, 7137, and 7138) between Harold and me.
John Gabelish (7135) and Jimmy Chapman (7136), both joined the ARA (Australian Regular Army) on the same day as me, and the three of us flew together from Darwin to Sydney in February of 1967.
We took the bus from Sydney and John, Jimmy, and I shared a room at Kapooka 1RTB (along with Barry Driver from Dubbo).
John and Jimmy were allocated Infantry Corps and they went off and served with 4RAR in Viet Nam from 21/05/68 – 30/05/69.
Now…
You will see that there were only two men who joined after the three of us, but before Harold.
To put it clearly, during the Viet Nam War period there were only two guys from Darwin to join the ARA in an entire year.
These two guys were:
1. Noel Thwaite (7137) originally from Mount Morgan, who went to Vietnam on 20 August 1968 and served with 110 Signal Squadron.
2. John Kenneth Garner (7138) born in Canberra, who served with 5 RAR in Viet Nam from 8 February 1969 until 12 August 1969.
P.S. Harold went to Vietnam later, on 29/03/71.
P.P.S. Just for fun: A note or two on my room mates and fellow travellers . Both were real characters.
James (Jimmy) Chapman.
Darwin has always been the sort of place that provides co-incidences. It is strange that I met Jimmy a few months before we took the flight south. We met working on Stokes Wharf and we soon found out that we had both just enlisted.
Our job on the wharf was a bit tough. We were working with the Northern Territory Stevedoring Association on Stokes Hill Wharf carrying bags of salt up a plank onto a ship. I write more about this elsewhere.
Attacks by crocodiles.
I actually witnessed one of those attacks by crocodiles.
I said Jimmy was a character. He had a pet crocodile, which was a bit under one metre, and he kept it in his bath. It was as quick as a cat and I was there one time when it bit him. Gratitude from a croc – forget it!
I don’t know what happened to Jimmy. I have not heard anything about him for 50 years.
John Gabelish
John was a big guy with some charisma. Bit smooth, some would say.
After Viet Nam John became a policeman in the territory. I saw him once at a pub in Darwin, way back in the 70s, and then never again.
But, funny enough, I did talk to his son last year, and a friend says he is still around somewhere.
Doug Mclean.
Douglas Mclean I mentioned earlier. Darwin born, classmate, and friend. He joined the army a bit after me. Army Number 7156.
Vietnam 1970-1971. 8 R.A.R. and also 7 R.A.R.
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Let’s get back to attacks by crocodiles.