Sunday, April 10, 2016

PRINCE PHILIP , CROCODILES , LOCKWOOD , NICODEMUS AND AN ALCOHOLIC DARWIN BANK DOG

Our photograph of this belly up freshwater crocodile in Queensland sparked a right royal follow up from Melbourne journalist Kim Lockwood . He  recalled  the event  in  which  his Melbourne Herald  reporter and author father, Douglas, covered   the  unofficial  1963  opening of  the Ord River  Dam   in Western Australia  during  a visit by the  Queen  and  Prince Philip.  A  crocodile  unexpectedly  changed  the  planned   arrangements  for the   Duke ,  as  Kim  explained  thus  :

From the top of the dam, an unctuous bootlicking official said, "If you look closely, Your Royal Highness  you might even see a crocodile" -- as though Phil had never seen one before -- "  Oh, look down there on the left, there's one on the bank!" And indeed there was. Dad piped up loudly, not having taken to the toe-rag, "And it's dead." He had noticed its snout was in the water, preventing it from breathing. Uriah Heep ummed and aahed and said, "If Your Royal Highness would   like to press the button to open the floodgates ...'' Phil was having none of it. "No," he said, "you press the button. I want to watch that crocodile." So the hapless lackey had to press the button, the gates opened, the water flowed, and the croc rolled over and over downstream in the current. As dead crocs  do.  Phil harrumphed  and  strode  back  to  his  vehicle.
 
Prime Minister Robert  Menzies  officially opened the $20million scheme  on July 20 , 1963 and  described  nearby Kununurra and the Ord River irrigation area as " the  most exciting  place in Australia ."


Prince Philip , above , went on a crocodile shooting trip  with the Haritos brothers of  Darwin  in  the  l950s  and shot and helped  skin   a saurian , an outrageous  claim  made the  beast had  already been shot and placed  on the bank  for  the  Duke to  plug .

In this blog's 1959 Douglas Lockwood  Rigby published  book  Crocodiles and Other People, the opening  chapter  contains  a wealth of information about  crocodiles  and prominent   shooters , including the Haritos  family, and a fabulous beat up southern newspaper  story  about  a crocodile named Nicodemus  said to have been   helping a nightwatchman  guard  the  Darwin branch of the Commercial Bank of  Australia  from  burglars.

Lockwood wrote that "hysteria set in " when an American newsagency  ran the story  and  he was  cabled  for extensive details about  Nicodemus , including the size of his teeth,  whether or  not he  had  eaten  any  men  or  bailed up any bank robbers.

 Of course , the  gullible Yanks wanted   photographs, ideally one of Nicodemus  holding  a  robber  at  bay  in  a  corner .

There was a tiny grain of truth in the story-Nicodemus , about two weeks old ,  about 18 inches long , was  fed  by  bank  staff .  Darwin   bank  johnnies  were a   fun  loving , thirsty lot  and  a  pet dog which came to  the  pub with them   became an alcoholic ,  journalist  Keith Willey of the Northern Territory News  writing  a  moving story  about  the  canine when it went  cold  turkey  and   was  seen , sadly ,  its dry  tongue extended ,  outside  the  Vic  Hotel , the  bank boys merrily  quaffing   ale   inside .