Brisbane Olympics Rowers may compete in crocodile territory

After 82 years of a life devoted to saltwater crocodiles, John Lever still fondly recalls the first "saltie" he ever caught on Rockhampton's Fitzroy River.

- Joe Hinchliffe

After 82 years of a life devoted to saltwater crocodiles, John Lever still fondly recalls the first "saltie" he ever caught on Rockhampton's Fitzroy River. The year was 1982, the crocodile was a three-meter-long female, and she had just eaten "a lovely labrador dog" from a market garden in the central Queensland city.

More than four decades later, Lever runs a crocodile farm, one that is home to more than 3,000 of the world's largest living reptiles, on a mangrove-fringed island in the estuary expected to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games rowing events - if World Rowing and the International Olympic Committee sign off on the plan.

However, fears for rowers competing in saltwater crocodile habitat were dismissed by the Brisbane Olympics organising committee chief, Andrew Liveris, who called for a "can do, not can't do" mindset at yesterday's announcement.

"There are sharks in the ocean and we still do surfing," Liveris said. "Creatures below the water... that's kind of Hollywoodish, we'll leave LA to worry about that."