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HISTORY OF THE STURM RUGER .357 MAGNUM REVOLVER STAMPED WITH THE NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE BADGE AND NUMBERED 25 - of the 1 to 50 issue
SERIAL NO. 15603192. Foreword by Frank Mancuso The reader should not be fooled by the title; more than the history of a weapon it is the summary of the events, little bits from the life of a man, that have seen it alongside the author of this article.
But the weapon is unique, it served alongside its owner in the Police of Northern Territory, Australia.
Author is Bob, a keyboard-pal
of this site,
even if he is
literally on the other side of the world, in the Australian state of
Queensland.
Author mounted on a brumby he captured and broke in while
stationed at Borrooloola in 1968.
These
days Bob has major health problems; despite the great distance we want to let
him know that we are close to him.
NT POLICE FIREARM POLICY PRIOR TO 1994.
Prior to 1994 the Northern Territory Police Force had a Firearm
Policy that allowed serving police officers, who had passed
probation and had accrued at least 12 months police service, to buy
their own personal handgun as their duty sidearm.
The privately purchased sidearm was classified as an “official
police duty weapon.”
As a result of personal preferences there were a whole range of
various makes, calibres and models of handguns owned and used by
different NT police officers.
Many police had multiple and
various weapons and calibres for different situations.
The wearing of a sidearm was not mandatory or popular in the
Northern Territory Police Force at that time.
Mainly because much of the work involved wrestling with
drunks and aggressive people and then a sidearm can become a
handicap.
If a sidearm was carried it was usually in a shoulder holster under
the uniform shirt and high up in the armpit. It was quite
comfortable, concealed and accessible in that position.
Also it did not hinder or handicap the wearer while wrestling
or restraining aggressors and it was out of sight and reach of
offenders under the uniform shirt.
ACQUISITION BY NT POLICE OF STURM RUGER .357 REVOLVERS
On
2 October 1978, the Northern Territory Police Force recruited the
“Class of 29 of 1978”.
A recruit in the group named Ross Stephen HARRIS had a family
relation with business affiliations with Sturm Ruger in the USA.
Constable HARRIS made an application to Commissioner McCauley to
allow the import of 50 Sturm Ruger .357 revolvers, with the intent
that they could be sold to serving NT Police Officers, as per the
current “NT Firearm Policy”.
Commissioner McCauley agreed to the acquisition and authorised Sturm
Ruger to stamp each revolver with the NT Police Badge on the top of
the cylinder strap. The revolvers were to be consecutively numbered
from 1 to 50, in addition to the normal Sturm Ruger serial number.
Commissioner McCauley was to receive number 1 of the 1 to 50 series.
In 1979 the Northern Territory Police Force received the 50 Sturm
Ruger .357 magnum, revolvers as per the order.
Prior to the delivery of the revolvers the Northern Territory Police
Force had sold and allocated the revolvers to serving police
officers who had previously requested one and paid the $225.00 cost. My revolver was number 25 in the 1 to 50 issue.
In those days metal piercing ammunition was available for the .357
magnum, as it was originally designed in 1935 as a “car stopping”
handgun. With the claim
that a metal piercing round could crack the engine block of a
vehicle of that period.
I formed the habit of loading my revolver with three metal piercing
rounds and three 158 grain hollow points consecutively, so as to
provide penetration and stopping power if required.
At that time I was a 3rd class Sergeant at Nhulunbuy
where I had been stationed since 1976.
Nhulunbuy (or Gove) was an isolated bauxite/alumina mining town on
the edge of Arnhem Land operated by Nabalco.
It had a population of approximately 3000 European mining employees
and support staff and an indigenous population of about 500. The Nhulunbuy Police Station was manned by 16 police, consisting of a 1st class Sergeant, as Officer in Charge, three 3rd class Sergeant’s and twelve constables.
CROCODILE ATTACKS AND ERADICATION.
The Northern Territory Government banned crocodile shooting in 1974.
As a result crocodiles were protected and special permits
were required that provided National Park Rangers or Police, in
special circumstances, with permission to “destroy or capture and
relocate” troublesome reptiles.
As time progressed crocodiles became more and more prevalent and
bold and the “permit to capture and relocate” plan was impractical,
ineffective and irrational.
It became obvious to people responsible for public safety that the
law protected crocodiles but disregarded human public safety.
1979 - Trevor GAGHAN - CROCODILE FATALITY and REPERCUSSIONS
On the 8 October 1979, a honeymooner holidaying at Nhulunbuy was
attacked and killed by a crocodile while skin diving at Rainbow
Cliffs Beach.
I was the Sergeant in charge of the investigation that recovered the
body. The crocodile was captured and killed.
I later gave evidence at the Coroner’s Inquest regarding the
investigation.
Professor Harry MESSEL was researching crocodiles and barramundi in
the Northern Territory at the time, and was regarded as an expert on
both. He had previously
stated that crocodiles were not a danger to humans and would not
attack them under “natural” conditions.
This supposition gave many Territorians a false sense of
security.
Professor MESSEL allegedly made a statement reported in the NT News
that Trevor GAGHAN must have been tormenting the crocodile for it to
have attacked him.
The factual evidence
presented at the Coroner’s Inquest debunked Professor MESSEL’s
hypothesis and brought a new realisation to the danger of “living
with crocodiles”
The Inquest was an emotional incident as the new wife of the
deceased had been on the beach watching her husband dive when she
heard a terrifying scream and saw crocodile jaws encircle her
husband’s torso and drag him out to sea. The Officer in Charge of Nhulunbuy Police Station at the time was 1/c Sergeant Christopher HUNT, and he organised to have the crocodile that killed GAGHAN put on display in the Nhulunbuy Town Centre to alert citizens of the danger.
Crocodile on
display in Nhulunbuy Town Centre.
The GAGHAN fatality made citizens of Nhulunbuy very aware of the
prevalent crocodile danger. Police recorded 29 reported sightings in
recreation and camping areas between 24 Sept 1979 and 17 April 1980.
As a result of the clear and present danger posed to citizens by the
ever increasing crocodile numbers clandestine operations were
instigated to remove the reptiles from community areas, beaches and
popular camping areas before they could initiate an attack or create
a threat.
An important part of the operations was that the crocodile’s body
had to always be recovered and buried in some remote location where
it would not be found.
This was to ensure the secrecy of the operations.
During these operation’s I always wore my Ruger, .357 magnum
revolver in a soft leather shoulder holster held high up into my
armpit under my police overalls.
This kept the weight of the revolver on my shoulder where it
was comfortable and kept the revolver well above the water when
wading through swamps and creeks to shoot or recover crocodiles.
The .357 magnum was never the primary weapon on these operations but
a back-up weapon for close quarter protection and coup de grace of
injured reptiles.
1979 - CROCODILE REMOVAL FROM GOVE HARBOUR.
Nhulunbuy Police had received numerous reports of a crocodile
estimated at 16 feet in length that was sighted on regular occasions
circling the boats in Gove Harbour.
Gove Harbour was a yachting anchorage and a popular public boating,
swimming and recreation area, so the decision was made to have
National Parks and Wildlife from Darwin attend and remove the
crocodile.
On 11 October 1979, only three days after the GAGHAN fatality,
National Parks and Wildlife Officers from Darwin flew to Nhulunbuy
to relocate the “Gove Harbour Crocodile”.
I was the Nhulunbuy police representative and observer with
the team.
The Parks and Wildlife Crocodile Team consisted of Dave HIGGINS,
John BUNCE and Wayne Bishop. They were all expert crocodile handlers
and professionals at their jobs.
The original plan was to capture and relocate; which meant blinding
the crocodile with a spotlight and then approaching it at speed and
harpooning it with a barbed spike with a line attached.
Once that was accomplished the crocodile is allowed to tow
the dinghy around the harbour until it is exhausted and can be
“muzzle-snouted” and hauled aboard.
But this crocodile was too smart and cunning and would not allow the
speeding dinghy to get close enough to use the harpoon.
After several attempts the decision was made to shoot the reptile,
and harpoon and recover the body. I was not the shooter. But the shot was 1.5 centimetres too high. It caught the top of the crocodile’s skull and ripped a small portion of bone off its head. The impact was enough to stun the crocodile long enough to close the gap and use the harpoon. It was muzzle-snouted after a struggle and hauled aboard.
Parks and Wildlife Team and author loading crocodile
into dinghy
The crocodile was still alive but a portion of the brain was exposed
by the missing piece of bone. To me the next
decision seemed obvious and simple.
But the decision was made by the hierarchy of the
Conservation Commission to fly the crocodile to the Darwin Crocodile
Farm for veterinary treatment and possible recovery.
Those academics evidently knew nothing about “post-traumatic
stress”. The
psychological stress on a possibly 100 year old reptile critically
injured and captured from the wild.
That stress is enormous and irreversible.
However the seats were removed from the Cessna 402, twin engine
aircraft that had been chartered to bring the Parks and Wildlife
Team to Nhulunbuy and the crocodile was sedated then loaded and
flown to Darwin’ s Yarrawonga Zoo for veterinary attention.
About a week later it was realised that the crocodile would not
survive and it was destroyed and put out of its misery. Galarrwuy YUNUPINGU, a tribal leader and activist of the Yunupingu Clan, claimed the crocodile, he referred to as “Baru,” was his father and the clans Tribal Totem. He demanded that it be returned to its tribal home for proper burial.
NT News article on Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Gove Harbour crocodile
Rumour spread through Nhulunbuy that because I was the Nhulunbuy
Police’s senior crocodile investigator and had been with the
National Parks and Wildlife Team when “Baru” was captured, that I
had shot Galarrwuy’s father. That was not true.
I was not the shooter on
that operation.
The NT Government acceded to Galarrwuy YUNUPINGU’s demands for the
return of “Baru” and contracted a world class taxidermist to mount
and preserve the reptile.
In 1985, the mounted and preserved crocodile was returned to
Nhulunbuy and officially presented to Galarrwuy YUNUPINGU and his
clan at an extravagant ceremony in Nhulunbuy
The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) was present at
Nhulunbuy to record the ceremony.
They had also flown to Nhulunbuy some months earlier with a
recording team and produced an hour documentary called “Crocodile”
that was part of a series called “Threshold.”
The “Crocodile” documentary began with the GAGHAN fatality
and culminated with the return of “Baru” to Galarrwuy Yunupingu and
his clan.
I resigned from the NT Police in 1984 and was living in Queensland.
The ABC contacted me there
for information about the crocodile attacks on the Gove Peninsula
and later flew me to Nhulunbuy to record the crocodile stories on
site for the “Crocodile” documentary.
Due of my local knowledge I was able to lead the filming team to crocodile habitats and areas where they were able to film large crocodiles still roaming free in the wild.
Author (left picture) at the Ceremonial return of “Baru” to Galarrwuy Yunupingu and his clan in Nhulunbuy.
1980 - SHIP SEIZED BY MUTINOUS CREW
In 1980 late at night, Nhulunbuy Police received a message from the
Gove Harbour Master stating that he had received a garbled radio
message from a ship in the harbour stating that the vessel had been
seized by a mutinous crew and the officers were being held hostage
and threatened by a man with a knife. No further information was
available.
Arrangements were made to have a police boarding party conveyed to
the vessel by the Nalalco Nhulunbuy Tug Boat.
All the night lights had
been removed or covered so as not to signal our position or
intention.
I organised a boarding party of all the available police officers
and we were a fully armed and a formidable group.
There was Sergeant Eddie JOSEPHS, a Vietnam Infantry Veteran;
Constable Mick BRENNAN, a Major in the Army Reserve Norforce
regiment, Constable Dave BENSON, one of Constable BRENNAN’s Norforce
soldiers; Constable Roger (Rocky) MAYER, a highly graded Black Belt
martial artist who specialised in close quarter combat and knife
fighting techniques and a number of other police, about ten in all.
Each was armed with a rifle or shotgun and a sidearm.
I had a short barrelled, seven shot self-loading “Street
Sweeper” shotgun and my .357 Ruger in a shoulder holster under my
overalls, plus a bandolier of shotgun cartridges over my shoulder.
We had no actual intelligence on what had, or was actually occurring
on board and surveillance indicated that all was quiet with no
movement on deck observed.
My instruction before boarding the tug was no talk or noise. As soon
as we boarded the vessel we would form a line across the upper deck
behind cover and prevent anyone from moving fore or aft. Anyone
apprehended was to be subdued and restrained as quickly and silently
as possible.
Someone asked what happens then?
I said I didn’t know.
We did not know if the mutineers were armed or where the hostages
were so I would just have to make it up as we went along.
We soon uneventfully boarded the ship and took up positions across
the deck. All was quiet
with no-one visible and no movement. Sergeant JOSEPHS brought
everyone’s attention to a big red sign on a large storage tank in
front of us that read “Highly Inflammable. No Naked Flames”
The ship had its normal navigation lights on and everything seemed
normal except that no-one was present nor had anyone challenged our
boarding.
The lights in the bridge were on, so Sergeant Josephs, Constable
Mayer and I made our way silently to the entrance hatch.
Constable Mayer turned the dog handle and it was not locked.
He quickly opened the hatch door and Sergeant Josephs and I
jumped inside guns levelled at the ready.
Soft music was playing and all the ship’s officers were in their
dress uniforms and were having a cocktail party.
Everyone seemed jovial and happy.
An officer who spoke English approached us and I explained why we
were there. He laughed
and said it was a communication misunderstanding.
He said the captain had called for help because one of the crew had
attacked another crew member with a knife, but someone had thrown
boiling water over him and he had run to his cabin and they had
locked him in.
The officer stated that the
man was very big and very strong and very violent and the captain
wanted him removed from the ship.
Sergeant Josephs returned to the police on deck to take them off
“high alert”.
Constable Mayer and I followed the Officer below deck to the
offender’s cabin. All
was dark and quiet. I
had a tactical torch to blind the offender in the darkness and the
Officer quietly unlocked the cabin door and opened it.
Constable Mayer and I rushed in and the offender was on his
bunk but before he could gain his footing Constable Mayer had him
subdued and he was quickly handcuffed.
The very big, very strong man turned out to be about five foot two
and sixty five kilos, but he was indeed angry and violent.
We conveyed him to the Nhulunbuy Watch house and later got an
interpreter so that we could question him regarding the alleged
offence.
His story was that he had been shanghaied. He went out shopping one
day in his home town in Taiwan and woke up sometime later on board
the ship.
He was not able to contact his family, was not paid any money and
was poorly fed, so as a result he was very depressed and very angry.
We referred the matter to Customs and Immigration and I believe the
ship’s owners paid for his air-fare back to Taiwan as they did not
want him back on board the ship.
Evidently the confusion over the radio communication with the Gove
Harbour Master had occurred because the ship’s officers were all
Norwegian and the crew were all Taiwanese so dialogue between
officers and crew was sometimes misconstrued.
1980 - CATO RIVER CROCODILE FATALITY
On the 13 October 1980, Baakurra MUNYARRYUN, an aborigine woman was
attacked and killed by a monster crocodile at Cato River in Arnhem
Land.
I was the
Sergeant in charge of investigations.
The woman had been washing her dishes on the river bank when the
crocodile launched itself at her.
Biting her around the waist and dragging her into the river.
A few nights previously the woman had been camping on the river
sandflat with her relatives.
She had some blankets and personal items with her in a four
gallon drum with its top removed.
Next morning the drum and its contents were missing and large
crocodile tracks were visible from the river to where the drum had
been and back to the river.
Senior Constable Graeme (Luvy) BROWNING and I arrived at the scene
late at night. We launched a 14 foot dinghy and searched the attack
area with a spotlight.
A very large crocodile cruised alongside the dinghy seemingly
unperturbed by our presence.
Its tail and head overlapped the dinghy fore and aft.
The crocodile looked me straight in the eyes then it silently
submerged without a trace.
Senior Constable BROWNING said, “I think he just took your
number”
But my previous crocodile experiences had taught me that this
crocodile was stalking us and he was not afraid. We camped on dry
land until the morning.
I radioed a request for assistance from the Parks and Wildlife
Crocodile Capture Team and also for additional staff for river
search duties for the deceased.
The Parks and Wildlife Team were my previous colleagues from the
Gove Harbour Crocodile incident. They were the best in the business;
Dr Graeme WEBB and Wildlife Officers Dave HIGGENS and John BUNCE.
What they didn’t know about crocodiles was not worth knowing
and it gave me great insight about procedures to be adopted in
future.
The Park’s and Wildlife Team located the crocodile’s lair next day.
It was a big, deep, vertical hole in the river, beside the river
bank and just below the river water level so that it was not
apparently obvious. The
main tell-tales were crocodile slides leading into and out of the
hole.
The hole was about twelve feet deep and twenty feet in diameter.
Dave HIGGENS and John BUNCE prodded to the bottom with long
harpoons, not knowing whether the crocodile was home or not.
Graham WEBB who carried a .44 magnum, and me with my .357
magnum, stood guard with revolvers drawn, in case we encountered any
unpleasant surprises. But apparently the crocodile had long since
departed.
However the harpooning Wildlife Officers hit something hard and
metallic at the bottom of the crocodile lair. After some manoeuvring
they hooked out a four gallon drum that the crocodile had taken from
the river sandflat a few nights earlier. It had contained the
deceased woman’s blankets and personal items.
The drum had been crushed into a cylinder about six inches in
diameter and was full of holes like a colander.
Evidently crocodiles like to chew and play with things as
toys - hence the crushing and the tooth holes.
That afternoon the search team recovered one leg and the torso of
the deceased woman and I secretly and quickly had them transported
to Nhulunbuy for post-mortem examination.
The removal of the deceased’s body parts enraged the local Cato
River aborigines as they could not conduct their tribal ritual
burial without the body.
Also the clan and relatives of the deceased requested that the
crocodile not be killed as it was sacred to them and their “Tribal
Totem.”
They believed that they belonged to the crocodile - the crocodile
did not belong to them.
I argued for the destruction of the crocodile but a tribal elder
said to me “if she fell off a cliff, would you come and remove the
mountain?” So they kept
their crocodile. I gave evidence at the Coroner’s Inquest into the death and at the request of the Magistrate, Alastair McGregor, presented the crushed four gallon drum to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory where it is currently on display with Baakurra MUNYARRYUN’s story.
The author with the drum recovered from the Cato River crocodile’s lair.
In October 1988, Alex BURURRU a 25 year old aborigine man was
fatally attacked by a crocodile at the same location on the Cato
River.
1980 - STOLEN DINGHY RECOVERY
In mid-1980, aborigines camping on Nhulunbuy Town Beach reported
that two white men had just stolen their fishing dinghy and outboard
motor and were heading out to sea.
I was on duty at the time and I knew the offenders would have to go
past the Gove Peninsula Surf Life Saving Club to get to the open
sea. Senior Constable
Graeme (Luvy) BROWNING was the president of the Surf Club and
working there at the time.
I armed myself with my .357 Ruger revolver and my 12 gauge shotgun,
and then Constable Roger (Rocky) MAYER and I attended at the Surf
Club.
Senior Constable BROWNING had a “rubber ducky” rescue boat at the
Surf Club and he volunteered to take one of us to intercept the
offenders in the stolen dinghy. He could only take one due to the
size of the “rubber ducky”.
NT Police Sergeant’s had special legislated powers to stop, detain
and search ships and vessels at sea, plus I had the 12 gauge
shotgun, so I went in pursuit with Senior Constable BROWNING.
Constable MAYER was to organise assistance and arrange a reception
party for when we returned with the offenders.
The “rubber ducky” soon caught up with the dinghy and I signalled
for the two men on board to return to shore.
But they just laughed and gave us “the finger.”
They were in a far larger boat than we were so I presume they
believed that we were no threat to them and not in a position to
force them to return to Gove.
However they had not seen our artillery.
I had placed the shotgun in a rifle carry bag to protect it
from the sea spray before departing and I had also loaded it with
six rounds and left the breech open for safety.
I removed the shotgun from the carry bag, dropped a cartridge into
the breech and released the slide and was ready for action.
I stood up in the “rubber ducky” and fired two shots over their bow.
From the look on the offenders faces the incident was
suddenly was not quite so funny.
But they still did not turn the dinghy for shore.
I asked Senior Constable Browning if he could get a little closer
and we approached to about thirty meters from them. I fired another
two shots over their bow and shouted, “Turn for the beach or the
next ones are for you,” and I drew a bead on the tiller man.
They appeared to have a short conversation then eased off on the
throttle and turned back to Nhulunbuy Town Beach with us following
persuasively close behind.
I had radio communications with Constable MAYER and ascertained that
he had recruited Constable Bill BRISCOE to assist him with the
apprehension of the offenders.
The two were a very capable pair of police constables who
often worked together as an outstanding and impressive team.
The two offenders may have thought that they could evade arrest by
quickly beaching the dinghy and running off into the nearby bush
before the police could drive a vehicle along the beach to their
landing site.
But unbeknown to them the aborigine owners of the dinghy had been
watching the saga unfold from the cover of the bush and they were
not happy about their dinghy being stolen.
So as the offenders approached the beach landing, the dinghy
owners suddenly appeared out of the bush and dispensed some summary
justice, aborigine style with sticks and boomerangs.
I radioed to Constable MAYER and BRISCOE what was happening but they
were having difficulty with loose sand on the beach and that delayed
their progress. I told
them there was no hurry, the matter was in hand.
Eventually police arrived at the “beach landing” site and the
offenders were happy to surrender to them.
They were arrested and taken to the Nhulunbuy Watch house and when
the fingerprint and identity checks were done it revealed that the
offenders were “persons of
interest” (POI’s) from interstate with extensive criminal histories.
They were both bailed but failed to appear for Court. They had
previously vowed that they would never return the Nhulunbuy again,
so we regarded that as a good outcome.
1980 - NHULUNBUY TOWN LAGOON ERADICATION - AND ALMOST A POLICE
FATALITY
I had a good rapport with most of the citizens of Nhulunbuy as a
fair policeman; so many people would tell me things that they may
not usually tell other police. In late 1980 a Nhulunbuy resident
arranged to meet me secretly and he confessed that he had been
feeding a large crocodile in the town lagoon.
The town lagoon was approximately two kilometres long and two
hundred metres wide and was directly adjacent to many of the
Nhulunbuy residential areas where young children played.
The man said that he had seen the crocodile while walking his dog
around the lagoon and the next day on the same walk he threw the
crocodile some pieces of meat when it appeared.
He had repeated this
procedure every day for the past eighteen months.
Once when the crocodile was on the other side of the lagoon, he hit
the water with a stick and the crocodile submerged then shot up
close and took the meat.
So he thought he was training the crocodile to come to him.
But he had noticed recently that when the crocodile submerged then
shot out of the water, he was getting closer and closer to where he
had been standing at the water’s edge.
In the last few weeks he had retreated from the water’s edge to the
top of the bank, as when the crocodile shot out of the water it
would be close to where he had been standing previously.
He thought that the crocodile may be stalking him.
Many young children use to play around the town lagoon catching
“Yuppies” for freshwater fishponds. So it was a very serious and
urgent threat and situation.
I did a
reconnaissance of the area with Constable Roger MAYER and we decided
the best plan was to mimic the actions of the man with the dog.
Constable MAYER was an archer and had a fishing bow that could fire
a fishing arrow with a line attached to a barbed head. The plan was
to fire it into the crocodile so we could retrieve the body once I
had shot it.
It seemed like a simple foolproof plan.
I presumed the crocodile would surface approximately 10 to 15 metres
from the water’s edge, where the meat was thrown.
I would be standing on a gently sloping bank about two meters
above the water level which would give me a perfect shot looking
down at the crocodile’s head.
The only shot being between the eyes for an instant kill.
My rifle of choice was a Winchester model 88, lever action 243. It
was fitted with 6-24x40 telescopic sight set to 6 for this shot.
It was an extremely accurate
and powerful rifle. I
wore my .357 Ruger in a shoulder holster as a back-up weapon in an
emergency.
We arrived at the scene and everything was perfect - clear blue sky
- no wind. We could see the
crocodile cruising along the other side of the lagoon, approximately
200 metres away.
The man walked with his dog to the rendezvous point. Hit on the
water with a stick and threw in the meat - then moved quickly away.
I took his position and Constable Mayer was positioned behind
a tree out of sight five metres away.
I saw the crocodile submerge and I shouldered my rifle and pointed
it to my presumed target area and waited for the crocodile to
appear.
But I had underestimated the intelligence and cunning of the
crocodile. It came charging out of the water like a torpedo,
straight up the bank at me. It was no use to look through the scope
or try to sight; it was suddenly only two metres from me. I pushed
the rifle forward and instinctively fired it like a pistol.
The crocodile reared up on its hind legs, towering over me and then
somersaulted backwards into the lagoon. Constable MAYER had not had
time to draw his bow.
There was not a ripple on the water but I said to Constable MAYER,
“I think I got him”.
We had a dinghy moored nearby with a barbed crocodile harpoon in it.
We manoeuvred the dinghy over the spot where the crocodile had
somersaulted over backwards and I prodded the bottom of the lagoon
with the harpoon and soon found him.
We fastened a few crocodile harpoon barbs into him with lines
attached and pulled him ashore with a motor vehicle and loaded it
into a police vehicle to take to a secluded burial site.
Nhulunbuy Town Lagoon crocodile loaded into police cage.
Constable Roger Mayer on “Burial Duties”
My impromptu shot struck the crocodile just behind the eyes and
destroyed his brain, so he was dead instantly.
He was 14 feet long with the last two sections of his tail missing.
So that would have given him a total length of about 16 feet.
He was six feet around the girth.
What a monster for the Town Lagoon in a populated area.!!
1980 - THE GIDDY ROCK POOL INCIDENT
Late in 1980, Nhulunbuy Police received information that one of a
group of people using a Flying Fox Swing, late at night, at the
Giddy Rock Pools had gone missing.
The group were suspected drug abusers and were partying at the Rock
Pools playing a game they called “Crocodile.”
The game entailed jumping from the Flying Fox Swing into the rock
pool and shouting out “Crocodile - Crocodile,” with each person in
the group taking their turn to jump. The missing person had jumped
but had not called out “Crocodile.”
The others in the group were not concerned at that time as they
believed he would sneak up on them in the darkness and try to
frighten them as they all sat around a big camp fire.
However after some time when he had not appeared they started
calling out to him. But he did not reply.
They did a quick search of the Rock Pool and adjacent area to no
avail, so reported the matter to the Nhulunbuy police.
I was not involved in the initial search and only called in to take
charge two days later when no progress had been made. That made
investigations difficult due to the loss of evidence in the
intervening period.
The initial investigators had searched the pool where the Flying Fox
Swing was located and the adjacent and adjoining bush in case the
missing person had wandered off disorientated.
The Giddy’s Rock Pools is a series of rocky pools in the Giddy River
about 60 kilometres from Nhulunbuy.
Some of the pools are up to a kilometre long and forty metres
wide and others are only very small.
The river runs deep and wide during the wet season and
reduces to a trickle during the dry season leaving just large deep
pools. The incident
occurred during the “Dry Season”
The Flying Fox Swing Pool was about 800 metres long and 40 metres
wide. It had a narrow inlet,
feed by a waterfall and a narrow outlet in the form of a deep gutter
feeding the next lower pool.
On my arrival I immediately had nets placed at the top inlet and the
lower outlet of the pool to ensure that anything still in the pool
at that time stayed in there or got caught in the nets.
My belief was that if the missing person drowned his body should
bloat and float to the surface in about two to three days and would
possibly be caught in the lower nets.
The rock pool had deep caverns undercutting the water edge and I
organised scuba divers to search the caverns. But they found no
evidence of a crocodile lair or body parts of the missing person.
Other searchers spotlighted the Flying Fox Swing Pool and other
large adjoining pools during the night in an attempt to locate
crocodile’s, but to no avail.
After another three days of searching nothing was found and the nets
at both ends of the pool were still intact so the investigation was
abandoned.
It was my belief that the Giddy Rock Pools did not contain a
sufficient food supply for a permanent crocodile habitat and that
any large crocodiles in the area were only migrating.
The fact that both ends of the Flying Fox Swing Pool had been open
for two days before my arrival made establishing factual conclusions
impossible.
There were rumours that the missing person was attempting to
disappear and lose his identity but no reasonable evidence for, or
against, that supposition was ever presented or established.
No crocodile was ever located and no body or body parts of the
missing person was ever found.
I gave evidence at the Coroner’s Inquest and an open finding was the
result.
1981 - WATER BUFFALO.
Water buffaloes were abundant at Nhulunbuy.
During the “dry season” when natural vegetation is sparse
they would wander into town to graze on the park lawns that were
watered and maintained by the Nhulunbuy Corporation.
They were usually quite peaceful and placid.
In 1981, a heavily loaded mine truck struck and injured a large
water buffalo that had ventured onto the roadway.
The injured beast escaped into an area of thick lantana
scrub.
The police officers who
attended the scene were armed with a rifle but the scrub was too
thick and entangled for them to pursue the buffalo with a rifle.
1/c Sergeant Christopher HUNT, who was the Nhulunbuy Officer in
Charge at the time, requested I attend with my .357 revolver to
track the injured animal and destroy it.
I soon found and followed a blood trail left by the injured
buffalo and I carefully made my way through the lantana scrub
following the track.
I came into a small clearing and I could see the buffalo leaning on
a tree for support about nine metres away.
He appeared to be having difficulty standing and his head was
drooping with blood running from his nose.
With his head down and in that position it gave me a perfect shot to
his forehead. I knew
that if I did not kill him with the first shot he would
instinctively charge me and in the thick lantana scrub I had nowhere
to move evasively.
I indexed a metal piercing round on single action and took a
carefully supported shot off a small branch.
The projectile struck the buffalo between the eyes and he
immediately fell to the ground dead.
The buffalo’s horns measured 1300mm from tip to tip.
1981 -TRAWLLER BOARDING PARTY
In 1981, the Northern Territory Police obtained information that
large quantises of illicit drugs were being transferred from
overseas suppliers to Australia via fishing trawlers operating in
the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Someone in the NT Police hierarchy in Darwin decided it would be
good “proactive policing” to have police board and search fishing
trawlers during their operations in the Gulf.
The plan was to surprise the fishing crews and catch them unawares
and search for drugs and unlicensed firearms.
Constable Martin GOODE and I, both of Nhulunbuy, were nominated to
be the first “Boarding Party”.
We had no idea of what we were supposed to do and we had not
received any training or instruction for the operation.
I wore my Ruger .357 magnum in a shoulder holster under my
police overalls.
We were collected from Nhulunbuy by the Police Motor Vessel “Salloo”
that was captained by Sergeant Wayne TAWNY and operated by an
additional crew of two. We proceeded to the Gulf of Carpentaria
where many fishing trawlers were busy chasing the seasonal prawn
migration.
The plan was that we would be lowered from the Sallo in a “rubber
ducky” manned by one of the vessel’s crew.
Then we would speed up alongside a working trawler and jump
aboard and conduct our search.
The plan was absolutely insane and foolhardy to say the least.
The working trawlers had their nets deployed so if we missed our
footing or lost our grip we would be taken straight into the
trailing nets and drown.
If we were lucky enough to evade the nets we would be taken
by the numerous sharks following the trawlers catch.
The trawler would be motoring at trawling speed, so the operator of
the “rubber ducky” had to match that speed and keep it constant for
us to align our boarding point.
But beside that the trawler would be rising and falling, ten to
twenty feet, with the wave action of the ocean. The “rubber ducky”
was also rising and falling but at a different rate to the trawler
as a result of the trawler’s wake.
So not only did we have to align our boarding point but we
also had to align the rise and fall of the trawler and the “rubber
ducky” so that everything coincided for a successful jump from the
“rubber ducky” to the trawler.
Once aboard we did not receive a warm welcome.
Not because of any contraband on board but because the
captain and the fishermen all believed boarding and searching in
those circumstances was so dangerous and life threatening to
everyone involved.
If someone falls overboard a working trawler cannot stop or turn
quickly, especially with trailing nets deployed and full of catch.
Also anyone who has ever been involved in searching a fishing
trawler or ship knows that it cannot be done by two men at short
notice while the vessel is working and steaming at sea.
Obviously any contraband would have disappeared overboard
long before we had an opportunity to locate it.
To return to the Salloo, Constable GOODE and I had to jump from the
trawler back into the “rubber ducky” which was not quite as
difficult as jumping from the “rubber ducky” to the trawler, but not
easy or risk free.
We boarded three working trawlers during our boarding party
operations. We found no
illicit drugs and all the firearms we located were correctly
registered.
The boarding operations were suspended by Sergeant Tawny the
Salloo’s captain, ostensibly due to rough seas, but I suspect
Sergeant Tawny realised the risk of the operations and was
protecting Constable Goode and I from imminent danger.
Policer Motor Vessel “Salloo”
Trawler
NR Tasman before boarding
Shortly after the boarding operations were completed the trawler
operators and fishermen formed a deputation and took a petition to NT Police
Commissioner Peter McCauley objecting to the boarding party
procedure on the grounds of workplace health and safety.
Commissioner McCauley agreed with the deputation and instructed that
no future boarding of working trawlers at sea would occur.
1981 - 1984 CROCODILE ERADICATION.
During the 1981 to 1984 period I systematically removed crocodiles
from community areas, beaches and popular camping areas before they
could initiate an attack or create a threat.
I always carried my .357 revolver in a shoulder holster under my
overalls as a backup weapon but my primary weapon was always a
Winchester model 88 .243 rifle.
Some of the crocodiles removed during the
period 1981 to 1984
1984 - 2017
RETIREMENT
I retired from the Northern Territory Police Force in 1984 and moved
to Queensland.
In order to keep my Sturm Ruger .357 revolver, I became a member of
a Queensland pistol club and satisfied the legal requirement to do
six competition shoots per year.
The revolver was always cleaned and maintained meticulously and was
accurate and in perfect working condition.
It has fired many high potency hand loaded .357 rounds and has never
failed or needed corrective maintenance.
My idea was to one day leave my revolver to one of my son’s in my
Will. It would have
been part of my story and the legacy of my past working life, but
none were interested in obtaining a Concealable Firearm License.
So on 8th June 2017, I sold my Sturm Ruger .357 magnum
revolver, serial number 15603192, number 25 of the 1 in 50 special
issue, to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory where
it is currently on display, with this, its story.
At the time of the sale my revolver was the only one of the 1 to 50
special issue Sturm Ruger’s still in the possession of the original
purchaser.
Written by Robert James Haydon on 20 October 2018.
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