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Speaker 1: Well, new crocodile deterrent fence is set to be installed

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Speaker 1: at One Guy Falls, enhancing visitor safety at one of

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Speaker 1: the Northern territories popular swimming spots. It's understood a tender's

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Speaker 1: gone out to install that fence, replacing the current approach,

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Speaker 1: which is an onerous one for rangers. Now joining us

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Speaker 1: on the line to tell us a little bit more

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Speaker 1: is NTI Director of Northern Australian Parks, Dean McAdam. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to your Dean.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Dean. How's

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Speaker 1: this new fence going to work?

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Speaker 2: There is an existing fence at One Guy it's aging

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Speaker 2: infrastructure and currently it involves the rangers having to get

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Speaker 2: into the water at some stages to open it before

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Speaker 2: we open the park, to insert the panel and also

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Speaker 2: to take them out at the end of the season.

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Speaker 2: So this new design is going to prevent that from happening.

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Speaker 2: It'll be more efficient, the rangers will be able to

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Speaker 2: to put in the panels from above and won't have

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Speaker 2: to enter the water at all.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, is it a bit of a safety concern if

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Speaker 1: they are having to enter the water.

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Speaker 2: If you have to get in the water, in the

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Speaker 2: wet season to dismantle it so that we don't have

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Speaker 2: any damage done. It's definitely a safety concern.

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Speaker 1: Now why is it needed? I guess people listening this

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Speaker 1: morning might be questioning.

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Speaker 2: Well, One Guy is a really popular area and in

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Speaker 2: the dry season, you know, people really love to visit

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Speaker 2: One Guy. It's popular with locals and tourists. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we like to make sure that these places are safe.

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Speaker 2: And one Goy is what we call a barrier and

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Speaker 2: removal zone. So we've already got a barrier in place.

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Speaker 2: It's just part of the crocodile management strategy to make

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Speaker 2: it safe for visitors.

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Speaker 1: And how often I mean, how often do we have

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Speaker 1: crocodiles in there or are we sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: like I guess, winding up where we're having to remove

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Speaker 1: them or capture them.

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Speaker 2: Look, One Guy's connected to the Finnis River. There's lots

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Speaker 2: of crocodiles in the Finnis River. The crocodile management plan

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Speaker 2: for that area is we have a creek with you know,

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Speaker 2: several crocodile traps, we have floats. This fence is just

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Speaker 2: one extra link in that chain of strategies to keep

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Speaker 2: crocodiles out in the wet season. The fence is taken

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Speaker 2: down so crocodiles can come and go in the wet

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Speaker 2: season because there's no swimming allowed. It's when we're getting

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Speaker 2: ready to open up for visitors that with the fence

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Speaker 2: is then installed and then we do our activities in

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Speaker 2: the swimming area spotlights, trapping to remove any crocodiles to

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Speaker 2: make it safe for swimming.

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Speaker 1: So Dan, it sounds like it is going to make

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Speaker 1: things a bit easier for rangers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I always have concerned and I'm down

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Speaker 2: there watching them and they're in the water. You're up

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Speaker 2: to their waist, you know, trying to remove panel from

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Speaker 2: below the boardwalk where the fence is currently. This way

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Speaker 2: they'll be able to stand up on the top of

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Speaker 2: the boardwalk and just slide in some fences, which is

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Speaker 2: much easier.

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Speaker 1: Now, when is the work due to begin, and you

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Speaker 1: know how quickly will it be installed.

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Speaker 2: It's due to begin mid April. We have to wait

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Speaker 2: for the water to go down obviously enough for them

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Speaker 2: to operat us to get in and it's probably going

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Speaker 2: to take several months. What we will have in places

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Speaker 2: will have some temporary fencing so that if we get

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Speaker 2: the opportunity to open One Guy when it's safe to

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Speaker 2: do so, if it coincides with the work still happening,

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Speaker 2: the pools will still be open for swimming, so we

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Speaker 2: don't anticipate there'll be much disruption.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, I mean it's been a bit of a

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Speaker 1: slow wet season. As we know. What is still opened

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Speaker 1: at Lichfield at the moment for anyone keen to venture

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Speaker 1: out to cool off on the weekend.

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Speaker 2: Bully's Florence all open. One Go is still closed. Obviously

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Speaker 2: many of the camp grounds are not yet open. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's been a poor wet season and we're anticipating we

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Speaker 2: may have been able to have things open earlier this

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Speaker 2: year than we had for a long time. If we

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Speaker 2: don't get any further wet season activity.

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Speaker 1: That was going to be my next question made. Is

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Speaker 1: that dependent on whether we get a bit of rain

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Speaker 1: or not.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I've lived here for a long time and

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Speaker 2: we've had a cyclone and the second last day of

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Speaker 2: April years ago, so it's unpredictable. But most of the

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Speaker 2: long range forecasts so that we're not going to get

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Speaker 2: much more rain as well for a long dry season, I.

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Speaker 1: Was Gollaus say that might be hope. We're all hoping

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Speaker 1: that's a good thing, right, Dean.

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Speaker 2: Well, not the way the weather Beans has been lately,

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Speaker 2: but I know it's been very good. It'll be nice.

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Speaker 1: I totally agree, Dean. Lovely to speak to you this morning.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: No worries. Thanks Katie, thank you,