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Speaker 1: Well, the wet season has kicked off kind of ice

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Speaker 1: spot since some days it's a bit rainier than others,

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Speaker 1: but it does mean that water holes around the place

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Speaker 1: are starting to close. Berry Springs is among the popular

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Speaker 1: spots that is now off limits. Joining us on the

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Speaker 1: line to tell us a little bit more is District

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Speaker 1: Manager of Top End Parks Andrew Turner. Good morning to you, Andrew.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you? Yeah, really good? Thank you. Hope you're well.

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Speaker 1: Now where has been closed so far to swimming?

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Speaker 2: Well, As you said, there's the main areas are Berry

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Speaker 2: Springs and that's been closed not so much of the

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Speaker 2: amount of water that's in there, but of the quality

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Speaker 2: of the water that's in there. We don't want the

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Speaker 2: public getting sick. So the bacteria account, which is done regularly,

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Speaker 2: has indicated that the levels are right up, so we

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Speaker 2: needed to close that area. But there's other areas that

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Speaker 2: are getting a fair bit more rain. The southern extent

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Speaker 2: of Litchfield, for instance, we've managed to close the bottom

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Speaker 2: half of the Reynolds track and we anticipate that front

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Speaker 2: the top half of that track will be closed in

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Speaker 2: the next little while. So areas like Surprise Falls, for instance,

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Speaker 2: has been closed for the year. We've closed down the

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Speaker 2: Central Valley network. The roads into those beautiful campsites there

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Speaker 2: go over some floodplain country, so obviously they're not able

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Speaker 2: to be transfersed at this time of year. And then

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Speaker 2: there's a number of parks down in the Douglas Daily

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Speaker 2: region that are closing at the moment. We're just preparing

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Speaker 2: their forclosure or closing them up near so Andrew.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like there's a few different factors at play

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Speaker 1: when it comes to the reasons behind those different areas closing.

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Speaker 2: Certainly public safety is the main reason were ulize and

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Speaker 2: so when the full wet seasons upon us, then the

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Speaker 2: turbulent water is obviously the driving force. But at this

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Speaker 2: time of year, it's more about the access the safety

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Speaker 2: of access. We don't want people getting caught up or

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Speaker 2: incapacitated on a track somewhere, especially when it's in potentially

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Speaker 2: forty degrees outside. It's not the time of year to

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Speaker 2: be stuck in a bog hole somewhere, so certainly those

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Speaker 2: and it also costs a whole lot more to maintain

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Speaker 2: a track if it's being cut up every wet season,

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Speaker 2: So there's some of the considerations we put into place.

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Speaker 1: So at this point in time, where can people still

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Speaker 1: go for a swim are There's still a few locations

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Speaker 1: that are opened.

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Speaker 2: Sure, Litchfield, there's lots of swimming opportunities still in Lichfield.

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Speaker 2: Obviously one guy is the big one purely is beautiful

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Speaker 2: and Florence. They've got some increased water flow there, but

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Speaker 2: certainly nothing that's causing any risk at the moment. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and obviously there's parks around Darwen that are pretty nice

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Speaker 2: to visit at this time of year. Two.

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Speaker 1: Now, tell me in terms of kroc management, I know

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Speaker 1: that that's something that you guys have always got a

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Speaker 1: close eye on and rightly, so what is the focus

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Speaker 1: for the croc management over the wet season.

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Speaker 2: It's certainly watching where the animals are going. The main

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Speaker 2: bit of work happens after the waters start to subside

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Speaker 2: and you can get a pretty good idea of where

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Speaker 2: animals may have traveled during the wet season. But there's

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Speaker 2: a number of areas that we maintain our crop surveys

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Speaker 2: throughout the year, certainly the ones down in Douglas Daily

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Speaker 2: for instance. We're removing traps from those areas now and

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Speaker 2: once the areas are closed, we take our eye off

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Speaker 2: the area. I guess in terms of crop management, with

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Speaker 2: the view that the safety of the trap is pretty important.

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Speaker 2: You can't leave those pretty expensive traps in in creek

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Speaker 2: lines that are getting tossed around in heavy rains and whatnot.

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Speaker 2: So Yeah, the staff still maintain some management, so some

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Speaker 2: crop surveys for instance, but for the most part it's

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Speaker 2: all done when we start opening up here. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right, And have there been many CrOx sightings around the

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Speaker 1: place over the last week or so.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm unaware of any sightings in Litchfield for instance. Yes,

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Speaker 2: but it's certainly getting to that, especially with some of

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Speaker 2: those bigger rainfalls and whatever. There's certainly some animals that

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Speaker 2: are starting to move around the country, so we expect

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Speaker 2: that they will get more and more reports of them

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Speaker 2: in the coming weeks.

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Speaker 1: Well, Andrew Turner, the district manager of Top End Parks,

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Speaker 1: It's always good to catch up with you, mate. Thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you