Spectrum 601 and Spectrum 602. Killer crocs and bull buffs

Rights Information
Year
1988
Reference
17260
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1988
Reference
17260
Media type
Audio
Categories
Nonfiction radio programs
Radio interviews
Radio programs
Sound recordings
Duration
00:53:23
Credits
RNZ Collection
Baldwin, Terry, Interviewee
Owen, Alwyn (b.1926), Producer

Terry Baldwin is an expatriate Kiwi who went Australia in 1950 and stayed. In 1960 he began crocodile and buffalo hunting in the Northern Territory, drawing on his hunting experience on New Zealand's West Coast. The programme is in two parts.

Part 1:
Terry Baldwin talks about crocodile hunting. He would go out at night in a small dinghy with an outboard motor, with a spotlight on a car battery. He would use a harpoon tied to the boat to hunt the crocodiles. The crocodiles would be tied to the boat, then shot. He says crocodiles are great hunters, to be respected. They are patient, watchful, and territorial creatures, afraid of nothing. He speaks about close calls he's experienced over the years. The biggest crocodile Baldwin has shot was 15-16 feet long. He was working with two aboriginal men at the time.

Baldwin speaks about his love for Australia, with a lot of opportunity and freedom. However it can be a hard country too, with dangerous conditions - he says common sense is required.

There is further discussion about crocodiles, Baldwin speaks about crocodile attacks on people. They will grab their prey and roll them. If in water, the victim could be rolled underwater and drown. He speaks about looking for signs of crocodiles near water.

The hunting work was hard work. He would limit himself to skinning 20 crocodiles a day. West Australia was the last untouched place in Australia. He speaks about an expedition he went on there, on a 'lugger' in 1960-1961. He reads out some letters to his wife that he wrote during that period.

Part 2:
Terry Baldwin speaks about the harshness of the land in Australia, and his experiences with the lack of water and high temperatures. There are two seasons - the wet from October to March (with monsoons starting around the start of the year), and the dry season.

Baldwin came to know buffalo well, both as a shooter and as a run-holder. He bought his station in around 1960, when there was no road there. For five or six months of the year they were cut off by the wet season, and had to fly in and out.

Buffalo were brought in around 1823 when Port Essington was settled in the North. Buffalo were brought in along with Timor ponies and cattle. When the port was abandoned, the stock was left to run wild, and the buffalo multiplied quickly. They were very hard on the land, causing much erosion of the swamplands. Baldwin claims to have shot 25,000 - 30,000 buffalo. He speaks about old methods of hunting buffalo, and how this developed to portable abattoirs out in the field, then to live catching - bringing the buffalo in to abattoirs alive for killing. He speaks about driving through scrub for buffalo.

Buffalo rely on their sense of smell, they are very strong animals - fierce, and dangerous when angered or fighting. He tells of an experience he had one time while fishing for barramundi when camping, when a large buffalo bull was acting very territorial. He has done about 15 years of low key safari work - he tells of his buffalo hunting experiences during this time. He would carry two guns - a 'finishing off gun' and a 'knockabout gun'.

He speaks about the size of the buffalo, including the spread of the horns, and the weight of them. They can live into the 20s. Sometimes the cows will have up to three calves with her, of differing ages. He says buffalo are very 'family conscious'. He then goes on to talk about roping buffalo, then buffalo populations around the world.

The interview concludes with Baldwin saying he's loved his work, and he will stay living in Australia.