“The Sixth Season, Gudjewg.”
Crocodile Hunter and “Hunter Crocodile.” The classic tale of adversaries, revenge, and death.
A NOVEL ABOUT ONE MAN AND ONE CROCODILE: “THE SIXTH SEASON, GUDJEWG.”
The Sixth Season is about crocodiles, yes, but more so it is about one crocodile and one man.
CROCODILE HUNTER –
HUNTING CROCS N.T. – INSIGHT.
“The Sixth Season, Gudjewg” will provide an insight to the crocodile hunting that took place in the Northern Territory.
The Sixth Season is a novel but much of my book is founded on real events and modeled on real people, even real crocodile hunter/s. There are things in this book that happened to me or my friends/family. There are real characters in this book who have new names, people who live on in a story that they would have recognized.
A lot of this stuff actually happened, and
I knew some of the men who did these things. For example, I knew the man who blew his hand off with dynamite. I knew the man who lost a leg and had to be carried around his camp by his three aboriginal “girls.”
I actually wrote an article about Old Joe, the Sixth Season Man. Check it out! He was a fisherman hunter. Crocodile Hunter or not, he was a man.
I lived in Darwin and I hunted in the N.T. I was a bit of a crocodile hunter myself. The score is, at the present time, crocodiles 0 – me 1.
This happened a long time ago, before they protected crocodiles.
Check my about page if you want to know anything about me. There is a bit in this LINK.
I know the family who badly needed a crocodile hunter. They discovered that a big croc had invaded their tent one night. This is listed as Attack No 151 on my site.
151. 6th October 1990. Lena Pan Qee attacked by saltwater crocodile on the Daly River NT. Non-fatal.
I suggest you read this story as it closely mirrors a “tent attack” in my novel. Truth is stranger than fiction.
There are a lot of “happenings” in my book. Some were based on the adventures of the real crocodile hunters. I learned the secrets of trapping crocodiles from their experiences.
I knew the big station manager who caught someone eating a protected species – Burdekin Duck. Suddenly, in the dark of the night his powerful voice broke the quiet, “Having a feed of duck, are we boys?”
I was the one eating in the bush camp when the snakes went under the card table.
I saw my first big crocodile in my first week in Darwin and I became “best mates” with one of the two boys who were happily swimming in that creek. I was too late to play the role of crocodile hunter because someone had just done the deed, and the big croc was dead on the bank.
Harold Harmer introduced me to Territory style adventures.
R.I.P. Sammy.
CROCODILE HUNTER OF ANOTHER TIME.
WHEN THE TERRITORY WAS THE LAST FRONTIER.
You see, I was lucky to be in Darwin when the territory was still the Wild West or as sometimes described, “Adventureland.”
You heard the ad: “You’ll never never know, if you never never go?”
Tough luck. You are too bloody late. It isn’t the same.
ABOUT THE BOOK
I personally think that this book was no mean effort. The book took me many years to write.
That is not because I am a slow typist. No, not at all.
The truth is that it takes years of research to write a book like this one.
I knew a lot, but even that substantial and relevant local knowledge was not enough. I had to know a lot more, and that meant heavy research.
By this time most of the mean who were the crocodile hunter type had moved on. I devoted myself to the task of significant research on a range of subjects. I admit I loved the research.
I like discovery.
I spent a huge amount of my time researching the seasons. In the beginning, I found it a little difficult because I was used to one Wet Season and one Dry Season. The Gagudju did not see it that way, and now I understand. I can now clearly “see” the Sixth Season, and in fact all of the six separate seasons of life in Arnhem Land. I researched the crocodiles, the crocodile hunter, the hunting, the trapping, the birds, the bees, and even grasshoppers.
I find it extremely interesting that one particular grasshopper tells our First Australians something that it doesn’t tell us. And it ain’t because we don’t speak the lingo. The grasshopper’s mere presence tells the story. Read the book.
CROCODILE HUNTER AND CROCODILES.
I studied various means of snaring or trapping a big crocodile. I have done a lot of hunting and a fair bit of trapping myself. I have a good understanding of the trapping techniques and I reckon I might have made a fair dinkum crocodile hunter myself. In my opinion, writing this novel required a certain depth of knowledge of crocodiles, their anatomy, and their physiology. I spent time studying the unique crocodile heart, and much more. It is in the book.
In truth my book is both a text book and a novel. It is the very opposite to my croc website.
The reality is that crocodiles are amazing creatures and most people just don’t know it.
I was going to write more on my website but I was too busy with other things. Here I refer to the website:
www.thecrocodilechroniclesaustralia.com
I will write about the unique heart of the crocodile. Their incredible vision.
The terrible killing teeth and the immense power of the bite.
I will write about hunting crocs. I loved the learning when I studied it. I also studied the market for skins. I studied skinning, treating the hide, and the price of skins.
I examined the way that the price rose, bit by bit, pound by pound (no dollars back then) and how the crocs reacted to that economic miracle.
Yep!
The crocodiles reacted all right. They moved to more quiet surrounds.
They hid from man as best as they could.
They quickly vanished when spotted.
If they saw a light?
Well, I remember that if, at night, I shone a light at Rapid Creek, I might see a red eye, but not for long.
It is the book.
THE OLD DARWIN HAS GONE.
THE HUNTERS, THE CATTLEMEN, THE DRINKERS, THE GAMBLERS, AND THE MORE WEALTHY STAYED HERE.
I stayed here myself.
Enjoy!
Regards, Leighton Clark.