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Perth's Strange History - Fremantle Crocodile Farm · Lisa & Russell

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  Speaker 1: Today's edition of.
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  Speaker 2: Strange History.
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  Speaker 3: Just a little bit.
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  Speaker 4: We had something in the Freemantle fishing boat harbor, but
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  Speaker 4: you may have forgotten, you may have never known was
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  Speaker 4: there on the Little Creature's site. It was originally an
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  Speaker 4: old corrugated shed which was used as a boat left
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  Speaker 4: and repair facility. In nineteen eighty six it went. It
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  Speaker 4: underwent extensive modifications for the America's Cup Yes thing in
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  Speaker 4: eighty seven, but in nineteen eighty nine it was turned
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  Speaker 4: into the Fremantle Crocodile Farm, and it was a crocodile
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  Speaker 4: farm for about nine years.
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  Speaker 1: Until Little Creatures came in.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, they should have named a beer in their honor,
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  Speaker 4: the crocod Ale.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, thank you, Lisa, Sure you don't You
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  Speaker 1: sure you didn't need to one day? You sure you
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  Speaker 1: didn't need to.
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  Speaker 4: Have another day off ale that tastes like chicken, of course.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, I was watching a bit of a short dock
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  Speaker 1: documentary about Little Creatures and they were saying that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: in the in the in the building, originally they still
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  Speaker 1: had the fencing the creatures, yes, and they left it
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  Speaker 1: in there as a bit of a mark of respect
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  Speaker 1: to the crocodile farm. That was there previously that people
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  Speaker 1: would throw the you know, the chicken sickens free.
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  Speaker 4: Locals were often you know, allowed to go in for
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  Speaker 4: feeding sessions where they could throw a whole chicken to
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  Speaker 4: the crocs. We're giving away a chicken and coming up
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  Speaker 4: we are actually a different card of chicken. Yeah, well
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  Speaker 4: and truly plucked by the time we get through it later.
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  Speaker 1: Hopefully they were.
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  Speaker 4: Hopefully these ones were just well and truly.
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  Speaker 1: We managed to We managed to catch up with someone
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  Speaker 1: who actually used to work at the Freemantle Crocodile Farm
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  Speaker 1: in the nineties. His name he's known by the name
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  Speaker 1: ramp Jing Roy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I started there in the early nineties. I
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  Speaker 2: was there for about three years. We had twenty pools
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  Speaker 2: of various size with crocodiles and hatchlings that we started
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  Speaker 2: off from birth to probably I think Jethrow was the
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  Speaker 2: biggest at about six meters long, fairly big croc We
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  Speaker 2: had quite a few big ones there. Yeah, it was
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  Speaker 2: quite a tourist attraction this day. We had finches flying
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  Speaker 2: around the top there that we used to because they
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  Speaker 2: were their native to the crocodiles as well. Out of
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  Speaker 2: the northern out of the top part of wway. We
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  Speaker 2: also had the windhom crocodile part too, so we had
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  Speaker 2: a few crops up there that we used to send
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  Speaker 2: down every now and then. But you know, the crocodile,
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  Speaker 2: we had a couple that got sick that they wouldn't eat,
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  Speaker 2: because crocodiles lose face if they get kicked off there
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  Speaker 2: off by somebody else, they sort of you know, lose
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  Speaker 2: face and then they go and hide somewhere and you know, deteriorate.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, some of the big crocs didn't have
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  Speaker 2: to eat for like twelve months. You know, they don't
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  Speaker 2: actually have They have their skin and then they have flesh.
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  Speaker 2: They don't have any fat in between. They store the
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  Speaker 2: pockets of fat in their tails, so they don't They
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  Speaker 2: can build up a fair few globules of fat that
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  Speaker 2: they can live off in hard times. So yeah, they
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  Speaker 2: can go twelve eighteen months without food. But yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: enjoyed it pretty much. It was an interesting, you know
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  Speaker 2: place to work. I actually came out of Derby down
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  Speaker 2: here to do it, especially at a request by the
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  Speaker 2: guy that owned it, And yeah, I enjoyed my time there.
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  Speaker 2: But there are a lot of stories on various different
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  Speaker 2: things you know, you come in in the morning and
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  Speaker 2: one crocker jumped over the fence, beat the crap out
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  Speaker 2: of the one next door.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well there you go. So there's the behind the
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  Speaker 1: scenes look from Rampaging Roy.
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  Speaker 4: I had no idea. First of all, I had no idea
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  Speaker 4: that they could go eighteen months without food. And then
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  Speaker 4: the thing about you know, a crocodile or lose face
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  Speaker 4: because it's pushed off.
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  Speaker 1: It's you know, wow, no small.
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  Speaker 4: As Roy said, if one jumps the fence and has
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  Speaker 4: it off with.
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  Speaker 1: His no smile crocodile. Rampaging Roy worked there, Bob from
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  Speaker 1: mandra You went there, mate, Hey Bob, you know no good?
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  Speaker 1: What was it like?
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  Speaker 4: Oh?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, a bit rough? Yeah, yeah, the skin on him
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  Speaker 5: is quite quite tough. But yeah, you go down there
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  Speaker 5: as a youngish snapper and have a bit of a
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  Speaker 5: ponder around, have a look at him, and dad is
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  Speaker 5: viewing sectioned and yeah, me, uncle used to put me
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  Speaker 5: on his shoulders and lead me over and put me
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  Speaker 5: down there and had to pat the crops in there.
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  Speaker 4: So you used to like the original baby Bob.
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  Speaker 1: Steve, did you, Bob, did you ever get to throw
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  Speaker 1: a chicken at him?
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  Speaker 3: A lot of as fortunate as Powerfyde. I didn't get
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  Speaker 3: to throw the whole chicken any I was a bit
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  Speaker 3: late there, but I reckon Powerfi might be able to
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  Speaker 3: take that.
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  Speaker 1: I guess you know, it would have been a real oddity.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Freemantle and crocodiles they don't really go together that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, No, not.
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  Speaker 3: Really, mate, But I think this day and age, you
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  Speaker 3: got more chance seeing crocodile and free I would be
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  Speaker 3: a bit more normal than than what else is around.
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  Speaker 1: Has always been a little bit different, Bob reasons.
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  Speaker 3: They got the little Creatures from mate.
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  Speaker 1: That's right, Hey, Bob, thanks for thanks for letting us know.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for sharing your story.
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  Speaker 3: Mate, All good mate.
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  Speaker 1: He sounds very much like rampage.
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  Speaker 4: Just having a look at some of the pictures. There's
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  Speaker 4: that that is a whopper. That must be Jethrow gigantic crocodile.
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  Speaker 1: So as where's the missus as you know that the
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  Speaker 1: other one had it off?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah she's yeahs as the crocodile farm it closed for
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  Speaker 4: good in nineteen ninety eight and then it became Little
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  Speaker 4: Creatures in two thousand.
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  Speaker 1: And five, is where the only thing only crocodile to
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  Speaker 1: be seen in there was in the form of a purse.
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  Speaker 4: They did all shoes, a good head count at the door.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure that that's the same clicks going in and
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  Speaker 1: going out. Perabsolutely, there you have another edition of per
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  Speaker 1: Strange History. Strange indeed the Fremantle Crocodile Farm