Australian man saves himself from huge freshwater crocodile using his ‘one good hand’

A man’s tour of a remote location in Australia ended with him fending off an attack by a vicious freshwater crocodile and barely managing to save himself with the help of “his one good hand”.

The 40-year-old, who was not identified by officials, was on a motorbiking tour and had gone swimming on Sunday at Adels Grove, about 10km away from Lawn Hill national park in northwest Queensland, when he was attacked by the reptile.

The man had swum behind a waterfall, where the 2 to 3m-long crocodile emerged and latched on to his arm, said Brad Hardy, superintendent for the Queensland Ambulance Service northwest district.

The man wrestled himself free with his other hand, getting free from the animal’s grip after suffering “significant injuries”, Greig Allan, an aircrew officer with aeromedical organisation RACQ Lifeflight Rescue, told 9News. The man was later airlifted to hospital.

“As you can imagine, a 2 to 3m croc grabbing you by the arm is going to create some pretty significant injuries, which is what he had,” he said.

Mr Allan said the man was lucky to have escaped with his life.

“He was trying to get himself into a waterfall and didn’t see the croc. So when he reached in, the croc was startled and latched onto his arm,” he added.

“He had lacerations to his arm and he managed to wrestle himself free, which is just amazing, with his one good hand but in doing so created a whole lot of other injuries, puncture wounds to both hands.”

The rescue helicopter was called to the national park around 2pm after the motorcycle crew he was with at the time drove the man to a nearby airstrip.

Mr Allan said the man was given first aid by the members of his group to stop the bleeding.

“He was in a lot of pain and the puncture wounds from the croc’s teeth were very deep,” he said.

“As the croc left, it had another little nip at his leg, just for good measure.”

Mr Hardy said the area has a large population of freshwater crocodiles but they do not normally pose a threat unless startled by humans.

“They are normally quite timid but when they are surprised they will be aggressive,” he said.

Michelle Lomo, a former owner of the Adels Grove site, which is a popular tourist destination, said freshwater crocodiles “keep to themselves” generally but can become aggressive if they feel threatened.

“What happens is, if people arrive at a certain location where the croc is behind the waterfall, they get stuck behind there because they don’t want to come out,” she said.

She explained that one should make a lot of noise to scare them away before stepping into the water.