This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 12.6603° S, 131.3364° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Saltwater crocodiles really do launch themselves vertically out of the water. It is how they take prey from overhanging branches, and a large animal can drive most of its body length clear of the surface using its tail alone. On the Adelaide River, boat operators have built a long-running industry on showing people exactly that.
The Big Jumping Crocodile stands in the car park of the Original Adelaide River Jumping Crocodile Cruises at 3220A Arnhem Highway, Wak Wak, and it depicts the moment the cruise exists to deliver – the animal at full vertical extension, out of the water, jaws open.
As advertising it is close to perfect. The sculpture does not describe the business; it previews the product. A visitor who has never heard of a jumping crocodile understands the entire proposition in about a second, standing in the car park, before buying a ticket.
It is also, unusually for this catalogue, biologically accurate in the pose rather than exaggerated. The oversizing is the only liberty taken. Everything about the posture is what the animal actually does.
The Territory holds the world's largest wild saltwater crocodile population, around 100,000 at the 2017 count, protected since 1971, and the Adelaide River is one of the more heavily populated systems within it. Tourism NT identifies this as one of the Territory's Big Things, and the operator explicitly places the statue in its car park.
The sculpture is in a commercial car park, so access follows the operator's hours.
A word of caution belongs with the subject. The Adelaide River crocodile cruises have been the subject of long-running debate about feeding wild crocodiles for tourism, and operators, regulators and researchers have not all landed in the same place on it. This entry does not adjudicate that; visitors making a decision about the cruise should look at current operator practice and NT regulation rather than at a sculpture.
What is not disputable is the animal's capability. Saltwater crocodiles are ambush predators of extraordinary power, and the jump the statue depicts is a natural hunting behaviour rather than a trick invented for boats.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
The current operator explicitly says its giant Jumping Crocodile Statue is in the car park at 3220A Arnhem Highway, Wak Wak. Tourism NT also identifies it as one of the Territory’s Big Things.
ACCESS
The Big Jumping Crocodile stands in the car park of the operating Original Adelaide River Queen Jumping Crocodile Cruises at Adelaide River Bridge, 3220A Arnhem Highway. The stored coordinate is a map-checked operator-site/carpark reference. Use the cruise-site entrance and free visitor parking rather than stopping on the Arnhem Highway.
