‘He’s gone, he’s gone’: Search widens for man feared snatched by croc
A shocked friend reported hearing ‘splashing noises’ as a well known local publican and keen barramundi fisherman vanished into the North Kennedy River on Saturday afternoon.
Cairns
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Long time Quinkan Hotel publican and avid barramundi fisherman Kevin Darmody vanished in a swirl of muddy water while fishing at North Kennedy River in Lakefield National Park, 340km north west of Cairns, on Saturday afternoon.
Cooktown resident Bart Harrison said his shocked mate was nearby when Mr Darmody, known as ‘Stumpy’, disappeared.
“He was only 10 minutes down the road and a lad came up on the road shouting ‘he’s gone, he’s gone’ and my mate ran down the bank, and said the water was all stirred up and dirty, you could see something bad happened,” Mr Harrison said.
“He was standing right there fishing a few minutes earlier, then he was gone, his thongs were left on the bank.
“He had lived up here since I was a kid, been at the pub a long time, went fishing a lot, he knew the river pretty well, it really is sad,” Mr Harrison said.
“You see a heap of big crocs up there, what has happened has been going to happen, but it’s actually freshwater at Kennedy Bend,” he said.
“I was talking to the boys, they were surprised it was a local.
“Tinnies get flipped all the time when people aren’t in the boats, there’s bloody thousands of them, people are fishing and don’t realise there’s a big saltie looking at them from the bottom,” he said.
“Close encounters are really common, they’re everywhere this time of year, and they don’t muck around because they are breeding and get territorial,” he said.
A search involving Queensland Police, SES and Department of Environment and Science (DES) officers is underway.
The likely attack comes a day after a pet dog was snatched at Napranum.
A makeshift sign warns there is a large crocodile “lurking at waters edge at high tide” with visitors writing the dates of sightings.
The information provided to DES by the missing man’s friend, who was nearby, indicates the man was fishing on the banks of the Kennedy River when there were splashing noises and he disappeared.
Kennedy Bend camping area is in the central part of Lakefield National Park, 140km west of Cooktown, on southern Cape York Peninsula.
Roads have been closed.
The Department of Environment and Science warns on its websites there are crocodiles in the rivers, creeks, swamps, wetlands, waterholes and along beaches of Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park.
The last of 12 fatal crocodile attacks since Daintree local Beryl Wruck, 43, was taken from Barratt Creek in Daintree in December 1985 was that of yachtsman Andy Heard, who disappeared on February 11 or 12 in 2021, when he went fishing in a small tender, while sailing on his boat Shiraz with partner Erica Lang at Hinchinbrook Island.
His remains were found in a 4.2 metre crocodile following a three day search.
On February 22, a man created controversy when he entered the water at the Bloomfield boat ramp at Ayton, 50km south of Cooktown.
A crocodile lunged forward, biting the man’s leg and dragging the dog into the water.
Alister MacPhee could be seen on video wading into the water with his dog Molly.
Mr MacPhee was bitten on the leg but his pet was sadly taken by the crocodile.
He sustained lower leg injuries in what was the first crocodile attack on a human in Queensland since November 2021, when a man was attacked at the McIvor River, 50km north of Cooktown.
On April 7, a 44-year-old man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being bitten three times by a crocodile while spearfishing at Archer Point in Cooktown.
He was flown to Cairns Hospital with head, leg and shoulder injuries.
On April 4, a 65-year-old man was bitten on the foot by a crocodile while sleeping at Newell Beach, north of Port Douglas.
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