Me and my croc: Nicola Collins’ beloved pet, Fat Boy

‘I just wasn’t prepared to bring up a teenage, juvenile delinquent crocodile’: Beast now lives with Outback Wrangler.

Nicola Collins misses white croc Fat Boy, but swears she will never keep another of the reptilian giants as a pet again.

Ms Collins sold her unique pet to the new owners of Kakadu’s Bark Hut in 2019 after the 3.5m beast became aggressive towards her.

“I used to feed him and all that, but there was no hope for me to get in there and clean his enclosure or anything like that,” she said.

“One day, somebody brought me around some magpie geese, and I was out there by his enclosure, skinning the goose on the concrete table, and next thing I hear this claw, claw, claw, claw, and he’s trying to climb over the fence.

Nicola Collins sold Fat Boy the white croc to the new owners of Kakadu's Bark Hut in 2019, who re-sold the reptile to Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright. Picture: Facebook / Nicola Collins

“I turned around with a terrible fright and my first instinct was to slap him across the head with the goose, which I did.

“Then I threw the goose into the pond and he dove into the pond and crunch, crunch, crunch.”

Ms Collins said that day marked a change in her relationship with Fat Boy, who was previously “quite mildly mannered”.

The Boneyard NT artist said she inherited Fat Boy from her late husband, Weed.

She said the unique pet – as well as another croc – was gifted to her then-partner in lieu of payment after he’d taken on a concreting job in Darwin.

“I was here for about eight years, living with them – Weed and Fat Boy – and then Weed got cancer and passed away and then I got stuck with the crocodile on my own,” Ms Collins said.

Nicola Collins’ husband Weed and Fat Boy. Picture: Facebook / Nicola Collins

“It was just too much for me, so I ended up getting rid of him, which was a hard thing to do but I just wasn’t prepared to bring up a teenage, juvenile delinquent crocodile.

“He was 17, and I remembered my son at 17, and there was no way I wanted to go through that again.”

The Tasmanian-turned-Territorian said having Fat Boy around was “just like having a dog”.

“I loved him, and we’d get people coming to the Boneyard and it was quite a tourist attraction for us as well,” Ms Collins said.

“Busloads of people used to come through here and they would just be totally gobsmacked and think, ‘oh my god’, let alone having a white crocodile.

“He was quite a movie star.”

Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright adopted Fat Boy. Picture: Facebook / Matt Wright

Fat Boy moved in with Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright after the Bark Hut owners re-sold the unique crocodile.

“(He is) hopefully living happily ever after,” Ms Collins said.

“I keep saying I’m going out to visit him and I should.

“You never know, he might come and lunge at me again. I think they’ve got a good memory.

“But they’re an amazing creature – you’ve got to have a lot of respect for them.”