Crocodile egg collector fought 5m male croc off mate with machete

A crocodile egg collecting mission went terribly wrong on Thursday, sparking an investigation by NT WorkSafe.

Rowan Sutton drove off a crocodile that had attacked his co-worker Lachlan McDougall Monk.

An egg collector has fought off a 5m crocodile with a machete after it latched on to his mate’s leg, dragging him into the water and starting a “death-roll” in an incident involving several men connected to the fatal Outback Wrangler chopper crash that killed Chris “Willow” Wilson.

A tale of trauma, survival and heroism has emerged from a swamp in a remote part of the Northern Territory after a crocodile egg collecting mission went terribly wrong on Thursday, sparking an investigation by NT WorkSafe.

The Australian understands contractors had used an airboat to access hard-to-reach crocodile nests at a remote station near Daly River while collecting eggs for Mick Burns’s business, NT Wildlife Harvesting.

Egg collectors Lachlan McDougall Monk and Rowan Sutton had got off the airboat and approached a nest on foot – their fourth nest that morning – when a male crocodile burst from the shallow water beside them.

The pair had already cleared a female crocodile off the nest when, in a “one in a million” encounter, a nearby male launched at the men and knocked them both into the water.

McDougall Monk pulled Sutton away from the crocodile – saving his life – but it continued chasing the men into a swamp.

As Sutton backed up, the croc latched on to McDougall Monk’s right leg, dragged him away and death-rolled at least twice, breaking his bones.

Others on the airboat heard blood-curdling screams from beyond the swamp’s long grass.

Sutton attacked the croc with a machete until it released his mate.

Those at the location performed first aid and waited for help to arrive.

About noon, St John Ambulance received a triple-zero call from their satellite phone reporting the attack but because of the remote location, McDougall Monk was retrieved by private helicopter.

Bush pilot Michael Burbidge – the first on site at Wilson’s fatal chopper crash in February – flew to the site with Tim Luck and Ty Richardson to collect McDougall Monk in his Squirrel. Luck and Richardson had also been on the February 28 egg collecting mission when Wilson was killed.

Burbidge flew McDougall Monk to his Remote Helicopters Australia hangar where intensive care paramedics and police were waiting.

The 29-year-old was treated and stabilised at the hangar before being rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital and into surgery.

On Friday, he was airlifted to Adelaide, where his leg was pinned, before being transferred to Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition.

Sources said his leg had been so badly mauled they feared he would lose it but on Monday his condition had improved to serious but stable, as Sutton told his Instagram followers to “see the sunrise” and “seize the day”.

This comes 11 months after Wilson – who starred on reality TV show Outback Wrangler and in a new Netflix series Matt Wright’s Wild Territory – was killed during a crocodile egg collecting mission.

The 34-year-old had been strapped into a harness attached to a 30m-long line when the chopper crashed on the King River in a remote part of West Arnhem Land. Wilson had been collecting for Burns’s crocodile-egg harvesting business in a Robinson R44 owned by Wright.

After his death, NT WorkSafe banned the practice of collecting crocodile eggs while suspended from a helicopter via a sling.

NT WorkSafe is now investigating Thursday’s incident but industry sources said the egg collecting mission was “a pretty standard scenario”.

“It’s just dangerous work,” a source said.

Another source with knowledge of the attack said it was a “one in a million” event to encounter a male crocodile so close to a nest. “I’ve worked with a lot of crocs in my life and I’ve never come across anything like that in the wild,” they said.

“No one’s ever seen it before.

“It was a freak event.”

The Australian understands the water was less than 30cm deep.

“They’re extremely lucky,” a source said. “I don’t know how they got out of there alive.”