‘Kevvy!’: Fisherman Todd Bairstow goes viral recounting brutal 2011 croc attack
An Aussie fisherman has delivered a classic retelling of how he survived a brutal croc attack while fishing at a creek in Far North Queensland.
An Aussie fisherman has delivered a classic retelling of how he survived a brutal croc attack while fishing at a creek in Far North Queensland.
Todd Bairstow stunned the world in 2011 after defying the odds to narrowly escape the jaws of a three-metre saltwater crocodile at Trunding Creek near Weipa on the Cape York Peninsula.
The mine worker, then 28, struggled with the predator for 30 minutes as it tried to drag him into the creek, desperately clutching onto mangroves as he punched and kicked the crocodile, gouged its eyes and tried to pull its jaws apart.
The crocodile bit off one of his fingers and both his legs were broken as it repeatedly went into a spin, known as a death roll. He was eventually saved by a friend after his screams for help were heard from a nearby pub.
Mr Bairstow appeared on SBS Insight on Tuesday night in an episode about navigating the aftermath of life-threatening experiences, with a clip of his animated tale racking up 3.6 million views on Facebook.
“[I] got out of my car, I found a clearing there, put my beer on the ground, taken my lure off my rod, and I’ve taken about two steps and then — bang!” Mr Bairstow recalled.
“Something’s grabbed me here on my left leg from behind … [my] immediate thought was it felt like somebody jumped out to scare me or a mate to shock me. I’ve looked down and it’s an 11-foot croc hanging off my leg.”
Mr Bairstow, up to his waist in the water, was “holding on with both hands” to the mangrove above.
“The crocodile’s got me on my left leg and I’ve thought to myself, ‘I’m in trouble here.’ I thought I’d better get away,” he said.
“And as soon as I thought that, it went slack and the big splash of water came up and this left leg is just dislocated. He’s done the death roll. This leg’s popped out like a matchstick. I heard it go crack.”
Mr Bairstow’s dog was “there barking and carrying on”.
“I looked over my shoulder, I could see the crocodile’s tail coming up the other side of the creek,” he said.
“Dig Dig’s barking and carrying on, poor little bugger. I grabbed him and I’ve just started hitting the crocodile on the head with him … with the little dog, thinking maybe he might let go of me and take Dig Dig but nup, this crocodile’s pulled again. I’ve let go of Dig Dig and I’ve grabbed on with both hands again. I’ve turned around and Dig Dig’s standing on the crocodile’s back, ankle deep in water.”
At this point the croc had both of Mr Bairstow’s legs and “ripped all my finger off”.
“I’m holding on again, my finger’s hanging down here, looked like KFC chicken bones sticking out,” he said.
“And the crocodile, he’s rolled again, popped, and he’s dislocated this leg as well then. And that’s when I really thought, ‘F**k I’m going to die here.’ And I started yelling out again, ‘Help! Croc! Help! Croc!’”
At the Albatross Pub, about 300 metres away, “a lady named Raelene Motton, she’s come out for a durry”.
“She’s come over and I heard, ‘Help’s coming, love,’” he said.
“That was my second wind. A bloke named Kevin Beven, he was driving through the pub’s car park, he was looking for his dog, funnily enough. And she’s ran up to him and she goes, ‘Someone’s in trouble with a crocodile I think.’”
Mr Beven, Mr Bairstow’s friend and fellow mine worker, rushed to the scene on his Harley-Davidson.
“He’s come running through the bushes there and I’m holding on like this up to here in water,” Mr Bairstow said.
“All my pants are hanging down my legs, and he’s like, ‘Toddy!’ And I’m like, ‘Kevvy!’ He goes, ‘Where’s the croc?’ I said, ‘It’s on my f**king legs!’”
The crocodile eventually let go after his friend beat the animal with a stick.
“He’s pulled me up, dragged me up the bank there,” Mr Bairstow said.
“I’m grabbing him, hugging him, my finger’s hitting him in the face, he’s like, ‘Get that finger out of my f**king face.’ And he goes, ‘He bit your old fella off!’ I looked down and we started laughing — I’m still there.”
Mr Bairstow was flown to Cairns Base Hospital and underwent a series of operations, including protracted and painful sessions to clean wounds caused by highly infectious crocodile bites.
Later that month, the crocodile suspected to be responsible for the attack was caught in a trap at the same creek, the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) announced.
“DERM officers compared photos of bite marks and an impression of the crocodile’s teeth to identify the animal,” a DERM spokesman said at the time.
“[It] was responsible for the attack on a 28-year old man at Weipa on Wednesday March 9.”
In July that year, Mr Bairstow faced his fears with a visit to a crocodile park, paying a visit to a massive 5.5-metre croc named Cassius at Marineland Melanesia on Green Island.
“I had been thinking about [crocodiles] a lot and had just finished reading a book on croc attacks so I knew I had to do something to get over mine,” Mr Bairstow said.
“When I met Cassius all I could think was, hell, if he’d got me I wouldn’t be here today.”
On average, about one to two people are killed by crocodiles a year in Australia.
Australia has recorded 46 fatal saltwater crocodile attacks since 1969 — nearly all in the Northern Territory and Queensland, and four in Western Australia.
— with wires
Originally published as ‘Kevvy!’: Fisherman Todd Bairstow goes viral recounting brutal 2011 croc attack
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