Cassius is captured by Grahame Webb's team at the Finniss River in 1984. Picture: SUPPLIED
Does anyone have an occy-strap?
THE saltie at the centre of the Croc War between Darwin and Cairns was to have been a film star.
Cassius, named by the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest crocodile in captivity, was caught in a trap on the Finniss River in 1984 by Grahame Webb.
The plan was to use the 5.6m monster in a feature-length movie based on the zoologist's novel Numanwari, a thriller about a rogue croc.
But Cassius was never used and was sold to a north Queensland croc farm.
The Cairns Post announced that the giant was a world record holder under the headline: 'Suck it, NT!'
Dr Webb, who owns Darwin's Crocodylus Park research centre and zoo, said the Townsend pastoral family nominated Cassius for capture because he had taken to attacking fishing boats.
Then La Belle cattle station owner Hilton Graham built a special enclosure for the saltie.
"It's a shame Cassius was never needed by the film producer," Dr Webb said. "He was a magnificent croc - and must be huge by now."
Experts say the Territory will undoubtedly win the Croc War.
NT salties are far more buff than their scrawny Queensland cousins because they have been under less hunting pressure.
Croc shooting was banned in the Territory in 1971 but not in Queensland until three years later - and only then when the Federal Government refused to give export permits for trophies.
Illegal killing continued in north Queensland for many years - and reached a renewed frenzy after storekeeper Beryl Wruck was taken by a croc on the Daintree River in 1985.
Dr Webb said even Territory crocodiles were small compared with those in central Borneo.
"That's optimum croc country," he said.
He said 5m crocs were as rare in the wild as "seven foot men".
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