What a croc: the day a reptile was reportedly seen in Noosa … or was it? | Queensland

It started as a Facebook post on a community noticeboard by a man with a designer dog as his profile picture and just a few friends – but within 24 hours it was doing the rounds of breakfast TV and online news platforms.

The question was: had Ross Buckley really seen a 3.5-metre crocodile while on his “usual 6:30am stroll” down the dog beach at the mouth of the Noosa River? Was Buckley even real?

There was no picture to accompany this alleged sighting of what Buckley at first took to be another “bit of driftwood” in the glittering beach town about 300km south of the commonly considered boundary of typical saltwater crocodile habitat.

But that did not stop the hot takes – some holding up the post as evidence to support a croc cull, others as another example of the impacts of global heating. For some, Buckley was a champion of public safety; to others, he may well have been the creation of YouTube pranksters. Buckley, whose post was widely quoted, accepted a friendship request from Guardian Australia but did not respond to questions.

Buckley’s claim may not otherwise have sparked much more than a few AI-generated memes and some online debate. But, within hours, another emerged – this time with purported evidence and two witnesses ready to jump in front of a camera to back up their encounter.

One of them was no stranger to the media. In 2024, James Graham was featured in Forbes Australia, talking about his ASX-listed biotech company that was working to develop a new class of antibiotic-resistant drugs. On Monday morning, he was on Channel Seven’s Sunrise and Nine’s Today show to talk about what he had seen on his sounder – a sonar device used to electronically show fish below the surface – the day before.

Graham told Guardian Australia he was fishing with his mate Kai at a regular spot on the Noosa River, near where the entrepreneur has a holiday house.

“We weren’t getting any bites and we thought, ‘that’s a bit unusual’, and then Kai said, ‘look at the sounder!’,” Graham said. “We both looked at it, and it just looked like a crocodile.”

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Graham said he and his mate had fished far north in the territory of the mighty saltwater crocodile and were no strangers to its electronic outline.

“We often fish in crocodile waters and half the fun of fishing in those places is to use the fish finder to spot things in the water,” he said. “You go, that’s an old car, that’s an old boot, there’s a crocodile.

“So we know what they look like on the fish finder – you just don’t ever expect to see them down here.”

The reports were enough to prompt a response from authorities. A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation said a ranger “conducted a land-based search” on Sunday without luck and that a “vessel-based search” was being scheduled on Monday.

Being ambush predators, crocodiles are most easily spotted at night by shining torches on the water that reflect in their eyes.

“We are aware of social media reports regarding a reported crocodile sighting today at the Noosa Spit and are investigating the matter further,” the spokesperson said.

“The Boyne River near Gladstone, some 300km to the north, is commonly considered the southern boundary of typical crocodile habitat.

“We investigate every crocodile sighting report we receive.”

Amanda French from Community Representation of Crocodiles said the “jury was still out” as to whether the alleged sightings were of a real croc or not.

The manager of the Queensland-based platform of scientists and communicators who aim to counter crocodile misconceptions and “fear mongering” said that fish finders were not a reliable tool and that a lot of purported sightings end up being floating logs mistaken for the feared predators, or “logodiles”.

But while this sighting remained unconfirmed at the time of writing, French said it was “not common, but not unheard of” for crocodiles to venture into south-east Queensland.

She pointed to a three-metre-long saltie that was shot by rangers earlier this month in Maryborough, about 200km south of its typical range, but also to historical records dating back to the 1900s in the Logan River, south of Brisbane.

“When people see crocodiles where we are not used to seeing them it gets quite sensationalised,” French said. “But the reality is we’ve been seeing crocs in south-east Queensland forever and a day – it has long been part of their range.”

But should whatever was on Graham’s fish finder prove to be a crocodile, French said it would be a vagrant which, like all tourists to Noosa, would eventually head home.

John Lever, who farms more than 3,000 of the world’s largest living reptiles near Rockhampton and has caught and raised crocs for decades, agreed that even if there was a crocodile at Noosa, it would not be sticking around.

As cold-blooded animals, he said crocodiles could not generate their own body heat and sought out areas that “conform to their bodily requirements”. Salties like a temperature of 30C, he said, and cannot digest food below a temperature of about 21C. The ocean temperature around Noosa could drop below 18C in July.

“So it’s a bit far-fetched to think crocodiles are going to be living down [there],” he said.

If there was an escaped pet or vagrant on the loose, it would pose no safety threat, he said.

“Not at the moment – it’s too cold, they’re not looking for food.”