RockSteady is a giant salt water crocodile. At 4.5 metres, he looks like the prehistoric dinosaur that he is; all teeth and scale and attitude.
He also comes when he's called, because he's a good boy.
The big salty dog from Queensland will soon be calling Port Stephens home after the local Animal Adventures Wildlife Refuge won council and state approval to build a new and interactive crocodile exhibit at the Bobs Farm attraction.
Refuge director Andrew Tindale was on the road on Wednesday afternoon when Topics called, and said he was excited to bring some of Australia's most famous carnivores to join the farm's sharks, rays and macaws.
Mr Tindale said the team were eager to get started on building the new exhibit by the end of February, with plans to open by late June.
RockSteady, the new star of the show, appeared on the ABC doco Croc College, in which croc legend John Lever trained a handful of Australian animal enthusiasts in the careful art of croc wrangling.
"Crocodiles are amazing creatures," Mr Tindale said. "Rocksteady comes when he's called, interacts with people and can be hand fed."
"They have incredible adaptations, like they can slow down their own metabolisms. They are a lot smarter than people give them credit for, as all animals are."
Each large pool in the project has been designed to give the animals lots of room, and is heated to 27 degrees. Crocodiles are ectothermic, meaning they get their warmth from their environment.
Mr Tindale, who has been running the refuge for 16 years, envisions that the completed exhibition will give visitors the chance to safely interact with the animals for a better and more compassionate understanding of the creatures' lifestyle and habitat.
The soon-to-be Port Stephens residents have been sourced from the Koorana Crocodile Farm which operates as part of the Australian government's strategic conservation program. The farm opened in 1981 and was the first commercial croc farm in Queensland where Mr Lever and his wife Lilian captured crocodiles from the wild that were proving to be a danger to people.
"We saw it as a service to the community as we had the skills to catch crocodiles alive," Mr Lever said.
"It was also the only way for us to get breeding stock. The alternative for rogue crocodiles was to have them put down (shot)... something that did not sit well with us."
"We removed over 100 crocodiles from areas of public recreation and residential areas during those early years."
Crocodiles are believed to have existed for hundreds of millions of years, and the estuarine crocodile is the largest living reptile in the world. They are apex predators, making them pivotal in maintaining ecosystems.
An average male can grow up to 6m and weighs up to 1100 kilograms.
The reptiles will join hundreds of creatures at Port Stephens Animal Adventures, which was previously known as the Shark, Ray and All Creatures Rescue at Bobs Farm. Visitors can pat, feed and play with a variety of animals at the Bobs Farm tourism spot.
