Aged five my mum caught me trying to grab a poisonous snake from under the washing machine.
She rushed me away and called the wildlife guy who turned up in all his protective gear.
I was going in with my bare hands, I was never scared.
I grew up in the Australian Outback and I loved going out after school to hunt deadly snakes – I’d bring them home and keep them as pets.
Unfortunately for my mother, on one occasion a few snakes and scorpions got out and went for a jolly around our house.
By the time I was 10 I had three King Brown snakes (they have the largest recorded venom output of any snake) who lived in an enclosure in my bedroom.
I was always bringing home small injured animals, nursing them back to health then releasing them.
That was my childhood – adventure was always a large part of my life.
Once I was old enough to leave home I was in the army for a while, before I was hired by a cattle station to do part-time work.
They had a problem – crocodiles were eating their cattle.
They wanted someone to catch and move the crocs away from their livestock, so I offered.
I had trained as a helicopter pilot too, which helped.
When it’s sprawling landscape I can fly low in the helicopter to round up the cows.
I move the cattle, then go hunting for the croc culprits.
The aim was to move them somewhere where they wouldn’t eat cows!
Simple.
I remember the look on the station manager’s face when I showed him the 16ft (4.8m) croc I’d caught.
That’s where all his precious cows had ended up.
In his belly.
Northern Australia isn’t widely documented, so I started sharing little videos of crocodiles on YouTube.
My friend filmed me catching one that was over 181/2ft long (5.6m) and it went viral.
All of a sudden we were signing a deal with a TV company to make a series.
There are a few methods for catching and moving the crocodiles.
Sometimes me and my team go in at night and use a ‘pronged spear’ to get them in the water.
It’s called a harpoon, but I prefer a nice name for it.
It doesn’t hurt them because their hide is so thick, it just locks in under the skin so we can pull them in, from the back, of course – we don’t need to be pulling snapping jaws towards us.
Then I jump on its back, grab it by the jowls, hold its head up and pull it on land.
We tape up their snouts and put a hood on them, so the sensory organs in their heads are covered – it calms them down.
Then once they chill out we put them in the back of the truck and move them.
That’s for the smaller crocs – you don’t want to be doing that with any over 15ft (4.5m).
I’ve tried the spear with bigger ones, but sometimes they thrash around so much they’ve ripped the side of the boat open with their tails.
For them we use large water traps and entice them with food.
Sometimes I even get in the water with them and grab them.
From behind.
It usually works, unless you slip and they use their tail to smash you into the side of the bank.
That hurts.
Since the show started we’ve been criticised for the way we handle the crocs, with people saying it’s cruel.
But I just say, ‘OK, I’ll leave the crocodile here so then he gets shot.’
That’s the reality.
I move it and save it, or I leave it there to die.
There are always arguments on how to protect the environment, but my preference is always to let the crocodile live.
Animals need to be in a safe place, so they can live in their natural environment without being killed.
There’s always a balance.
A downside to this is the odd injury.
I’m constantly needing stitches.
I broke my ankle last year when a huge croc swung his tail and took me out.
It was the loudest crack and so painful.
Not to mention my hands are always torn up from dragging them around.
The biggest croc I’ve ever seen was from the helicopter.
I was chasing cows back to their enclosure and I spotted a 12-13ft (3.9m) croc.
As I got closer I noticed the whole side of the creek next to it moving.
It was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
I’d say just over 20ft (6m).
I’ve never seen it since.
People do get eaten by sharks and crocodiles, but it’s one or two a year.
You just have to have your wits about you.
Once I spotted a huge croc in a small lake by a camp site – monster crocs love the smaller lakes, as it makes them feel cosy.
The campers told us they’d been swimming in there – they were lucky!
He was a thumper of an animal and very old.
I believe he’d lived there for years and never been spotted, as he hadn’t caused any trouble.
I called the ranger and expressed concern that if we moved him from his home, he may die.
He agreed and we didn’t move him.
Instead we fenced off the lake with a large sign saying, ‘No swimming, a massive crocodile lives here!’.
It’s better to let the oldest ones live their lives where they’re happy.
Crocodiles are the most predictable things.
They’re intelligent, but just motivated by food.
They want to eat everything, but if you’re too big, they swim away.
The big ones own the joint, though, they’ll have you if you get close.
Or your pets.
I found a dog collar by a lake once.
It was bubbling with 300-400 crocs and I was trying to distribute them evenly around the area.
I called the number on the collar and the owner said he’d let his dog off the lead to cool down in the lake and he never came back.
We all know what happened there.
I live and breathe crocs!
I have a load of rescues as pets.
We have Jilly, who we found up a mountain of all places, she’s only 8ft (2.5m) and friendly.
Willow is 14ft (4.2m), and was meant to be released, but the ethical team took too long to assess him, so it was too late – he’s way too used to humans.
Then I have five large males – one’s called Bone Cruncher, as half his bottom jaw is missing, then there’s Sweet Thing, a little female.
They all have names and answer to them.
They’re easy to care for.
Just keep them warm and feed them.
We have a lodge with plenty of land, so they have a huge enclosure and lots of water.
I feed them pig legs, chicken, mince…
And yes they chase me round the yard sometimes for it, and go mad when they see me coming.
I also have seven snakes at home and two dogs.
There’s a croc who isn’t one of mine who crawls up from the creek at the end of our lodge and one dog runs up and chases it.
I’m desperately training her to stop that.
She’ll get chomped if she’s not careful.
Now we have a six-week-old baby, my wife’s not as happy with snakes in the house.
Purely because on occasions I forget to close the enclosure… I’m working on it.
When he was a week old, I took my son to see the crocs.
I hope he’s the next wrangler, but if he wants to be a builder, dancer, it’s all cool with me.
My dream is to go to Alaska and see the whales, and I’d love to help move rhinos out of areas where they’re at risk from poachers.
I’ve never eaten crocodile meat and wouldn’t: I don’t eat them, they don’t eat me.
So what do you do if you’re in a croc-infested area?
Whatever you do, don’t get close to them.
Leave that to me.
- Series four of Monster Croc Wrangler starts on Tuesday, 8pm, on Nat Geo WILD
