Australian fisherman's body found inside two crocodiles

Bar manager Kevin Darmody went missing on fishing trip days before discovery

Police in Australia found human remains believed to be those of a missing Queensland man inside two crocodiles. AFP

The remains of an Australian man who went missing on a fishing trip in north Queensland have been found inside two crocodiles, police said on Wednesday.

Bar manager Kevin Darmody, 65, had gone fishing on Saturday.

His group had to scare away one of the large reptiles before they could cast off, police said.

Later, Mr Darmody's friends heard him “yell, scream very loudly, followed by a large splashing of water”, said Queensland Police inspector Mark Henderson.

“I raced down … but there was no sign of him, just his thongs (flip-flops) on the bank and nothing else,” Mr Darmody's friend John Peiti told the Cape York Weekly.

Rangers later used rifles to kill two crocodiles — one measuring about 4.2 metres and one 2.8 metres — found upstream from where the group was fishing within Lakefield National Park.

Examinations found human remains in both of the predators, police said. The remains are yet to be formally identified.

Mr Henderson described it as a “tragic, tragic ending”.

The man was “a very nice fellow” from the rural north Queensland town of Laura, which has a population of about 130 people, he said.

'Expect crocodiles in that water'

Queensland state wildlife official Michael Joyce urged people to be wary.

“This is croc country,” Mr Joyce said. “If you are in water and especially if you are in Lakefield, which is declared specifically for crocodile conservation, you should expect crocodiles in that water.”

The BBC said Mr Darmody's death is the 13th fatal attack in Queensland since record-keeping began in 1985.

In 2017, an elderly woman who went missing in Port Douglas was thought to have been killed by a crocodile.

The year before, a woman was attacked and killed by a crocodile in Daintree National Park.

Hunting crocodiles was banned in 1974. Since then, numbers in Queensland have risen from 5,000 to 30,000.

The state removes “problem crocodiles” from areas where they threaten public safety. In rare instances, the reptiles are killed.