Find out the story behind Sweetheart, a huge crocodile now on show at the Darwin Museum.


NEAL WOOLRICH: Back in the 1970s and probably for decades before that, a 17-foot crocodile dubbed 'Sweetheart' ruled Sweet's Billabong in the Finniss River, about 55km south-west of Darwin.

But Sweetheart's fierce territorialism became a safety concern for humans when he made a number of attacks on fishing boats.

DAVE LINDNER: He had scars on him, he had chipped teeth, never seen them on any croc subsequent to that, so presumably it was propeller damage, 'cause he did bite propellers, he broke propellers.

In July 1979, Dave Lindner and Buck Sallau led a 4-man team to capture the 780kg saltwater crocodile.

DAVE LINDNER: I'd reckon this is the area where those blokes came ashore after they got tipped out of their boat. One of them thrown over the top of the other bloke. He thought he was dead. Then he went straight up into those pandanus.

BUCK SALLAU: They were just recreational fisherman, were they?

DAVE LINDNER: Yeah.

NEAL WOOLRICH: The croc hunters camped at the river for eight days and made only fleeting sightings of their target.

On their way back to the Finniss River from Darwin they picked up a dead dingo from the roadside and put it in a trap they'd set for Sweetheart.

BUCK SALLAU: You come back and said there's a crocodile in the trap, but you didn't know which one it was.

NEAL WOOLRICH: As it turned out, trapping the mighty croc was the easier part. Getting it out of the river was going to be their biggest challenge.

BUCK SALLAU: We finally got him tied up, and Allan and you pulled him out in the boat, remember that? And then he was stuck on the bottom. You had to dive overboard, dive down to the bottom and untangle him off.

Today, Sweetheart sits in the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery in Darwin, a perennial favourite with the thousands of people who visit the museum each week.

ANNA MALGORZEWICZ: People have heard about Sweetheart and realise that Sweetheart was quite a large crocodile, but I don't think many people expect just the sheer size of this particular individual when they see it.

NEAL WOOLRICH: The museum's director, Anna Malgorzewicz, says Sweetheart holds a special status alongside Australia's top cultural icons.

ANNA MALGORZEWICZ: Phar Lap was of similar iconic status in Victoria and people, again, would seek Phar Lap out.

He was a destination in his own right in Museum Victoria and people would queue to see him.

After Sweetheart died, the crocodile was preserved by taxidermist Ian Archibald.

Along with the museum's Cyclone Tracy display, Sweetheart is one of the museum's most popular attractions.

ANNA MALGORZEWICZ: Many, many days, there are people who come in at about quarter to or ten to five, and they come in expressly to seek Sweetheart and so what we always do is leave the museum open just a little bit longer so they can come in and have their last glimpse of Sweetheart before they leave the Northern Territory.

NEAL WOOLRICH: While Sweetheart's days of taking bites at fishing boats on the Finniss River are well and truly over, the mythology surrounding the crocodile seems to have grown over the years.

ANNA MALGORZEWICZ: A lot of people can remember where they were when Sweetheart was caught, or have stories about connections with the two individuals who were in Sweet's Lagoon and captured Sweetheart at the time and what I'm hoping is, members of the public who have those stories, bring them into us so we can add them to our collection.