Plans to set up crocodile farm/abattoir in Broome

21/8/96

Crocodile skins from Broome will form the basis of a $1 million a year export business under plans to set up a new crocodile farm and abattoir development in the town.

Commerce and Trade Minister Hendy Cowan said the State Government would contribute more than $190,000 towards a $1.6 million, five-year expansion of the Broome Crocodile Park. Part of this sum would be to help meet the costs of headworks associated with power supply.

The farm would also supply crocodile meat for the gourmet restaurant market throughout Australia and Asia.

Mr Cowan said the expanded crocodile farm would enhance an emerging value-added industry in regional Western Australia and help diversify the region's economic base.

"The Broome Crocodile Park has been running successfully as a tourist and educational facility for 12 years," he said.

"The new development will dramatically expand the operation, allowing it to commercially farm salt water crocodiles which have been bred in captivity.

"It will provide accommodation for up to 6,500 crocodiles and incorporate an export standard processing facility.

"It is expected that within three years leather goods will be manufactured at the farm."

Mr Cowan said the new crocodile farm development would provide an extra seven full-time and six part-time jobs.

He said the Government assistance would be in the form of a fully-secured loan and be convertible to a grant upon stringent performance targets being met.

The market for crocodile products overseas has been enhanced by Broome's international airport and the recent announcement that the United States will remove import barriers on crocodile skins.

Skins from the bellies of bigger, older crocodiles are the most valuable. The Broome Crocodile Farm intends to specialise in this area, as few farms in the world have the facilities to produce bigger crocodiles.

The owner of the Broome Crocodile Park, Mr Malcolm Douglas, said crocodile farming played an important role in the conservation of the species. It provided the technology to both breed and raise crocodiles whose wild populations were greatly reduced or even threatened with extinction.

The crocodile park hatched 745 crocodiles in 1994-95 and it was expected that once the new facility was up and running it would kill and process a minimum of 500 crocodiles a year.

Mr Douglas is secretary of the Australian Crocodile Industry Association, which is a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

The new farm development will be established at the "12 mile" site in Broome, several kilometres from the present tourist park. The site is not subject to any Native Title claims.

Media contact: Peter Jackson 222 9595