Steve Irwin released this 4m croc decades ago. Now it’s at Australia Zoo, and people aren’t happy

A huge crocodile that featured in 1990s footage being captured and released by Steve Irwin and that was recently exhibiting dangerous behaviour has been controversially rehomed from Far North Queensland to Australia Zoo.

A spokesperson said the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) started receiving reports of a large crocodile in Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park exhibiting dangerous behaviour towards humans in July.

The reptile, more than four metres long, was captured by DETSI wildlife officers early in September.

Known as Old Faithful, the crocodile was held until this weekend, when it was moved to the Irwin family zoo on the Sunshine Coast.

The zoo announced Old Faithful’s arrival in an Instagram video on Monday that shows decades-old footage of Irwin capturing and then releasing it.

Australia Zoo’s Toby Millyard said members of the public had repeatedly fed Old Faithful at his home in Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park, nearly 400 kilometres north of Cairns, leading to dangerous behaviour.

“Once we heard he was unreleasable, we jumped in to offer to give him a home because we know that we can give him the best of the best for the rest of his life, and to avoid him going to a crocodile farm,” Millyard says in the video.

But local conservation groups and Indigenous leaders expressed concern over the crocodile’s 1600-kilometre journey.

Speaking with SBS World News, Rinyirru (Lakefield) Aboriginal Corporation chair Alwyn Lyall said traditional owners were not consulted.

“Old Faithful is a totemic animal for the Kuku Warra Aboriginal people and some family members have very strong and cultural connections to Old Faithful,” he said.

Under Queensland law, any crocodile more than four metres long or that has unusual characteristics is considered an “icon crocodile”, and special rules apply to their rehoming.

The DETSI spokesperson said the department consulted “relevant Traditional Owners before the crocodile was removed from the wild in September, and while considering rehoming options for the animal”.

Jesse Crampton of Croc Country Australia, a facility in Far North Queensland that went through the process with another icon crocodile in 2024, said he put in an expression of interest to rehome Old Faithful but didn’t hear back from the department.

“After an expression of interest and assessment of options, it was determined that Australia Zoo was the most suitable facility to receive the crocodile,” the department spokesperson said.

Community Representation of Crocodiles (CROCS), a conservation group based in Cairns, claimed the state government had acted in an underhanded way.

“Over the weekend the department quietly transferred Old Faithful from the Cairns holding facility to Australia Zoo,” the group said in a Facebook post.

In the same post they said more than 450 letters had been sent to Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell about Old Faithful’s situation.

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