The Blood drain account as follows. In the late 1800 an abattoir was constructed on the banks of Cambridge gulf at Wyndem Westers Australia. The abattoir was constructed of wrought iron sheds with concrete floors. Cattle were brought from the dusty planes of the Kimberley plateau to the abattoir for slaughter and transportation to Perth. Cattle were slaughtered and their carcass was hung on shark steel hooks suspended from the roof by chains.

As the workers carved up the carcasses the blood from the slaughtered animals drained onto the concrete floor. The sickening blood drained thru grooves in the floor to exit the old shed into clay pipes. These pipes inturn drained the blood into an adjacent creek.

The creek wound its way thru the mangroves into the muddy tepid waters of Cambridge Gulf. Cambridge gulf is a massive space of water, it contains many species of tropical animals including sharks, barramundi and trevally and most feared of all the saltwater crocodile.

The northern Australia tides are some of the greatest in the world with the tide high and lows being in excess of 30 feet. When the Cambridge gulf tide rose to its highest point it would flood the creek that was fed the blood and offal from the abattoir. The blood and fat and offal attracted all manner of predatory beasts.

Barramundi, huge Trevally and Turrum would come up the flooded creek and gorge themselves on the available food. Bait fish first. Birds would also flock to the feast and swoop the feeding fish and grab struggling fish with sharp talons.

The vibration and stench of the whole scene attracted the sharks, as they would come and feed furiously on the fish. Such a diversity of animals feeding attracted Australia’s most dangerous of predators, the saltwater crocodile.

Crocodiles came in numbers of up to a hundred or more to feed. Using their superior senses of navigation in nil visibility water, the reptiles attacked fish and bird alike. The bloodstained creek that became a total feeding frenzy became known as the ‘blood drain’.

Abattoir workers were also attracted to the Blood Drain, they would come to watch the feeding frenzy of fish, birds, sharks and crocodiles; and lunch and smoko breaks were spent watching the amazing spectacle.

Over the years numerous people went missing around the blood drain, without doubt being taken by crocodiles.

"Arguably the largest crocodile ever filmed in Australia, the legend man eater "Fergus" filmed from David's cage in the Blood Drain, the crocodile waited in the mud and ambushed David, The attack came close to claiming his life".	"The cage was empty of water until the tide rose and filled the Blood Drain with warm muddy putrid water. The rifle was of no use against the spiders, the sea snake, the Dendy fever, the exhaustion or the surprise ambush attack of an 18 foot croc".

Over the years, a legend developed.
It was told by the old folk in town that a huge crocodile known as Fergus came into the blood drain. When he arrived the other crocodile would panic and even leave the water and scramble into the mangroves to get away from the monster. It was legend Fergus was responsible for the fatal attacks on people over the years.

In late 1970 the abattoirs were closed. While researching location for the filming of "Crocodile man” David interview an old croc shooter based in Windom, A man called Tex Bowman.

Tex used to hunt crocodiles for their skins in the early 1900s. Tex informed David that he believed "Old Fergus” was still alive and living in Cambridge Gulf not far from the old blood drain.

Tex told David that Fergus had eluded shooters for many years and only came close to shore at night. Tex believed Fergus was probably the largest surviving crocodile in Australia and that if David was prepared to put a filming cage into the Blood Drain and attach baits to the cage and spend many nights in the cage he may eventually film the largest croc in Australia and film a true man-eater.

In 1985 David decided to try and film Fergus and a cage was built of aluminium mesh and placed at the height watermark in the old creek know as the blood drain.

The cage was placed at the high water mark in the old creek, known as the Blood Drain. Baits were tied to the outside of the cage with powerful lights attached both inside and outside for night filming. David gained the services of an old man named Tex Bowman. Tex was 75 years old at the time and in his younger days he was a crocodile shooter. He had seen Fergus and had tried to kill the giant crocodile on a number of occasions after fatal attacks near Wyndem.

The Wyndem police had, in the past, hired Tex to shoot large crocodiles when people went missing or their remains revealed a fatal crocodile attack had taken place. Most people, including the police, believed that Fergus from the Blood Drain was responsible for the fatal attacks, because Fergus was by far the largest and most aggressive crocodile in the whole area.

However, the cunning crocodile was never killed. Tex believed the old crocodile was still alive and living in the vicinity. He had seen the huge croc while fishing at night for barramundi near the entrance of the Blood Drain. Tex said, “The old man eater is still alive, if you bait up long enough , Fergus will come, but he will only come in the darkness, but god knows what he will do to your flimsy cage. “ It was decided that the cage should be placed in the Blood Drain and be baited to get the crocodiles used to the cage. When Fergus began feeding off the cage David would get into the cage and try and achieve the footage he so wanted.

For two months,Tex baited the cage, each night numerous crocodiles tore off the baits , the next morning Tex would rebait the cage at low tide when it was safe to do so .

At night, Tex would sit on the bank and watch for the huge head of Fergus to arrive, but the only crocs that came to feed were small to medium sized animals, 8 to 12 feet in length. Then, after two months, Tex caught sight of a very large crocodile at the entrance of the blood drain, all the other crocodiles disappeared in seconds at the arrival of this monster croc. The beast stayed only a few seconds and vanished. The next day ,Tex phoned David in Sydney and said “Last night a large croc came, I think it was Fergus , I didn’t get a good look at him in the darkness but he left his footprints in the mud around the cage, it is time you got in your cage, he will come back.”

David gathered his cameras and went to Wyndem the next day.

David met with Tex and discussed the dangers of filming in the Blood Drain. Text said, “What will you do if Fergus tears open you aluminium cage? ”David answered,“ I have a 12 gauge shotgun power head that will work underwater and a 30/30 rifle. I will be OK”.

The next night David prepard himself for his first night in the cage. Because Wyndem is a small town the word got around about old Tex and David trying to lure old Fergus to a filming cage in the Blood Drain. Word also got around that David was carrying a 12 gauge powerhead. This weaopon was capable of killing Fergus should David find himself in the water with the monster croc.

David's 30/30 rifle would be of little use if David was to be in the water. The powerhead was designed for killing sharks, it was relatively small in size and could be used at close range with devorstating results. However, power heads were illegal weapons in Western Australia , so the police requested David come to the police station. Once there, the police confiscated the power head, explaining their reasons. David complained bitterly that he was going to be alone in a mesh cage, at night, filming crocodiles and the power head was his last source of defence should the crocs destroy his cage. The police took the weapon anyway.

That first night, David walked across the mud that was stained from over a hundred years of blood from the slaughter sheds, he carried his 30/30 rifle (as seen in the blood drain photo) he also had a large knife strapped to his chest for cutting ropes and his 16MM bolex movie cameras. He then entered the cage for the first night of filming. David felt vulnerable without his power head weapon but at the same time excited at the prospect of filming a legend, Fergus.

His excitement soon turned to apprehension. The cage had numerous holes drilled in the frame supports to reduce its weight. During the months the cage had sat in the Blood Drain, large mangrove spiders had made the cage their home. As David watched the tide rise in the cage, he was shocked to see the water slowly flush out the spiders, the spiders came out of the frame holes to crawl all over the mesh around David’s torso and head. David is not a fan of spiders and as time went on became more and more concerned these large spiders would attack his face.

The next problem was the huge temperature changes, the air temperature was in the 40s but the tidal waters of Cambridge gulf were surprisingly cold with the muddy water flooding the cage being only 17 to 19 degrees. As the water rose in the cage, David experienced an almost 20 degree difference in temperature. This huge temperature difference caused David to suffer from both heat and cold exhaustion, dropping his immune system and causing exhaustion.

As soon as darkness enveloped the cage, the crocodiles came to feed, David was happy to gain valuable footage of the crocodiles feeding but was not happy as Fergus did not turn up. Because of the extreme discomfort he was suffering, he hoped that Fergus would come the first night and he would gain the footage he wanted and not have to endure any more nights in the spider filled cage. The rotting maggot ridden baits attached to the cage were also almost too much to endure at such close range.

However, Fergus had not lived so long by being impatient, the huge croc knew there was a man in the cage, the, Fergus knew men could be dangerous. Fergus was most probably responsible for the fatal attacks around Wyndem over the years, but he only attacked when his prey was unprotected. The cage may have seemed strange to the old crocodile, he needed to watch the situation for a while before he would approach the cage.

Night after night, David became more and more exhausted, night after night David became sick from the temperature changes on his body and the smell of rotting baits made it impossible for him to eat. On the seventh night, he contracted Dendy fever, the constant mosquito attacks to his face and neck, had delivered the virus. He become exhausted and developed a chest infection that caused him to cough on a continual basis.

On the ninth night the moon was full and the tide higher than David had anticipated, the water rose to within inches of the top of the cage, this forced David to open the hatch and literally stick his head out the top of the cage to breathe. This was incredibly dangerous with numerous crocodiles feeding on the baits attached to the cage. Crocodiles have little trouble jumping out of the water and clearing their front legs. Any of the feeding crocodiles could have easily grabbed David while the tide was at its peak that night .

On the tenth night, David had a deadly visitor. A sea snake, with more venom than a cobra, became attracted to the smell of the rotting baits and possibly the filming lights. The olive six foot snake slid into the cage. Once inside, the snake became agitated by the lights and when it realised it was trapped in a cage with a living mammal, the snake began striking at David with determined open jawed attacks.

David knew, if the snake bit him, he would not survive the time it would take to for Tex to get a boat out to the cage, he also knew he could not escape from the cage and swim to shore with over a dozen crocodiles in a feeding frenzy. David drew the knife from the sheath strapped to his chest (see Knife photo) David then swiped at the snake, luckily his aim was true and the snake was almost cut in half, the bleeding snake sank to the bottom of the cage. David had no way of knowing if the snake was dead or alive and spent the remainder of the night worrying if the snake was alive and still in his cage and if it would attack again. Dawn seemed to never come.

By the eleventh night, David was a very sick man indeed, Tex warned him, he should check himself into hospital as his neck was badly swollen with mosciqto bites and his constant coughing was a clear warning that David had pneumonia.

David decided to give it one more night At a little after midnight Fergus came, he swam directly to David’s cage and literally stared at David through the mesh. David wondered if he would attack the cage or take the baits, David was literally amazed at the size of the reptile, the cunning killer which slowly sunk below the surface and proceeded to nudge the cage trying to gain access to man inside.

For over an hour he ignored the baits. Meanwhile the numerous crocodiles that had kept David company for 10 nights, reacted with what can only be described as sheer panic When Fergus arrived, they scrambled for safety, some even scurried up into the mangroves with others disappearing out into Cambridge Gulf. There was no doubt in David's mind that Fergus had been to the blood drain before and that he was happy to kill other crocodiles that did not respect his right to rule over the territory.

After what seemed an eternity of nudging and knocking the cage, the old croc surfaced and again stared through the mesh at David. His eyes, lit up by the filming lights, turned gold, For David, it was like looking into the eyes of death. David recorded on film a deadly stare of a possible man eater, if other men had looked into those gold eyes they had not lived to tell the story. Slowly and confidently the croc then turned his attention to the baits, opening his jaws he revealed teeth over four inches long. (View Fergus' teeth photo and movie this page). David had waited eleven nights to record this monstrous crocodile known as “Fergus”, and here only inches from his camera the legend himself was feeding, arguably the largest crocodile ever filmed in the Australia’s wilderness.

After tearing the baits from the cage the eighteen foot dragon resumed his exploration of David's cage, bumping the cage with his bony head. As the cage shook, David knew the old reptile wanted to kill him, while underwater, tiny bubbles rose from the croc's nostrils to fill the air with the putrid smell of rotting meat. The smell of the crocodiles breath would stay in David's memory for ever. Then the crocodile vanished.

By morning light the tide began to subside, there was no sign of the croc. David was by now totally exhausted and dangerously sick, his senses were now confused, Dendy fever and pneumonia was taking its deadly toll. The water around the cage was only a few feet deep. David had always waited until the water was completely gone before climbing out of the cage. Tex had warned him that crocodiles can hide in shallow water to make good an attack, but David was not thinking clearly. He wanted badly to get out of the cage, to get out of the shocking blood drain, to get away from the mosquitos and snakes and smell of rotting flesh. He had achieved his aim of filming Fergus. He climbed out of the cage and jumped into the shallow muddy water. =Fergus was waiting for such a mistake, he had buried himself beside the cage. Standing knee deep, David began, to cut loose the filming lights from the cage. when a girl watching from the bank saw the huge head of Fergus rise from the mud behind David and screamed out “Watch out, crocodile!” David scrambled up the mesh cage as the jaws of Fergus slammed shut behind him. The lethal crushing jaws missing his legs by inches.

Standing in the stinking cage, his heart beating rapidly, sick and exhausted, David waited until the tide emptied the Blood Drain and Fergus had slithered his way back into Cambridge Gulf before he climbed out of his filming cage. At low tide the imprint Fergus left in the mud at the base of the cage was measured to be just over 18 feet. Arguably the largest crocodile ever filmed in the wilderness of Australia. Tex Boman died in 1993, The Blood Drain footage would not have been possible without this wonderful old man’s help. The old abattoir was demolished the same year and the mangrove creek known as the Blood Drain was filled in. The land was reclaimed by developers. Fergus was never seen again. The old crocodile may have returned to the dense mangroves that line Cambridge Gulf or swam up into the very remote wilderness of the Drysdale river.

The footage shot at the Blood Drain became a special segment in David Ireland's Film “Crocodileman” and was seen around the world on Discovery Channel.

“Sometimes, I dream of Fergus and can smell his putrid breath and hear his jaws slam shut behind me , I will never forget the spiders, the snakes or the place known as The Blood Drain.” David Ireland

For more information about David please click here