CROC MAN
Aaron 'Croc Man' Rodwell
Join us for episodes of Croc Man, where Aaron and his mate Roger Matthews travel to remote Northern Territory, Australia to catch crocodiles.
Growing up Aaron was obsessed with animals, especially reptiles. It wasn’t just the thrill of catching them as he often took them home and took care of them for years. For Aaron it was also about the adventure of tracking them, studying their behaviours, habitats and how they lived. He even went so far as to empty the family swimming pool and turn it into his own mini reptile “zoo” that he charged the neighbourhood kids 50cents to come and learn about and experience the objects of his passion.
Aaron's love of Adventure and animals never faded and as he grew so did the size of the animals he wanted to know about, so in 1994 he moved to Darwin in the Northern Territory. The NT boasts the largest number of crocodiles in Australia. The crocodile is a protected species and the government has very specific policies to not only allow for commercial crocodile ventures but to maintain the crocodile numbers in the wild.
Aaron was fortunate enough to meet up and work with 2 NT croc hunting legends who saw his skills and encouraged and mentored him. Aaron gained a permit to remove problem crocodiles and has been doing so ever since. Problem crocodiles are those that pose threat to humans or are a problem to farmers i.e. eating their stock or stopping them from accessing their stock. This work is done in very remote areas of the NT under very harsh conditions.
Croc hunting is only a part of Aarons adventurous life. He is an avid trekker and fisherman. He has fished in some of the most remote places on the planet, sometimes trekking for days to simply access a spot he has heard about. He has trekked into and fished all throughout the world including the Rio Negro in Brazil and the Rio Orinoco in Columbia/ Venezuela and remote parts of Kalimantan in Indonesia.
Aaron is also the owner of Croc Stock and Barra. An established and iconic Darwin Crocodile business selling a large variety of products made from locally sourced Crocodiles. Aaron lives his life according to his favourite saying…..“If you are not living on the edge then you’re taking up too much room”