Recently travelled to Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef with photographer colleague Emese Gyalog to meet and document, soon to be 93 year old croc legend George Craig.
To say George has lived a life is a massive understatement. Schooled in England but born in South America, George dived with epic Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller in an aquatic show before stowing away on a ship at London’s docks to Jamaica where he picked bananas. Then he found himself in Darwin Australia defusing WWII bombs.
However, the travel that most impacted the direction of George’s life was to the Fly River in Papua New Guinea, where he set about croc hunting … later turning to croc ‘collecting’. George not only ‘collected’ crocs but also a massive trove of PNG artefacts unmatched almost anywhere.
In the 1970’s when he needed somewhere to put all these crocs and art he took over tourist venture Marineland Melanesia at Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef, where he lives and works to this day. George also brought a mate of his to Green Island from the NT … a now 5 5 metre “saltie” named “Cassius” … the largest croc in captivity on the planet. (See here Guinness Book of Records.)
You may read much more about George, his early croc hunting, collecting and PNG artefacts here … https://oceanicart.com/PROVENANCE/George-Craig/1
It was an absolute pleasure to photograph George on Green Island … on his favourite chair where he sometimes paints, amongst his amazing collections of probably priceless art … and with his massive mate “Cassius”.
The Courier Mail were delighted to see the work and ran it today Saturday on page three (with a pic pointer from page 1), with a story brilliantly constructed by journo, wordsmith and mate Michael Madigan.
I do like “Cassius” but I’m much fonder of the portraits I made of George in his happy place with his art works, one of which leads this little set below.
Thanks George , Cassius and Emese … had a great rewarding day !
Images © Brian Cassey, publication © The Courier Mail
