It may not be the race that stops the nation, but it has slowed down the tiny Northern Territory town of Berry Springs. The annual crocodile races had a new contender drawing a crowd this year the addition of camel rides giving the crowd another creature to cheer on.
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00:00Good afternoon from the Berry Springs Tavern, where one of the Territory's favourite events
00:06is taking place. We're here for the annual croc races. This is the Northern Territory's
00:11response to the Melbourne Cup, but instead of there being a 3,000 metre track and a big
00:16fancy grandstand, we're here at the pub to watch crocs race each other. Now there's three
00:22different races, five crocs in each race. We've just had the first one, the crocodile
00:28race. Kim Krokdashian took away the first prize, and whoever bought their raffle ticket
00:34and their name was swept out of the sweep here would have won a nice prize, a cash prize
00:39to go with that winner as well. This event has been running for nine years here at the
00:43Berry Springs Tavern. It was a bit of a drunken idea, dreamt up by the publicans here on Melbourne
00:50Cup Day. They're sitting around going, how can we make this a little bit more Territorian?
00:54They thought, what's more Darwin than crocodiles? They put the two together and that's how today
00:59came to be. There's also lots on offer as well. We've got camel races, we've got fashions
01:04on the field, there's live music as well. We've been speaking to some of the punters
01:08who have travelled from near and far to come to today's event. Here's what they had to
01:12say about today. What are you looking forward to most today?
01:15Seeing the crocodile races, because we haven't been here before. We just arrived in Darwin
01:19yesterday from New South Wales. The cocktails. I've never seen a crocodile race, so it'll
01:26be quite interesting, better than horses. Yeah, the camel racing, hence I'm wearing
01:30jeans so I don't get any chafing on the camel. Winning a croc race, because I lost by a tooth
01:35last year. Now there are still several races to go today.
01:40The crocodiles have been all warmed up. We spoke to one of the croc handlers earlier
01:44who told us about their routine this morning. He said they go for a bit of a swim and then
01:48they get a massage, a little bit of physio, to make sure that they're ready to run the
01:51track. They're all saltwater crocodiles, they're juveniles though, so they are little, and
01:57they're from a local wildlife park. But it's a fantastic day here in Darwin, one on the
02:01calendar that people look forward to. It's not quite the Melbourne Cup, but it's the
02:05next best thing.