{"id":4570,"date":"2026-05-04T14:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4570\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T14:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:36:18","slug":"400-swimmers-compete-in-lake-argyle-swim-despite-crocodile-bite-a-day-earlier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4570\/","title":{"rendered":"400 swimmers compete in Lake Argyle Swim despite crocodile bite a day earlier"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man in his 60s is in a stable condition in a Perth hospital after being bitten by a suspected freshwater crocodile in Western Australia’s north on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

The man, who was on a houseboat on Lake Argyle with a group, was bitten while swimming at the Hicks Passage area of the lake, 3,000 kilometres north of Perth.<\/p>\n

Three other people were also bitten by the same crocodile while trying to help the man.<\/p>\n

The man in his 60s was flown to Royal Perth Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

More than 400 swimmers took part in the Lake Argyle Swim competition on Saturday. (Supplied: Timbee Photography)<\/p>\n

Lake Argyle Swim goes ahead<\/p>\n

The incident did not deter more than 400 swimmers who plunged into the lake on Saturday as part of the sold-out Lake Argyle Swim competition.<\/p>\n

Event manager Glenn Taylor said while the route was changed for safety reasons, no swimmers pulled out of the competition.<\/p>\n

“We sprung into action straight away because the safety of our swimmers is paramount,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We informed all the teams they’d be going a different 20km course, not going near that area.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t get one swimmer who expressed any concerns and certainly no-one that did not take part in the swim because of the news.”‘Motivation to swim faster’<\/p>\n

Lake Argyle is home to about 35,000 freshwater crocodiles, which are less aggressive than their saltwater counterparts.<\/p>\n

But the species can still attack when provoked, with a family dog narrowly escaping an attack<\/a> near the lake last month.<\/p>\n

A swimmer sustained serious leg injuries<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

Ultra swimmer Andy Donaldson, who last week broke a world record by swimming 55km in less than 12 hours<\/a>, said he felt in good hands on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“It’s always there in some corner of your mind, ” he said.<\/p>\n

“We had the team out there, so many boats, a lot of water safety so I felt like I was in very safe hands.”<\/p>\n

Local swimmer Ben “Broady” Broadwith, who has been training in Lake Argyle since 2011, said freshwater crocodiles were not something that concerned him.<\/p>\n

“I grew up in Lake Argyle \u2026 we don’t have a pool at the moment so we train in Lake Argyle,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s where I’m most comfortable. It’s a very safe body of water to swim in.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A freshwater crocodile bite did not deter a record number of people competing in the Lake Argyle Swim on Saturday. (Supplied: Timbee Photography)<\/p>\n

Darwin Swimming Club secretary Valerie Smith, whose team broke a record for the 20km quad competition on Saturday, said the organisers responded appropriately to the attack on Friday by redirecting swimmers.<\/p>\n

“We’re from the top end of Australia and used to crocs. We were aware it was a freshie,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They actually saw freshies last year when they were swimming at the event.<\/p>\n

“It maybe gave them a bit of motivation to swim faster.”<\/p>\n

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said it was continuing to monitor the situation and would be conducting patrols in the area this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man in his 60s is in a stable condition in a Perth hospital after being bitten by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5826,1112,22,21,5822,5821,5823,5824,5825,5827,3735,464],"class_list":{"0":"post-4570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-argyle-swim","9":"tag-attack","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-austrlia","12":"tag-crocodile","13":"tag-crocodile-attack","14":"tag-freshwater-crocodile","15":"tag-kimberley","16":"tag-lake-argyle","17":"tag-royal-perth-hospital","18":"tag-wa","19":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}