Authorities are warning that crocodiles are “absolutely everywhere” after floodwaters inundated the Northern Territory, with one widely circulating video even showing a croc galloping across a road.

Acting NT Police Commissioner Travis Wurst said on Friday the crocodiles created an added risk in flood-ravaged areas.

They are one reason people are urged to stay out of floodwaters, which also pose the danger of being swept away.

“Do not make our lives any more difficult than they already are,” Wurst told ABC News.

“We have all of our emergency services working hand-in-hand … and if you’re dragging us away to recover you, because you’ve decided to do something silly, it impacts on people’s lives.”

Earlier in the week, Katherine Mayor Joanna Holden said she had never seen so many freshwater and saltwater crocodiles, with one saltie even spotted on the town’s AFL oval.

“I don’t think he was small,” Holden told AAP.

NT Police incident controller Shaun Gill has warned crocodiles are “absolutely everywhere” after the deluge, while Katherine South Football Club president Madi Hohn said friends had reported seeing freshwater crocs from their homes.

“There was a bunch walking down the road and a few in town,” Hohn said.

A crocodile filmed “galloping” across Florina Road in Katherine was spotted by Riley Duncombe while on the way to school with his dad, while Olivana Lathouris filmed a baby croc taking a swim in floodwater along the side of a road in the town.

Relentless rain has caused major flooding across the Northern Territory, with the western Top End receiving more than 400mm during the first 10 days of March.

Katherine has experienced its worst flooding in nearly three decades after the Katherine River level at Katherine Bridge peaked at 19.21 metres on Saturday night, while further west, Daly River flooding has also almost reached record levels.

NT emergency services have carried out a number of dramatic rescues in recent days, including one in which two people and their dog were winched to safety from their submerged car, and another in which a man was saved while clinging to a tree.

Most of Australia’s crocodiles live in the Northern Territory, with experts saying the floodwaters mean they swim to areas they may not usually be seen in.

Both saltwater crocs (which can reach up to six metres) and the smaller freshwater crocs live in the territory’s Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park, and researcher Brandon Michael Sideleau said it was most likely the predators being spotted around Katherine during the flooding were freshies.

“But salties are also likely present to be there, albeit in fewer numbers,” Sideleau wrote in The Conversation this week.

“Residents and visitors should remember to be “crocwise” at all times. All flooded waterways in the Top End could potentially contain salties unless confirmed otherwise.”

Sideleau said the situation was different near Nauiyu, south of Darwin on the Daly River, which has also experienced significant flooding.

“Salties of all sizes are common in the Daly River in large numbers… Attacks on humans in the Daly River region have occurred historically, so this area must be considered high-risk during current flooding.”

Sideleau added that large saltwater crocodiles can attack in shallow water, making wading through floodwater dangerous: “Regardless where you are in the NT, treat floodwater as if a saltie could be in it.”

 

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At Daly River / Nauiyu, where residents have been unable to return since being evacuated on Saturday, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued another major flood warning with more rain expected in the next few days.

Meteorologist James Ashley said the flooding in Daly River could reach the 1998 record level of 16.25 metres or more.

In Katherine, floodwaters have begun to recede, and Mayor Holden said on Friday that the area was now in recovery mode.

“Roads that were closed are starting to open and people that have been isolated for a week now will be able to access Katherine,” Holden said.

“Those that have been flood affected can start the clean-up.”

It is a similar story in other parts of the country, as volungeers armed with high-pressure hoses, water pumps and brooms roll up to waterlogged communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Bundaberg, north of Brisbane, is one of the communities in recovery mode after hundreds of homes and businesses were inundated.

Floodwaters are also receding further south-west at Chinchilla after peaking below the predicted high, but 60 homes and businesses were swamped.

Attention has now turned further west to Longreach, where emergency alerts have been issued ahead of the town’s first major flood since 2000.

“Longreach is probably the next significant town that’s likely to be impacted by flooding this weekend into early next week, and it can be pretty big floods as well,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Dean Narramore told AAP.

“There is a hell of a lot of water upstream from that low that came through last week, and that’s going to make its way through the town in the coming days.”

Tragically, two backpackers from China drove off a bridge on their way from Brisbane to the rain-hit North Burnett region this week.

Another man is missing after reportedly falling from a houseboat in the Burnett River near Bundaberg on Friday.

–with AAP