A 2.5m crocodile was found without its head near Mount Isa on Sunday August 5 another was found a few weeks later near Innisfail and the third near Karumba. 

People have begun to speculate if someone has a pool room full of mounted croc heads.

A Melbourne snake catcher visited Mount Isa in September and claimed we were wrangling the slippery suckers the wrong way. 

Raymond Hoser said mot people had been trained to use tongs to pick up snakes.

“It seems there are quite a few mines up in Queensland, and Mount Isa in particular, where they are using tongs and the problem with tongs is they can turn placid snakes into killing machines.

“As soon as those tongs clamp shut on a snake, the snake wants to kill them. The one thing to cause a snake to bite in 99.9 per cent of situations is pain,” he said. 

Mr Hoser said people should throw tongs in the bin and learn how to grab the creatures without hurting them.

A war of words erupted between city-slickers and rural Queenslanders after a photograph of a social feral pig hunt went viral online in May. 

Hill MP Shane Knuth posted a photo of himself and Kennedy MP Bob Katter with a mound of dead pigs at the Currajah Hotel in Innisfail, and the response was immediate.

While North Queenslanders, who see pig hunting not only as a right of passage but a necessity on the land, praised the event, outraged southerners voiced their disgust, accusing the hunters of “murder”.

They called the hunters vile, disgusting and horrible and said the pigs should be left alone.

Instead of shooting them, it was suggested that they could all be relocated to a fence in agricultural property, somewhere.

In February, North West Star journalist Samantha Walton woke up in the middle of the night to feed her newborn – only to discover a mammoth snake sneaking around the house. 

Poor Samantha was “completely freaked out” when she spotted a 2.5 metre python lurking in her lounge room at about 2am, just metres from her baby boy. 

One of the most spectacular birding sights to be seen in Australia took place around Richmond in September. 

The undulating, chirping group formation of budgerigars on the wing, known as a murmuration, was caught on camera by Richmond grazier, Terry Carrington.

Terry, who lives at Patroy, 27km south of Richmond in north-west Queensland, said he had lived in the area all his life but never witnessed as many budgies in a flock as what he has been seeing over the last week.

“2003 would have been the last time I saw them somewhere near as thick as this,” he said.

After the sad loss of police dog Flynn earlier this year, handler Mick Silman was gifted a commemorative painting. 

It was a mystery that needed some detective work to find out where the large hand-painted canvas came from.

Senior Constable Renee Matthew of Normanton Child Protection Unit arranged for the extraordinary painting to be commissioned from a Balinese artist.

When it came to displaying the best in show for Mount Isa Pet Day’s first pet fashion judging, Mount Isa City Council organisers inexplicably kept calling the stage a “catwalk” in June. 

But there were no furry felines in sight it was all about the canines so it really should have been a “dog-walk”.

Whether it was a catwalk or dogwalk, it was all a cakewalk for beautiful Chevy the Rottweiler who was best dressed dog with her pretty hat while the Saunders sisters Payton and Madison won the owner-and-dog duo with their devils outfits contrasting with the angel costume worn by their dog Georgie.

Mutilated beasts with udders, ears and tongues cut out were found on a north Queensland cattle property in September, and the owners are convinced it was not the work of humans.

Mick and Judy Cook from Cloverly Station, north-west of Mackay, found a dead cow with its udder, an ear and its tongue cut out and said the cuts were so clean, they believe only a high-tech robot or aliens could be responsible.

Mrs Cook said five mutilated beasts had been found on their property in the past few months.

“We first thought a dog, but then saw one ear was taken off and a circle around it’s muzzle where the tongue was taken out.

“It’s definitely not a person, whether it’s a sophisticated robot or aliens, we just don’t know.”