Cahill’s Crossing: Australia’s Croc Infested Road

Located in the remote Northern Territory of Australia, Cahill’s Crossing is a frequently flooded river transit point, which is notorious for vehicles getting washed off the submerged roadway, especially during the rainy season.

While being swept away seems bad enough, that alone isn’t what makes the crossing so dangerous. Park Rangers have counted as many as 120 saltwater crocodiles in a six-mile stretch of river leading up to Cahill’s Crossing, where they lay in wait near the submerged roadway, seeking out the dense populations of fish that congregate near the crossing during tidal shifts.

Saltwater Crocs Surround Crossing

This phenomenon alone makes Cahill’s Crossing an infamous feeding ground for saltwater crocs, and one of the most dangerous passageways on the continent for impatient drivers unwilling to wait out high tides. Heavily influenced by ocean tides, the river that Cahill’s Crossing spans can go from a gentle muddy trickle to a deep and powerful torrent, ready to sweep away any vehicle that dares to make an ill-timed passage.

Each year, dozens of drivers attempt to make it across the submerged roadway during high tides, finding themselves washed away into the croc-infested waters. Once stranded, a driver must exit their vehicle in an effort to winch themselves out of their predicament, forcing them to run a crocodile gauntlet in order to get their winch cables secured to sturdy objects on the shoreline.

Over the years there has been a multitude of fatalities when careless hikers attempt to tackle the crossing on foot, while many more have been lost to hungry crocs while fishing at the river’s edge. One of the world’s leading experts on crocodiles, Graham Webb, says that “for every crocodile you can see, there are ten others that you can’t,” making Cahill’s Crossing one of the most dangerous transit points in the world.