I'm not sure that this gentleman was so well known outside of Australia, but he was one of our original crocodile hunters and conservationists. RIP and valediction to you!

Wildlife expert Malcolm Douglas died in a car crash near Broome this morning.

A police spokesman confirmed a motorist was killed after smashing his 4WD into a tree near Mr Douglas' Wilderness Wildlife Park this morning.

The single-vehicle crash happened about 6.30am on the Great Northern Highway, 16km from Broome. Police are yet to advise next of kin and have refused to confirm the victim's identity.

Mr Douglas, 70, established the Broome Crocodile Farm in 1983 and more recently the 30ha Wilderness Park.

The wreck of the 4WD has been towed from the scene and escorted to Broome by police. The driver's side door was damaged but secured with rope.

Police remain at the scene.

Although originally from Melbourne, Mr Douglas had lived in Broome since 1978.

His involvement with crocodiles began in the late 1960s when he was one of the many young men making a living shooting them in the Northern Territory.

Mr Douglas had been unwell in recent weeks, spending time in Broome hospital being treated for blood poisoning caused when he stepped on an oyster.

A St John Ambulance spokeswoman said ambulance officers received a call about the crash at 6.10am.

Mr Douglas was born in Beechworth, north of Melbourne, and spent part of his childhood in the Victorian capital while his father was a headmaster in Frankston.

For a while, the family lived in Nauru.

He worked as a Riverina stock agent before becoming a filmmaker.

In a 2006 interview with Griffin Longley of The West Australian , Mr Douglas recounted how his career as a filmmaker had its genesis in 1966.

On returning to his hometown of Melbourne after two years touring Australia in a short-wheel-based Land Rover with a friend, David Oldmeadow, Douglas was talked into giving slide shows of his travels at local scout halls. At the last hall the scout master asked the audience for donations, and the penny dropped.

"There was money all over the table and the scout master bagged it all up and said, 'Thanks very much - this will go towards the next jamboree’, and we barely had enough fuel to get home. And I said, Jesus, if we can do that on a slide night, why don’t we make a film?"

The pair bought an old Bolex camera with a wide-angle lens and some of the new colour film that had only just reached the market and headed back out into the bush to shoot their first film. Across the Top was released in 1967. The two-and-a-half-hour film quickly outgrew the scout halls and would go on to become an Australian adventure/documentary classic.

The Broome Crocodile Park opened in 1983 to enormous success, with tourists from all over the world flocking to the park to see and feed his crocodiles.

Later in life, Mr Douglas was often overshadowed by the popularity of The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, who garnered global popularity with his exuberant demeanour and fearless behaviour.

However Mr Douglas was alway seen as the man who set the mould for adventurers to come.

"What you see is what you get," he said in a 2009 interview.

"I’m not fake and I don’t pre-plan takes, it’s all real. There’s no helicopter on standby if something goes wrong. In places like the Kimberley one mistake and you’re dead."

He was virtually an overnight success after his first wildlife show, Across The Top, was screened in 1976.

"I was filming Aboriginal people killing kangaroos and drinking the blood because there wasn’t any water," he said.

"No-one had seen anything like it and they loved it."

Mr Douglas was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2004 and told he had 18 months to live.

But just as he overcame the merciless terrain of the Australian outback and its venomous snakes and volatile crocs, Mr Douglas beat his predatory disease.

"It changes your attitude too," he told the ABC while battling his illness.

"You try and remain calmer. You try and appreciate life. You appreciate every day, you know? Because, from now on, I could have been dead, and I’m, you know ... I’m still kickin’."
Douglas is survived by his wife Valerie and two adult children, Amanda and Lachlan.
Source