A Northern Territory family got a nasty surprise this week, when a 3.67-metre saltwater crocodile took up residence in their backyard.

The Aristons live on a remote block on Ban Ban Station near Pine Creek, and after heavy rain the McKinlay River came within five metres of their home.

The river subsided, but left plenty of debris … and a big croc.

“My wife heard some splashing and when we went for a look we saw a croc in the billabong, just 80 metres from the house,” Luke Ariston said.

“It was about 3.6 metres, so not a huge thing, but big enough.”

Rangers load the saltwater croc onto a trailer for relocation. Photo: NT Parks and Wildlife

Where’s Curly?

Mr Ariston said the NT Parks and Wildlife successfully trapped and relocated the croc, but not after it had taken a liking to one of his goats.

“We don’t know for sure it was him [the croc], but when all of that splashing was going on we had a goat go missing,” he told the NT Country Hour.

“We found a heap of guts and stuff floating in one corner of the billabong, and it looked like goat entrails, although it could be a pig, but we do think the croc has snaffled Curly the goat.”

Mr Ariston said the McKinlay River sits more than 300 metres from the house and he had never seen a croc come so close to his home.

He said with so many animals on his property, he was perhaps lucky the croc didn’t eat more.

“When the water was coming up, we had the chickens and the goats and if I was a croc I’d be hanging around here as well,” Mr Ariston said.

Two four-metre-plus crocodiles with a taste for Territory cattle were recently removed from the nearby Annaburroo Station.

-ABC