The parents of a New Zealander grabbed by a crocodile in Australia have spoken of their pain as authorities continue to search for the missing woman.
Cindy Waldron had been swimming with her childhood friend Leeann Mitchell at a remote beach in far north Queensland at 10pm on Sunday when she was attacked.
Ms Waldron (46) screamed "A croc has got me!" as Ms Mitchell tried to wrestle her friend free from the crocodile. Ms Waldron has not been seen since.
Ms Waldron's parents, Pat and Heather, were still coming to terms with the news this morning.
#ICYMI: Cindy Waldron feared dead in crocodile attack in far north Queensland https://t.co/u3kOoOp3ye
— ABC News (@abcnews) May 30, 2016
Speaking from their Tauranga home, Mr and Mr Waldron said: "We are pretty upset. Everybody knows about it. It's everywhere."
They said they had been trying to arrange flights to take them to Queensland but had so far not found anything before Thursday.
"There's nothing we can do as such but we need to be there on the ground to show that we are there, that we care. Our darling girl is gone," Mr Waldron said.
Mr Waldron said there had been an incredible show of support from the community.
"Our house was filled with people yesterday but we were too stunned to think 'what's our next move'."
Mr Waldron said Ms Mitchell had managed to contact Cindy's former boyfriend to tell the Waldron family what had happened.
"It was a hell of a shock," he said.
"Then we tried to get a hold of the police but couldn't get a hold of them until quite a bit later. We've had to chase the cops a bit, they haven't been quick in responding."
Mr Waldron said Cindy even as an adult would call him "daddy".
He said his daughter had been living in Australia for about 26 years "but she's still a Kiwi".
He said he told Cindy she would need to either come home or get Australian citizenship because when she got to 65, she could miss out on getting a pension.
"Now she won't even get to that age," Mr Waldron said.
"It's absolutely awful."
Attack was hunger driven - expert
The crocodile which attacked a Kiwi woman in north Queensland was almost certainly striking out of hunger, says an Australian crocodile expert.
John Lever has been working with crocodiles for more than 40 years and owns Koorana Crocodile Farm in Coowonga, Queensland.
He told the New Zealand Herald crocs could be extremely territorial when they were mating or protecting their young, but at this time of year it was highly unlikely this was the reason a crocodile attacked Kiwi expat Cindy Waldron (46).
"They're very territorial animals, especially when they're producing sexual or parental hormones and that's when they become dangerous to us normally.
"But at this time of the year we couldn't say it was a female defending her young," he said.
"This would be a hunger attack and that's all there is to it."
Childhood friend tried to free victim
Former Hamilton woman Leeann Mitchell (47) was last night in an Australian hospital being treated for shock as emergency services scoured north Queensland waterways for her fellow Ms Waldron.
The pair went to primary school together in Hamilton but each lived in different parts of Australia.
The pair were swimming at Thornton Beach, in the Daintree Rainforest - 112km north of where Ms Mitchell lived at Trinity Beach in Cairns - about 10pm on Sunday when they felt a nudge.
Then Ms Waldron screamed: "A croc has got me!"
Ms Mitchell tried in vain to drag her friend away. Ms Waldron has not been seen since.
Ms Mitchell's cousin Alan Frost, who lives in Stratford, told the New Zealand Herald she was unhurt but in shock. She was recovering in the nearby Mossman Hospital.
"She has got good friends around her," Mr Frost said.
"Leeann is a really good person, she has some really good support around her." He said Ms Mitchell, who was unmarried and did not have children, had recently undergone chemotherapy for cancer.
Ms Waldron had recently moved to Lithgow, in New South Wales, from Leura, a suburb in the Blue Mountains.
She worked as a photographer and had her own business, Instinctive Images. In February, she wrote about moving her studio to a new town after 10 years.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said the department had been liaising with the New Zealand-based family of the missing woman and seeking information from Australian authorities on their behalf.
Thornton Beach is a known spot for crocodiles, and there have been fatal attacks near the beach previously.
Authorities have been conducting a huge land, air and water search for Ms Waldron. Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman Neil Noble said he understood the women felt a nudge before Ms Waldron was dragged under water by the crocodile.
Warren Entsch, who represents the area in the Australian Parliament, said the beach was beside a creek where tourism operators run crocodile-spotting tours.
Mr Entsch said the two tourists had to have seen plentiful crocodile warning signs in the region.
"If you go in swimming at 10 o'clock at night, you're going to get consumed," he said.
The case has echoes of a fatal croc attack at the nearby Barratt Creek just before Christmas in 1985. Beryl Wruck (43) was taken by a 5m croc as she took a late-night dip in the shallows of the creek after an evening of dancing and drinking with friends.
More recently, 5-year-old Jeremy Doble died when he was attacked by a 4.3m crocodile in a swamp also near Thornton Beach in February 2009. His 7-year-old brother told police he saw a croc in the water moments after the boy disappeared.
