SYDNEY鈥擴S President Barack Obama is expected to receive a warm welcome in Australia Wednesday, but just in case the reception is wilder than expected a firm has offered him insurance against crocodiles.
Obama will be the fifth US president to visit close ally Australia, and his flying two-day visit will take in the staid capital Canberra as well as the Northern Territory town of Darwin, in the heart of 鈥淐rocodile Dundee鈥� country.
Local firm TIO has snapped up the opportunity to insure the high-profile visitor, issuing him with a Crocodile Attack Insurance policy which will pay out Aus$50,000 (US$50,870) if the president is fatally attacked by a reptile.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a unique product for a unique environment and we鈥檙e excited to be issuing one of these policies for Obama as a memento of his time in the Territory,鈥� chief executive Richard Harding said.
The company, which has been providing crocodile cover for more than 20 years, hopes to present a framed copy of the policy 鈥� which features a menacing photo of the deadly predator 鈥� to Obama in Darwin on Thursday.
An average of two people are killed each year in Australia by salt water crocodiles, known locally as 鈥渟alties鈥�, which can grow up to seven meters (23 feet) long and weigh more than a ton.
In June, park rangers harpooned a monster 4.5 meter croc at a waterhole northeast of Darwin where it had been terrorizing fishermen.
It was one of nearly 200 of the man-eaters trapped in the territory in the first half of the year.