Philosopher Val Plumwood, author of Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, Environmental Culture: the Ecological Crisis of Reason, and many influential articles in ecophilosophy, died at her bush home near Canberra on February 28.

Dr Plumwood was 67 when she died, apparently of natural causes. Previously, in 1985, Plumwood was victim of an infamous attack by a crocodile while birdwatching from a canoe in Kakadu National Park. A territorial male charged the canoe, probably mistaking it for a rival. Dr Plumwood shouted "go away" at the croc, lent up and clambered on to an overhanging tree branch. The croc jumped up and wrenched her out of the tree.

The university academic said she thought she was going to die as the saltie went into a death roll with her clamped in its jaws. But, for an unknown reason, the crocodile let go and Dr Plumwood found the water was shallow enough for her to stand up in. She pulled herself back into the tree - but the croc again exploded out of the water and grabbed her. And again it let her go.

Dr Plumwood sttaggered out of the water and crawled up a 2m mud bank, blood pouring from hideous wounds to her upper legs and pelvis. She slithered down the bank twice before reaching the top. Dr Plumwood dragged herself through the bush for a couple of hours. It was dark before she was found by a rescue party. "I was alive," she said. "Against all expectation, I was alive."

Even as Dr Plumwood was being driven to Royal Darwin Hospital, she begged her rescuers not to hunt down and kill the crocodile that nearly killed her. She said the animal was only doing what it was genetically primed to do. "As I began my 13-hour journey to Darwin, my rescuers discussed going upriver the next day to shoot a crocodile," she said. "I spoke strongly against this plan. I was the intruder - and no good purpose could be served by random revenge."

Excerpts from news.com.au, March 4, 2008